2019-07-29 Mon

Ireland released a new postage stamp to celebrate the 100th birth anniversary of the country’s famous philosopher and writer Dame Iris Murdoch. Designed by Steve Simpson like one of Murdoch’s book covers, the stamp shows an illustration based on a photograph of Dame Murdoch. The ‘N’ rate stamp can be used for sending letters within the country. A plaque highlighting her literary and cultural works was also revealed at her birthplace, Blessington Street Park, The Basin, Dublin 7. UNESCO has declared Dublin City as a City of Literature.

Ms Murdoch was born on 15th July 1919 in Ireland but shifted to London as a child. However, she loved spending her holidays in Dun Laoghaire and Ireland is a part of most of her writings. Murdoch initially taught philosophy at Oxford University for fifteen years before venturing into her new career as a writer. Six out of her 26 novels have been nominated for the esteemed Booker Prize. Ms Murdoch became the first Irish author to receive the Booker Prize, for The Sea, the Sea in 1978. She was popular because of her philosophical ideas that are relevant even in today’s times and are analysed by students all over the world. She loved solving problems and seeking the truth using philosophy and writing. Apart from fiction, she was also considered as the best moral philosophers of the 20th century. 'The Sovereignty of the Good' was one of her greatest novels that suggests that loving attention to people, nature and art, can help us find the deep meaning of 'Goodness'. Iris Murdoch was 80 years old when she breathed her last in February 1999.

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Image Courtesy: An Post