9 March 2025
By Tom Collins
tom@TheCork.ie
TheCork.ie Opinion: An Post is a well known brand.
How would you like a free ‘PO Box’ in Ireland? A well-intentioned pseudo address of ‘Capel Place’ – designed for homeless people – is now being used by businesses
In 2019 Ireland’s state owned postal provider An Post, announced “Address Point“. It was described as “a ground-breaking, free personal postal address and letter collection service for people who are homeless” A person is asked to visit https://www.anpost.com/AddressPoint to generate their address. In reality, there is no need to visit that page. It’s just a form of Poste restante , the french term for ‘general delivery’, which is an old idea where any post office will receive mail addresses to a name, and will hold it behind the counter for 20 or so days for collection. No notification is given, so the onus is on the recipient to keep visiting the Post Office with ID showing their name.
An Example of an Address Point is
John Doe, Capel Place, 6 Main Street, Ballincollig, Cork, P31 F853
The words ‘Capel Place’ are An Post code for ‘hold this behind the counter, and a homeless person will come to collect it’. The address is just that of a Post Office, without using the words ‘Post Office’ nor the words ‘PO Box’ to create the illusion that this is a real address.
There is no such location as ‘Capel Place’ in Ireland. Any familiarity in your mind with the word ‘Capel’ is probably based on there being a Capel Street in Dublin, but Capel Place does not actually exist geographically.
The goal of An Post was admirable, however a search of public data indicates the service is being used for business purposes. A PO Box from An Post costs €399 p.a. or €700 for a ‘vanity PO Box’, plus it does not look professional, so the attraction of Capel Place is clear.
A search of Companies Registration Office (CRO) data reveals 20+ examples of ‘Capel Place’ being used for business purposes.
For example company directors giving their home address as
Capel Place, Enniskerry Road, Stepaside, Dublin 18, D18 R292 (this is in fact just the address of the post office)
Capel Place, 13 Main Street, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14, D14 HR65 (this is in fact just the address of the Rathfarnham post office)
CAPEL PLACE, O’CONNELL STREET LOWER, DUBLIN 1, (this is in fact just the address of the post office)
Capel Place, 100 Upper George’s Street, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin (this is in fact just the address of the Dun Laoghaire post office)
One company even gives its registered office address as
Capel Place, 6 Main Street, Ballincollig , Cork, P31 F853 (this is in fact just the address of the Ballincollig post office)
The Companies Registration Office require that a registered office of a company “must be a physical location, not just a post office box number, because people have the right to visit the company’s registered office to inspect certain registers and documents and to deliver documents by hand.” What would happen if you visited a Post Office asking about Example Company Ltd? It appears the Companies Registration Office do not ask for proof of address, or if they do it can be generated by receiving some other prior correspondence to the address.
Back to CRO data; there is a consultancy business involved in the ‘Construction of residential and non-residential buildings’ at
Shelbourne Road, Capel Place, Dublin 4 (this is in fact just the address of the Ballsbridge post office)
Then there is a business name for what appears to be a hairdresser at
Capel Place, Burrin Street, Carlow, R93 X4H6 (this is in fact just the address of the Carlow post office)
There is a business name for a renovation business at
Capel place, Gordon house, Barrow street , Dublin 4, D04 EA27 (this is in fact just the address of the Ringsend post office)
In addition to ‘Capel Place’ being misleading (it is a PO Box – of sorts – without using the words ‘PO Box’) Companies Registration Office rules require that “Every business must paint or affix its name on the outside of every office or place in which the business is carried on, even if it is a directors home. The name must be both conspicuous and legible.” Are people erecting brass plaques at Post Offices?
Meanwhile, on the list of Solemnisers – people who can perform marriages in Ireland – in a March 2022 list one Roman Catholic Very Reverend Priest in East Cork, on page 33, gave his address as
Capel Place, North Main, Street, Youghal, P36 H223 (this is in fact just the address of the Youghal post office)
It is possible some business person could be homeless, which would be unfortunate, but given the scale of the usage it could also be possible that An Post have created a situation whereby other people are using Capel Place as a free PO Box.
There are many valid reasons why a person would not want their home address published. For example a business person might live in rented accomodation where their lease agreement might have a clause preventing “the use of the property for business purposes”. Alternatively, if a business person owns their own home, their home insurance might be invalidated if their property is “used for business purposes”.
The popular solution until now has been to pay for a PO Box, or rent a shared office space, where the reception will store your mail, but all of those cost money. Capel Place is free, and has to be free, it is intended for homeless people: People
Related news: Check out the Prawo Jazdy scandal in 2007, when Gardai were issuing tickets to a Mr Prawo Jazdy, only to later find out that those words meant Driving Licence!