Irish £1 note issued in 1939 by the Currency Commission, Munster & Leinster Bank Limited.
Made and printed in London.
A friend of mine found this while antique-hunting, and we loved the look of it so much that we thought: Why not put it on a top?
Features include an embroidered St. Bridget’s cross at the nape of the neck.
100% cotton.
A bit more behind the print: This is a strong reference to agrarian Ireland, tying into national identity and the idea of Ireland as a land of small farmers and self-sufficiency.
It echoes the romantic nationalist ideal of rural life that was very common in Irish state imagery after independence.
The note is signed by Joseph Brennan, first Governor of the Irish Central Bank system.
No controversial figure here — Brennan was a civil servant, not a political or military leader.
1939 context: Ireland was neutral during WWII (“The Emergency”). The imagery is rural and non-militaristic, in contrast to fascist/imperial propaganda elsewhere in Europe at the time.
Munster & Leinster Bank: This was one of the Irish commercial banks; later merged into Allied Irish Banks (AIB). No colonial baggage beyond being part of Irish/UK financial structures pre-independence.
Colonial associations? The note is post-independence (Ireland had left the UK in 1922). So, while the pound denomination echoes sterling, the iconography is deliberately Irish, moving away from British monarch portraits.
Irish £1 note issued in 1939 by the Currency Commission, Munster & Leinster Bank Limited.
Made and printed in London.
A friend of mine found this while antique-hunting, and we loved the look of it so much that we thought: Why not put it on a top?
Features include an embroidered St. Bridget’s cross at the nape of the neck.
100% cotton.
A bit more behind the print: This is a strong reference to agrarian Ireland, tying into national identity and the idea of Ireland as a land of small farmers and self-sufficiency.
It echoes the romantic nationalist ideal of rural life that was very common in Irish state imagery after independence.
The note is signed by Joseph Brennan, first Governor of the Irish Central Bank system.
No controversial figure here — Brennan was a civil servant, not a political or military leader.
1939 context: Ireland was neutral during WWII (“The Emergency”). The imagery is rural and non-militaristic, in contrast to fascist/imperial propaganda elsewhere in Europe at the time.
Munster & Leinster Bank: This was one of the Irish commercial banks; later merged into Allied Irish Banks (AIB). No colonial baggage beyond being part of Irish/UK financial structures pre-independence.
Colonial associations? The note is post-independence (Ireland had left the UK in 1922). So, while the pound denomination echoes sterling, the iconography is deliberately Irish, moving away from British monarch portraits.
