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The Che Guevara stamp produced by the Irish republic’s postal service (An Post) has sold out its initial 120,000 print run. The stamp was released to mark the 50th anniversary of the Latin American freedom fighter’s murder on October 9, 1967 by CIA-backed Bolivian state.

The announcement confounds right-wing critics, who opposed the stamp.  An Post has described the demand for the €1 stamp — using Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick’s image of the revolutionary icon — as “unprecedented”.

A spokesperson said: “It is necessary to now print extra stocks to cover our regular stamp customers and make-up of annual collector products, stamp yearbook, etc. It is anticipated that some additional stock will then be available for general sale.”

Che had Irish ancestors from Galway. In a 1969 interview, Che’s father, Don Ernesto Guevara Lynch, put the revolutionary instincts that led his son to Cuba, the Congo and ultimately to his death in Bolivia down to his Irish ancestry in a quote that appears on the An Post First Day Cover: “The first thing to note is that in my son’s veins flowed the blood of the Irish rebels.”

[Reprinted from .]

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