Ireland is an unusually forgiving destination on size and an unusually strict one on paperwork. A parcel can run 60 inches long, which stops most senders worrying about the carton, and then come home again because the tariff code written on the declaration had six digits instead of ten. The rules that follow were transcribed from the postal country listing for Ireland and from An Post on 2026-08-07.
The address block and the tariff code do more to an Irish parcel than the choice of postage does.
Every item containing goods needs at minimum a 6-digit harmonized code, and Ireland goes further than that minimum. The listing describes a tiered Irish classification system: some articles are describable with a 6-digit or 8-digit TARIC code, others require the full 10-digit version, and the consequence of guessing short is spelled out rather than implied.
Items that require a 10-digit code may be returned by Irish customs, at the mailer's expense, when only the first six or eight digits have been supplied. Because the tiers are not something a sender in New Jersey can reliably tell apart article by article, the Postal Service simply recommends the 10-digit code on all goods destined for Ireland. That is the cheapest ten minutes of research on this whole lane, and An Post publishes a commodity code lookup for exactly this purpose.
Ireland asks for two further fields on the declaration where they exist: the country of origin of each article, and an Economic Operator Registration Identification number if one has been assigned. A private sender will not have an EORI. A small business shipping repeatedly to Irish customers usually should.
The listing states it flatly: the names of the county and the delivery office must form part of the address of all mail articles. Not the postal code, not the town alone. This is the single most common defect in an American-written Irish address, because a domestic habit of city plus ZIP does not carry over.
Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Leitrim, Laioghis, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary, Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow — the twenty-six counties as the country listing spells them, read 2026-08-07.
A parcel may be addressed to a street address or to a post office box. The telephone number rule differs between the two, and the difference is worth respecting: a local number for the addressee should be provided for a street address and must be provided for a box. Express items carry the same instruction on their own note, along with the requirement that both the county and the city appear.
Two Irish rules turn on wording written across the declaration itself rather than on anything inside the box.
Note where that last rule sits. It is a personal-shipment rule as much as a commercial one, so a family sending a laptop bag and a coat to a student in Galway crosses the threshold without ever making a sale.
| Product | Weight ceiling | Size ceiling | Declaration |
|---|---|---|---|
| “Global Express Guaranteed” | 70 lb on paper | 46 in long, 108 in length and girth | Suspended since 29 September 2024 |
| Priority Mail Express International | 66 lb | 60 in long, 108 in length and girth | PS Form 2976-B inside PS Form 2976-E |
| Priority Mail International | 66 lb | 60 in long, 108 in length and girth | PS Form 2976-A inside PS Form 2976-E |
| First-Class Package International Service | 4 lb | Small packet limits, IMM 251.22 and 251.23 | PS Form 2976 |
| Airmail M-bags, one addressee | 66 lb | Direct sack of printed matter | PS Form 2976 |
Sixty inches of length on both parcel products is generous by international standards, and it is the reason bulky-but-light things travel well on this lane where they would be refused elsewhere. Ireland is also not on the list of six destinations whose express delivery commitment has been withdrawn since October 2021; Great Britain is, which is one more reason not to treat the two islands as one shipping problem.
The Irish charge has three parts and only one of them belongs to the state. An Post publishes the collection side of it, and the fee moved this year.
| Part of the bill | What An Post publishes |
|---|---|
| Administration charge | Changed to 6.95 euro on 3 February 2026, added on top of whatever Revenue assesses, to cover handling and collecting the payment |
| Value added tax | Charged on imported goods at the same rate as similar goods sold within the State, the standard rate being 23 percent with reduced rates below it |
| Customs duty | From 1 July 2026 a minimum of 3 euro on each line item in the delivery, so a box holding shirts and sunglasses can be charged twice |
| Who settles it | The receiver, before the item is released |
The per-line-item basis of that duty is a European Union change rather than an Irish one, and it applies the same way across the member states; our page on shipping to Europe sets out where it came from and how long it is meant to last. What is specifically Irish is the collection fee sitting on top, and the fact that it is charged per item handled rather than per charge assessed.
Tell the recipient the number before the parcel moves. An unexpected charge on a gift is how items end up refused at the door and returned across an ocean, which costs more than the tax did.
The Postal Service keeps two separate listings, and a sender who reads the wrong one has read a different rule set entirely. Belfast, Derry and everywhere else in the six counties fall under the listing for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which also takes in England, Scotland, Wales, Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark and the Isle of Man.
The gap between the two is not cosmetic. The United Kingdom listing prohibits bladed articles and bladed products at a level of detail the Irish listing never approaches, naming kitchen knives regardless of size or design, bread knives, utility knives and box cutters, gardening tools with a blade, cutlery knives, scissors with sharp edges and sporting equipment with blades. None of that appears on the Irish page. Aerosols, frozen food, soil, asbestos and Christmas crackers are likewise barred to Belfast and not named for Dublin.
The tax side splits too, and the Irish revenue guidance for buying from outside the European Union is written to exclude Northern Ireland by name. Pick the listing by where the parcel is actually going, not by the island it is on.
Ireland's prohibitions read like a document that has been added to for a century and never pruned, which is exactly what makes them easy to trip over.
Two of those catch souvenirs rather than contraband. A woven straw ornament is an article made of straw, and a bag of peat for a gardener is peat moss litter. Cremated remains being prohibited outright is worth knowing early, because families discover it at the worst possible moment.
Behind the prohibitions sits a quota list that still requires an import license: boots and shoes, brushes and mops, electric lamp bulbs, tapered thread screws, felt hats and caps for women and girls, wheaten flour and any product of wheat, rubber proofed clothing, sparking plugs and their component parts, silk and artificial silk hose, and certain woven fabrics. Carbon paper is restricted unless it is typewriter carbon paper described on the declaration as coated with wax and containing no oxidizable or fatty substances, which is the kind of sentence that has to be copied exactly to be any use.
Labels bought through this site are United States domestic ones, so no Irish figure is printed here. A number invented for the page would be worth nothing to you at the counter.
Anything traveling inside the United States, a forwarder run included, is a job for the calculator and takes a minute or two. For the Atlantic leg, send the carton dimensions, the packed weight, the contents and the Irish address through freight review, and a human being reads it and answers with a service, a form and a figure. Have the 10-digit codes ready when you do, because they change what the shipment costs the person receiving it.
Irish and European rules on imported goods have moved twice in five years and moved again this July. Everything above reflects those pages as they stood on 2026-08-07, and a shipment planned for later in the year deserves a fresh reading of them.
Because the tariff code on it is too short. Irish classification is tiered, and the postal listing warns that items needing a 10-digit TARIC code may be returned by Irish customs, at the mailer's expense, when only the first six or eight digits are supplied. The Postal Service therefore recommends the full ten digits on everything bound for Ireland.
The county and the delivery office both form part of the address on every mail article. A parcel may go to a street address or to a post office box, and a local telephone number for the addressee should be given for a street address and must be given for a box.
Value added tax on the goods at the Irish rate for that article, the standard rate being 23 percent, plus any customs duty, plus the An Post administration charge for collecting it, which changed to 6.95 euro on 3 February 2026.
No. Northern Ireland belongs to the separate country listing for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which carries its own prohibitions. Bladed articles down to kitchen knives and sharp-edged scissors are barred there, and they appear nowhere on the Irish list.
66 lb on Priority Mail Express International and on Priority Mail International, and 4 lb on First-Class Package International Service. Both parcel products allow 60 inches of length and 108 inches of length plus girth, which is a good deal roomier than many destinations permit.