Letter addressed to ‘that boy with the glasses’ reaches post-grad in tiny village

A vaguely addressed letter has travelled all the way to Belfast to a small town in Donegal in search of “your man Henderson”.

The letter was intended for Barry Henderson, a Modern History PhD student at Queen’s, sent by his friend who wanted to test the delivery system.

The letter made its way to the small town of Buncrana, which has a population of around 7,000.

The postal service has seemed to pass the test as the letter made its way from Belfast all the way to the small Donegal town of Buncrana before falling into the hands of his wife Roisin Henderson, a journalist for the Irish Times newspaper.

The postman knew Barry Henderson’s wife and handed the letter to her in her office.

The envelope read: “Your man Henderson, that boy with the glasses who is doing the PhD up here at Queen’s in Belfast. Buncrana, County Donegal, Ireland.” with the note inside reading: “If this has arrived, you live in a village.”

Roisin Henderson shared a picture of the letter on Facebook and Twitter, commenting: “A guy Barry knows sent him this from Belfast, with that wee note included inside it. The postman delivered it to the Inish Times office when I was out, asking if it could possibly be for my husband. I think it’s brilliant. Only in Donegal.”

Roisin and Barry

Henderson’s picture sparked people to tell their own tales of postal wonder.

Jenni Doherty commented: “I once sent a letter from Derry to a friend who lived off Baggot St in Dublin (I couldn’t remember the exact address), but described it as three doors up from a chippy with a red door. She got it too.”

Another commenter added: “Had an Amazon order once take six months to arrive in Donegal, having been misdirected to Senegal, but it got here, albeit a wee bit dusty and sandy. Good old An Post.”