It was a fitting gesture by An Post, when a selection of songs by Irish music legends echoed through the General Post Office – that's the GPO to you and me! – on Dublin’s O’Connell Street on Culture Night, last Friday evening.

The event was a celebration of the release by An Post of four stamps in the Iconic Irish Voices series, featuring local boy Christy Dignam, traditional virtuoso Séamus Begley, the incomparable Sinéad O’Connor, and Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan.

For this special night, the history-steeped city centre venue became a fitting stage for an instrumental tribute, curated by Music Network, and featuring a song by each of the artists.

Iconic Irish Voices night at O'Connell GPO for Culture Night. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

A six-piece ensemble had been put together specially for the occasion, featuring Aoife Dowdall, Siúbhán Ní Ghríofa, Karen Dervan, Aoife Dennedy, Mark Redmond and Ewan Cowley in what became a string quartet, plus uilleann pipes and guitar. The songs were arranged by Donegal composer Martin Tourish, marrying classical sensibilities and traditional sounds in four shimmering performances.

The ensemble played Shane’s ‘Rainy Night in Soho', Seamus Begley’s ‘Bruach na Carraige Báine’ and ‘An Spailpín Fánach', the Prince song made famous by Sinéad, 'Nothing Compares 2U', and Aslan’s anthemic ‘Crazy World’.

The instrumental treatments highlighted the melodic beauty of the songs, capturing both their timelessness as pieces of music and the subtle craft of the instrumentalists.

Iconic Irish Voices night at O'Connell GPO for Culture Night. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

The four stamps in An Post’s Iconic Irish Voices series, unveiled on September 11 at The Exo Building in Dublin, were designed by Dublin creative Shaughn McGrath, in honour of the four musical greats who passed away last year.

"Because Ireland doesn’t have any formal honour system, appearing on an Irish stamp is considered a great prestige,” McGrath told Hot Press. “And these four people represent music, but they also represent what it means to be Irish. They are very much one of us.” Read the full interview here.

The set is the latest instalment in An Post's ongoing recognition of the importance of music in the lives of Irish people – from its first musical series in the '80s, featuring the likes of Turlough O'Carolan, to more recent celebrations of The Cranberries (in the Great Irish Songs set), U2, Thin Lizzy, Altan, and Irish country stars such as Daniel O'Donnell and Nathan Carter.

The Iconic Irish Voices stamps – and the special First Day Cover – are available to purchase from anpost.com now.

Watch a video interview with Shaughn McGrath below: