If I were to send a letter to a government official in Dublin City, what is the appropriate header to use ?

In most countries - especially from what I learned from the use of addressing a Male and Female of the household, it's rather important to not confuse this - is it important with Ireland to keep proper names ?

Are there some other tips on how to send a legible address from the U.S. to Ireland ?

What language? English or Irish?

Well, if it's English, taking the following names:

Mr John Smith
Mr Philip Jones
Mrs Mary Smith
Ms Sophie Jones
Dr Philip Nugent
Col. Matthew Thompson

If they have a title, eg. "Dr", "Col.", "Prof.", then address them by it, and only use their last name:

Dear Dr Smith
Dear Dr Jones
Dear Prof. Reinhardt

If they don't have a title and they're male, then use:

Dear Mr Smith
Dear Mr Jones
Dear Mr Reinhardt

unless they're a child, in which case it's:

Dear Master Smith
Dear Master Jones
Dear Master Reinhardt


And then if it's a woman... well for married women you have "Mrs" and for unmarried women you have "Miss":

Dear Mrs Maguire
Dear Miss Healy

I myself don't use these titles, as I think they're intrusive and sexest. I prefer "Ms", which doesn't specify their marital status:

Dear Ms Brady

I'm pretty sure you use "Ms" for a child too, but others may prefer "Miss" for a child.

Should there be a fullstop after the title? I'm not 100% on this, but I'm pretty sure you don't use one with Mr Mrs Miss Ms. I have a feeling though that you do use them with other titles, eg. Prof. Dr. Col.

And don't forget that comma afterwards!

Dear Mr Smith,

In regard to...

If you don't have a clue who you're writing to, then write:

Dear Sir/Madam,

In regard to...

Only use "To whom it may concern" if you're writing some sort of bulletin, like to stick on a bulletin board, it's far too impersonal to use in a letter.

Then at the end of the letter, if you specified their name at the start then it's:

Your sincerely,

John Smith (without Mr Ms..., but if you have a title like "Dr", then stick it in)

And if you wrote "Dear Sir/Madam", then it's

Yours faithfully

Dr. Philip Jones


Hope that helps.


As regards writing in Irish, I wouldn't have a clue!

FnaB - You do use a full stop after Mr., Mrs. Dr., etc because they are abbreviations of the titles, e.g. Mister, Mistress, Doctor.

Well I definitely recall reading that you don't. I've got a British dictionary at home and I'm certain that it mentions that there's no fullstop after Mr Mrs.