Potato 'parcel' posted from Birmingham to Derry after spud-themed wedding

Is there no end to what postmen can do?

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A potato has made its way across the Irish Sea.

Dermot Bradley from Derry got quite a surprise on Saturday when the stamped and addressed Maris Piper spud arrived in the post - the address written in marker on the skin on the front and a message of thanks written on the back.

It was from his sister-in-law, Edel, in Birmingham, thanking him for a very thoughtful gift he had arranged for her wedding in August.

Dermot had managed to get Brian Kennedy to record a video for the bride which was then played at the reception . Dermot says the bride was "over the moon":

" She was so delighted she cried the whole way through it."

Dermot with the potato parcel

Dermot didn’t think any more of it until the postman arrived last weekend with a very special delivery.

"My 11-year-old son answered. The postman said he had a spud parcel and he could take it or leave it. My son accepted it and brought it into me. You can imagine the surprise, I was absolutely dumbstruck", said the 52-year-old painter

"Then I read the back of it. It said: ’Thank you so much for making our day so very special, from Team French’. It was a lovely gesture. We laughed so much."

Amazingly, the potato wasn’t damaged or chipped (sorry) in any way, despite its 400 mile journey from Birmingham.

And why the spud? Well, you see, Edel’s wedding to Jason French had been spud-themed.

Her table candles were mounted on spuds, the menus were pinned to spuds and the wedding favours were spuds.

Living in England, Edel wanted to celebrate her Irish connections in her Derry wedding.

"She felt that spuds were always associated with Ireland and went in that direction for her big day. She thought it would save money and be original," said Dermot.

Edel, who posted the spud parcel from England, said staff in her local post office thought she was joking when she arrived with a Maris Piper for posting.

"It took me a while to get a pen that would write on the potato" she said . "The guy in the post office thought I was joking until he saw the address written. He said no a few times when I asked him to post it. Then he said I’d need to put it in a box, I just kept saying please until he give in. He finally said he’d give it a go and asked me to let him know if it got there."

Jason and Edel French

Dermot’s now planning an appropriate return parcel.

"I was thinking of sticking a stamp on a sirloin steak and sending her that. The postman might not be too happy though", he said.

"I am trying to figure out how to preserve it. I am open to ideas. Some say you can freeze it, others say a lick of varnish might preserve it. But in these times of austerity, you never know, it might still be eaten"

The Royal Mail won’t be impressed though. While they say they regularly see unusual items through the post - "We’ve had traffic lights, insects, lizards, live scorpions, fruit and even prosthetic limbs" - in a statement, they "strongly encourage customers not to post anything into the postal system which is not properly packaged or is on our restricted list".