Image copyright Roisin Henderson

While things like postcodes and addresses are usually thought of as pretty much essential for letters to be delivered, it seems they're not so important to the postmen and women of Donegal.

A letter addressed: "Your man Henderson, that boy with the glasses who is doing a PhD up here at Queen's in Belfast. Buncrana, County Donegal, Ireland," successfully reached its intended recipient last week - student Barry Henderson.

A friend of Barry's sent the letter in an attempt to demonstrate how small Buncrana is.

The letter travelled more than 80 miles from Belfast, before being delivered to the office of Mr Henderson's wife, Roisin in the town, which has a population of about 7,000.

Inside was a note saying: "If this has arrived, you live in a village."

Royal Mail had stamped on the letter: "Please remember to write the postcode clearly."

Roisin Henderson told BBC Radio Foyle she thought the local postmen were "wonderful".

"They go above and beyond," she said.

"I actually cornered the postman that came into the office this morning, but he claimed it wasn't him.

"I'm not sure if he was being shy or it really wasn't, but I'm going to find the postman."

The letter arrived in the same week that the Republic of Ireland introduced postcodes for the first time, with every house receiving a unique seven-digit identifying code, known as an Eircode.

"I think it proves there's no need for Eircode," Roisin said.