Eircode API for Irish addresses

Eircode is Ireland's first public database of unique identifiers for all addresses. Introduced by the Irish government in July 2015, it is intended to allow citizens, businesses and public bodies to locate every individual address in the country.

The following methods serve data from the Eircode Address Database (ECAD) and Eircode Address File (ECAF):

Each request will deduct 4.5 credits from your credit pack or monthly plan.

To access these routines using your API key, please contact our team or call us on 01508 494488.

Irish address lookup

Perform an address lookup using an Eircode or address fragment.

Request structure

http://ws.postcoder.com/pcw/[api-key]/address/ie/[eircode-or-address-fragment]

Example

Request: http://ws.postcoder.com/pcw/PCW45-12345-12345-1234X/address/ie/D02X285?lines=3&format=json - View live response

[
    {
        "addressline1":"Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources",
        "addressline2":"Adelaide Road",
        "summaryline":"Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Adelaide Road, Dublin 2, D02 X285",
        "organisation":"Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources",
        "street":"Adelaide Road",
        "posttown":"Dublin 2",
        "county":"Dublin",
        "postcode":"D02 X285"
    }
]

Request: http://ws.postcoder.com/pcw/PCW45-12345-12345-1234X/address/ie/D02X285?lines=3&format=xml - View live response

<Addresses xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
    <Address>
        <addressline1>Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources</addressline1>
        <addressline2>Adelaide Road</addressline2>
        <summaryline>Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Adelaide Road, Dublin 2, D02 X285</summaryline>
        <organisation>Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources</organisation>
        <street>Adelaide Road</street>
        <posttown>Dublin 2</posttown>
        <county>Dublin</county>
        <postcode>D02 X285</postcode>
    </Address>
</Addresses>

Irish address and coordinate lookup

Perform an address and coordinate lookup using an Eircode or address fragment.

Request structure

http://ws.postcoder.com/pcw/[api-key]/addressgeo/ie/[eircode-or-address-fragment]

Example

Request: http://ws.postcoder.com/pcw/PCW45-12345-12345-1234X/addressgeo/ie/Adelaide%20Road?format=json - View live response

[
    {
        "addressline1":"Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources",
        "addressline2":"Adelaide Road",
        "summaryline":"Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Adelaide Road, Dublin 2, D02 X285",
        "organisation":"Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources",
        "street":"Adelaide Road",
        "posttown":"Dublin 2",
        "county":"Dublin",
        "postcode":"D02 X285",
        "latitude":"53.332067",
        "longitude":"-6.255492"
    },
    ...
]

Request: http://ws.postcoder.com/pcw/PCW45-12345-12345-1234X/addressgeo/ie/Adelaide%20Road?format=xml&lines=3 - View live response

<Addresses xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
    <Address>
        <addressline1>Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources</addressline1>
        <addressline2>Adelaide Road</addressline2>
        <summaryline>Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Adelaide Road, Dublin 2, D02 X285</summaryline>
        <organisation>Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources</organisation>
        <street>Adelaide Road</street>
        <posttown>Dublin 2</posttown>
        <county>Dublin</county>
        <postcode>D02 X285</postcode>
        <latitude>53.332067</latitude>
        <longitude>-6.255492</longitude>
    </Address>
    ...
</Addresses>

Coordinate lookup

Perform a coordinate lookup using an Eircode.

Request structure

http://ws.postcoder.com/pcw/[api-key]/position/ie/[eircode]

Example

Request: http://ws.postcoder.com/pcw/PCW45-12345-12345-1234X/position/ie/D02X285?format=json - View live response

[
    {
        "latitude":"53.332067",
        "longitude":"-6.255492"
    }
]

Request: http://ws.postcoder.com/pcw/PCW45-12345-12345-1234X/position/ie/D02X285?format=xml - View live response

<Addresses xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
    <Address>
        <latitude>53.332067</latitude>
        <longitude>-6.255492</longitude>
    </Address>
</Addresses>

Reverse geocode coordinates to an Irish address

Return an address from its latitude and longitude (e.g. 53.332067,-6.255492)

Request structure

http://ws.postcoder.com/pcw/[api-key]/rgeo/ie/[latitude]/[longitude]?distance=[distance-in-metres]

Example

Request: http://ws.postcoder.com/pcw/PCW45-12345-12345-1234X/rgeo/ie/53.332067/-6.255492?distance=50&format=json - View live response

[
    {
        "organisation":"Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources",
        "street":"Adelaide Road",
        "posttown":"Dublin 2",
        "county":"Dublin",
        "postcode":"D02 X285"
    },
    ...
]

Request: http://ws.postcoder.com/pcw/PCW45-12345-12345-1234X/rgeo/ie/53.332067/-6.255492?distance=50&format=xml&lines=3 - View live response

<Addresses xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
    <Address>
        <addressline1>Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources</addressline1>
        <addressline2>Adelaide Road</addressline2>
        <summaryline>Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Adelaide Road, Dublin 2, D02 X285</summaryline>
        <organisation>Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources</organisation>
        <street>Adelaide Road</street>
        <posttown>Dublin 2</posttown>
        <county>Dublin</county>
        <postcode>D02 X285</postcode>
    </Address>
    ...
</Addresses>

Additional information

Request parameters

You may append any of the following parameters to the querystring of your request.

Format: ?key1=value1&key2=value2

lines	The number of lines over which to split each address
include	Include extra address fields within the address lines returned (see above)
exclude	Exclude address fields within the address lines returned (see above)
format	xml \| json (default unless header of application/xml is detected)
identifier	Identify your lookups to make debugging and reviewing stats easier
callback	Use to specify the name of your JSONP callback function
page	For use with searches that return more than 100 results; first page is 0 - see below

Response field descriptions

Field name	Field description
summaryline	Summary of the address
organisation	Organisation
buildingname	Building name
number	Number
premise	Premise name or number
dependentstreet	Dependent street
street	Street
doubledependentlocality	Double dependent locality
dependentlocality	Dependent locality
posttown	Post town
county	County
postcode	Eircode location code
latitude	ETRS89 Latitude Co-ordinate
longitude	ETRS89 Longitude Co-ordinate

Notes

Multiple addresses may be returned depending on your search criteria
Empty address fields are not returned in the response, so all fields should be treated as optional
The lines, include and exclude parameters are only available with the UK, US and IE (Eircode) datasets
We recommend to URL encode the postcode or address fragment
You don't need to require spaces or uppercase in postcodes we handle many common typos and spelling mistakes for you

Paging

Up to 100 results can be returned at a time in response to a request.

If there are more results beyond the current page, the last result will include a morevalues field with a value of true.

We also include a nextpage field with the number of the next page, so you can easily append ?page=[nextpage] to your request.

Page 0 is the first page of results, page 1 is the second and so on.