The first commemorative, a set of three Daniel O'Connell stamps, appeared on 22 June 1929. Until the mid-1990s, with only three exceptions in 1943, 1977 and 1979 for Douglas Hyde, Louis le Brocquy and Pope John Paul II respectively, it was policy to not depict living persons. This policy has been put aside and since 1995 there have been several such issues, mainly depicting athletes; for instance 30 stamps were issued showing living Irish sportsmen for the Millennium and several golfers are shown on three 2006 Ryder Cup stamps. More recently, stamps have featured U2, Thin Lizzy and Irish rugby players and coach, such as Johnny Sexton and Joe Schmidt.