The post office - part of Irish life

Eight years ago, at about teatime on a Tuesday, there were 1,700 post offices in Ireland. Today, there are 1,200.

According to the Irish Postmasters’ Union most were closed on the retirement or death of the postmaster and low wages meant no one stepped in to take their place. Most small rural post offices were dependent on dispensing social welfare payments for their survival, but since the boom of the 90s fewer and fewer people were unemployed and many of those that were, opted to receive their payments directly into their bank account.

Table for One: Post Office Savings Bank, Investment Products, Prize Bonds, Billpay, Postal Money Orders, Sterling Drafts, Passport Express, Stamps, DSFA Payments, Parcel Services, Courier Post, TV and Dog Licence, The Gift Voucher Shop, AIB Banking Services: Bank Card Lodgements, Bank Card Withdrawals, Credit Card Payments, Personal Paper Lodgements, Business Deposits., One Direct, Postal Services, EuroGiro, PostPhoto, Top Up

It was no longer economical for An Post to keep them open. Things changed - An Post had to react to that. The bigger ones survived but not as they were.

The functions we once used the post office for became redundant. Forgive me father for I haven’t penned - it’s 10 years since I wrote my last letter. I filled in forms and posted them - does that count?

Like many around the country, my local post office now offers a wide range of services. (See Table for One) Most of them I have never used. It’s nice to know I can get a Top Up there, whatever that is.

Table for Two: Gives Directions, Photocopies, Faxes, Knows if Local Team Won, And When The Next Match Is, And Where, Sells Charity Tickets, Runs Grand National Sweep, Alerts A Relative When Mrs. Murphy Hasn’t Collected Her Pension, Knows The Best Person To Tile Your Kitchen / Paint Your Bedroom / Groom Your Pet (their business cards are behind the counter), Displays Posters Advertising Local Events …

Like many around the country, my local post office would once have been considered rural. With the large influx of new residents it no longer is. Yet it retains that rural ethos.

Mistress Jackie, as our postmaster is affectionately known, does far more than her employer asks of her. (See Table for Two) And no, she’s not some little old lady with her specs on the tip of her nose and cat hair on her geansaí - she’s a 20-something about-to-be-hitched cutie.

An Post (as Postbank) have just launched their Everyday Account (a current account). Once again the list in Table for One has grown. I admit it will be handy having such a service in small towns and villages like ours. The drawback is that as Table for One grows, Table for Two shrinks. Mistress Jackie gets busier and busier, though her own current account remains the same. I just hope she still has time to make that call the next time Mrs. Murphy doesn’t turn up for her pension.

13 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

wow, those tables have small text in them. checking the HTML I see that they’re 0.1em (approximately 2 pixels high?) - methinks that’s an error.

1. Kae Verens on May 13th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Thanks, Kae. I didn’t notice in Firefox or Opera under Win. I never checked IE and it was a mess.

Anyway, it’s fixed now. It should be fine now in Ff etc. on Linux too.

2. Primal Sneeze on May 13th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
I just hope she still has time to make that call the next time Mrs. Murphy doesn’t turn up for her pension

That and other reasons is why the government should take over the rural post offices as information/contact points.

Sure (ok, being an urban person I’m out on a limb here), sometimes the rural postmaster/mistress knew too much, or spread too much gossip…which I’m told is one of the reasons why people prefer to bank in the relative anonymity of towns.

But the role surely needs to be filled - and not just in the country.

3. aonghus on May 13th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Aonghus ~ The rural postmaster/mistress knew too much: So did the postman/woman, the due-man/woman (remember them?), the meter reader/readress … but we knew they’d keep that knowledge to themselves. And they did. So does our Mistress Jackie.

4. Primal Sneeze on May 13th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Guess what you can’t do in a post office here in NL? Buy a stamp. They only sell books of stamps. Even if you bring an envelope adddressed and ready to be sent off they won’t take. Nope, you have to buy a book of stamps. Bah! You can buy all sorts of other shite though from sellotape to balloons.

5. conortje on May 14th, 2008 at 9:08 am
Conorín ~ Ha! That’s gas. You can still buy a single stamp here, but they do a roll of 100 ready-gummed in a dispenser which is dead handy. Great when you’re doing a run of ~~begging letters~~ invoices.

6. Primal Sneeze on May 14th, 2008 at 9:22 am
You can’t buy a stamp in the post office here either. They insist on printing out a huge sticker which doesn’t fit on a small envelope and makes the cranky little old lady behind the counter give out to people for not using bigger envelopes all the while swearing under her breath.

7. Caro on May 14th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Caro ~ NL and Italy are beginning to sound like a pub you can’t buy beer in. Actually, come to think of it, my local is like that when the cranky little old man is behind the counter.

8. Primal Sneeze on May 14th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
I think most people would rather live life with Table for Two more ascendant in their towns. However, anonymity can seem like a blessing some days when you just need to get in and out quickly and get stuff done.

9. Sam, Problemchildbride on May 14th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Sam ~ There was a time when I was younger (and betimes, lately) when I preferred to get in and out quickly, but I’d rather dally over a chat even when I feel I can’t spare the time.

I can buy a stamp in the GPO, but will I come out with a smile on my face?

10. Primal Sneeze on May 14th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
When we’re in Stornoway my husband refuses to nip out to the shops for anything with me or any of my family. On an average run you can count on having to stop and chat to at least 5 different people (10 if it’s my father) and half a morning can be gone before you’ve bought anything. I used to hate that. Now I kind of like it.

The hubs prefers to just put his collar up and his head down and hope noone recognises him as Peter-John and Jane’s girl’s fella from America and stop him to say hello.

11. Sam, Problemchildbride on May 15th, 2008 at 1:45 am
Sam ~ If stuck for time and I really have to make a commando raid on the shops, I end up going to the 2nd or 3rd town away. It can be faster in the long run.

Hey, like my new mini-Sneeze on the address bar (i.e. favicon)?

12. Primal Sneeze on May 15th, 2008 at 2:57 am
Ooooh! Get you!

Me likey, Sneezy. Cool!

13. Sam, Problemchildbride on May 15th, 2008 at 6:52 am