Mayo postman bemoans demise of post office network
by Jemima Burke
TEN post offices across Mayo are set to close over the next couple of months as An Post seeks to ‘consolidate’ its network.
This is bad news for rural Ireland, says Castlebar postman Michael Brophy.
“The whole demise of the post office has a direct result on rural Ireland. It affects the newsagents, the coffee shop, the filling station because if people are not collecting their pension in the area they will take their business somewhere else. That social interaction on a Friday is going to be gone. There’s a knock-on effect,” he said.
This year Michael is celebrating 40 years in the job, a milestone that brings back many memories.
“I’ll never forget the day I started. An interview came up for a couple of us from the VEC down in Newtown. Two of us went up to the post office and were interviewed on a Friday. I started work on Saturday morning.”
Michael’s earliest assignments involved cycling out to Breaffy House with telegrams for weddings. Back then there was no overtime pay. If a telegram came in at half past five in the evening it had to be delivered regardless of hail, sleet or snow.
“An Post don’t have a lot of sympathy for you on a morning when there are heavy showers and thunder and lightning. They expect you to turn up. If you’re in any way sheltered in life An Post isn’t the place for you!”
These days Michael starts work at 5:45 a.m. and clocks out at 1.45 p.m.
“We receive the mail in and we prepare it and throw it up on the benches for the lads. Everything that comes in the door, every letter, packet, registered and express post, has to go out again in two hours’ time. It’s an amazing transformation.”
Although the job of a postman or postwoman is essentially to deliver mail Michael views his role as much wider.
“The route I’m on now I’ve been on for thirty years. I know everybody inside out, and they know me. There’s a bond of trust between me and the people inside these houses. It doesn’t come overnight. They trust you over years.”
“I see a lot of people who have never gone outside the door to work and I see others who are killed working and have several jobs. You meet all types of people and see all sides of society.”
“I’ve seen joyous occasions and sad occasions in communities. Sometimes you lose great people. I suppose that’s the evolution of life where an older person is replaced by a birth on another side of the family. These are generational changes.”
Returning missing dogs to their owners, helping a cow calve, finding cattle in drains, sticking on a cylinder of gas, calling the ambulance, posting letters – it all comes with the job. Michael wouldn’t have it any other way.
“You have to keep an eye out for people. Castlebar is a big town but there is a rural side to it. There’s a circle of ten to twelve miles around the town where people are living in very rural conditions. Some live up side-roads on their own and possibly don’t see anyone but me. They look forward to the chat.”
Despite recognising the importance of post offices in rural areas Michael believes it is ‘inevitable’ that many of them will close:
“If you buy a jar of sweets on the first of January and on the 31st of December you haven’t made a profit you’re not going to continue with that. It’s all about transactions.”
“These postmasters and postmistresses are not on a wage; they get paid by transactions. If people are not coming in, buying stamps, doing postal orders or banking and collecting their pension it’s inevitable that the post office will close.”
A long-standing committee member of the CWU (Communications Workers’ Union) Michael added that the support of locals is vital: “People will have to support post offices if they are going to survive.”
An Post has committed to a €50m investment programme designed to give a “modern look and feel” to the network and to provide ‘a wide range of new services’ in the coming months and years.
While Michael does welcome new and better services such as banking and tax facilities to ‘give people a chance to use their post office’ he insists that ‘no post office should close down unless there is planning in advance.’
“I drove through Ballindine the other evening and they have lost their post office. There are two fine supermarkets there. I looked and there was anything up to 100 vehicles parked in the bigger supermarket and probably 30 cars parked in the other. Any one of those supermarkets should have been approached rather than letting the service go.”
“People are getting heated and going to the radio stations. All this should have been sorted in advance when An Post knew this was coming.”
Michael, as a postman as well as a coach with Castlebar Athletic Club and PRO for Mayo Community Games, emphasises the importance of common sense and forward thinking, not only for An Post, but also for the next generation.
“Kids have lost the infrastructure of how to do things in a house. It’s important to train them. It would be better for kids to get away from television and social media. Get them up and doing something around the house and give them a few euro rather than chocolate.”
He would like to see the return of the old Henry Hippo Savings Banks for children or a new similar initiative with the post office.
As a six-year-old, Michael moved from Manchester to Mayo with his family. He has lived here ever since and, in the years between, has become much more than a familiar face to the people on his route. He is a friend and a meaningful part of their lives.
The loss of rural post offices cannot be measured only in services and jobs but perhaps more so in the sense of stability and security they bring to our communities. Perhaps we will find that removing the structures that bind villages and towns together is costlier than we might realise.