Cork Postmistress: Once the post office is gone, then life of the village is gone...

MAIN Street, Ballydehob, is prettied up with flower baskets and bright window displays. Outside the charming post office, an array of colourful postcards lure the tourists inside.

“I’ve lived here all my life,” says postmistress Bridie Roycroft, who has been a mainstay for 43 years in the post office.

“I love the village and I love the post office,” adds Bridie, who went beyond the call of duty to keep working in the place she loves so well.

Bridie has rallied the community to support their local post office, and going a step further, she bought the building.

“The previous postmistress was Peg Coughlan,” says Bridie.

“I was very fond of her. I came to the post office taking a temporary job as a telephonist and to help out with the accounts.

“When Peg’s son tragically passed away, she was no longer able to continue at the time. Peg told me to do the best I could with the post office and that’s when I moved from the telephonist side of things to handling the post.

“When Peg passed away 16 years ago, I applied for the position of postmistress,” says Bridie.

I was really happy when I was appointed postmistress here.

Bridie always strived to promote the post office and keep it open.

In 2018, she refused an exit package as scores of others did in parts of rural Ireland. In a hatch next to the shop, she displayed a signpost declaring ‘The post office needs your business to make it viable’, and encouraging people to call in to collect welfare payments such as pensions and child benefit, rather than having it paid into bank accounts.

Bridie stressed also on the signpost that people could do their online banking, pay their bills, get their phone credit, or use An post Bill Pay there.

“I pointed out that the local post office offers a variety of services and just to ask me about them, and to support me by using these services.

“I am relying on local people who have rallied to support the post office in Ballydehob,” says Bridie, who is a mother of four.

“If we went out of business, people would have to travel to bigger towns to avail of An Post services that we provide here.”

The loss of the local post office would be detrimental for people.

“The closure of the post office would be a death sentence for our village,” adds Bridie.

I appealed to people not to let this happen. It was their choice; use it or lose it.

Bridie was delighted with the amount of people who congratulated her when she purchased the building so that she can continue to serve her community for many years to come.

Bridie greets every customer by name and the atmosphere is friendly, warm and welcoming. She loves her place of work.

“I am happy every day I go into work,” says Bridie, the postmistress who has been at the heart of her community for more than four decades, doing all she can to keep the doors open.

“Six years ago, I was offered a comfortable retirement through voluntary redundancy, which would mean permanently closing the post office down.”

Bridie wasn’t going to let that happen.

“There was nobody to take over from me,” she says.

“I made an offer to buy the building, the reason being to keep the post office open.”

After some consideration, Bridie gathered the community to a packed-out town hall meeting and informed them she would need their support to keep the business going. And then she got some - and more.

“The locals of Ballydehob didn’t let me down. Even though in the past six years we’ve sadly lost a lot of older people,” says Bridie.

The pension clientele has diminished somewhat, but plenty of people support the post office which is great.

“Being here 43 years, I’ve seen children come in who are now mothers themselves with babes in arms. I know all my customers and we enjoy a chat together. I’ve formed personal relationships with many of my customers and we are able to share things in private which is important.”

Ballydehob is a popular village.

“Many people from England and Dublin have holiday homes here,” says Bridie.

“And we have a lot of passing trade through the village. Travellers often stop by to get directions and the post office is generally a nice place to stop off and break a long journey.

“We have a craft shop with all Irish-made crafts. Our local knitters are busy knitting hats and scarves.”

Ballydehob Post Office has lots of nice things to entice people in, apart from using An Post services.

“We sell postcards, we stock scented candles, handcrafted jewellery, and books by local authors and CD’s by local musicians too,” says Bridie who believes in keeping community spirit alive and well.

“I made the decision that I was only going to do Irish-made - locally if possible, and it’s been very successful.”

Ballydehob Post Office is a good place to browse and have a bit of a chat.

“People remark how nice it is inside,” says Bridie.

She feels lucky.

“It’s just lovely to be surrounded by all these wonderful things when I come to work every day. I just love it.

"I’ve seen the effect on local communities when they lose their post office. Once a post office is gone, the life of the village is gone,” says Bridie.

“People aren’t aware of that; they don’t realise it until it’s gone.”

Bridie knows full well that the local post office is an essential part of Irish life.

“Post offices provide the community with a vital service that many people aren’t even aware of,” she says.

The Government are aware of it now and they’ve provided special funds to keep rural post offices open as there are still many people who aren’t computer-wise yet.

“It’s our job to help those people, which we do very willingly, especially in a small place like this where we get to know everybody.”

Bridie gets support from many places.

“I get an awful lot of support from people who have moved back here from places like England that have seen local post offices close and the effect that has on rural villages. They realise the seriousness of the closures.”

Bridie has help come in on her half-day off in the week.

“I only live a mile and a half out the Bantry road,” says Bridie. “I go home at lunch-time which is handy.”

Bridie, four decades working in the post office, has no notion of retiring.

“I have no plans whatsoever to retire,” she declares.

“There is never a day that I didn’t want to go into work.

“It is the biggest blessing. I’m here so long now, I consider myself one of the oldies!”