46 years behind the counter of a County Cork post office

EVEN though it is 46 years since Paddy O’Shea and his wife Frankie set up home and set up shop in Upper Aghada, postmaster Paddy can remember the very day he arrived in the pretty East Cork village on the edge of the sea.

“I arrived here on September 3, 1977,” says Paddy, who won’t divulge his age, but who is fit and sprightly, taking a walk on Inch beach and up Power Hill every morning before breakfast.

“It was All-Ireland football final day. Myself, Frankie and the kids arrived here on the Sunday and we got the whole thing set up ready to open for Monday morning.”

Paddy had ambition.

“I wanted to work for myself, I used to be a welder. The shop and house was together and it seemed ideal to move here.

“The post office was closing in Rostellan and I was asked if I was interested in opening up the post office here. A customer said; ‘The post office is going in Rostellan, why don’t you apply for it?’ So I did,” says Paddy.

“I was interviewed in 1980 in the GPO in Cork, and soon after I learned that I had got the job.”

Paddy was a quick learner.

“A man came down from An Post in Dublin and showed me all that had to be done and I got into it fairly quickly,” he says.

Was he double-jobbing?

“I used to open the shop seven days a week. Seven or eight years ago, small shops were closing everywhere. Supermarkets were opening up everywhere and I closed the shop. I concentrated on the post office, keeping papers and greeting cards in stock. Back then, a postman was attached to this post office, Sonny Power, he was kept very busy.”

Paddy was kept very busy too.

“Paying out pensions was always a big part of business,” he says.

“And the ‘blue books’, which were savings books, were all kept up to date.

These days the Sammy Stamps are popular with the kids and mothers buy the saving stamps for the children on children’s allowance day.

Paddy’s customers are enthusiastic, and they support their local post office.

“Often, when I got back from my morning walk, people would be standing in a queue waiting for the post office to open. Some of them, used to getting their morning paper, would be waiting outside too.”

What do they talk about standing in the queue?

“Older men talk about the GAA and when they were young,” says Paddy.

“The match on Sunday is always a talking point and so is the weather.

“One of our favourite characters, Lar O’Brien, would always keep up the chat in the queue and tell jokes. He was always in great form, and he would cheer you up.”

I tell Paddy the people waiting outside shouldn’t mind so much as they can be taking in the beautiful variety of flowers, hanging baskets and vigorous creepers that adorn the entrance to Aghada Post Office.

“I like my flowers,” says Paddy. “Gardening is my hobby when I get time.”

Going back in time, Paddy says posting was much more prevalent than it is today.

People were posting to relatives abroad, to the UK and the USA,” he says. “Letters were a big thing."

Christmas was a busy time of year too.

Christmas was particularly busy because people would post the turkey. I kept brown paper and strong string especially for the posting of the birds, which were dispatched six weeks before Christmas.

“Often, people sent rashers and black pudding abroad too.”

Paddy opened on Christmas Day.

“I’d stock the batteries for the toys,” he says. “Someone would always forget to get the batteries in time.”

What time does Paddy open the post office?

“I get up at 6.30am,” he says. After a walk and breakfast, he checks all is on order before opening the doors at 9am.

Paddy likes dealing with the public and he has a word for everyone.

Do Frankie and himself ever have words?

Frankie laughs.

“Sometimes, you wouldn’t want to be in hearing distance!” she says.

Paddy’s post office is a popular spot.

“In 46 years, the post office is still a meeting place,” he says.

“Mothers coming from the school greet each other, the people collecting pensions or benefits all know each other and they pass the time of day.”

Paddy knows the time of day his regulars make their appearance.

“Every month, a woman in her 80s and her husband come in to draw their pension,” he says.

“They come at the same time, 2pm on the same day, Friday. I always expect them, and we have a catch-up. There’s always a chat and banter to be had here in the post office.”

People who are not from the area find the post office a friendly, helpful place.

“Some refugees are living in Trabolgan holiday village at the moment,” says Paddy.

“We talk to them all the time and they share their problems. We try and help them out to the best of our ability.”

Paddy is a good neighbour.

“If anyone is sick, it is relayed to us and we see what we can do to help them out,” says the postmaster.

The post office serves the community in terms of social welfare payments and general post office services, as well as providing ‘social work’.

“People look for the local thing,” says Paddy. 

They want to come in. We do an awful lot of social work. People coming in, elderly people, a lot of them come in to us and we do everything for them.

Rural Ireland can often be a lonely place.

“Someone came into me yesterday and said I was the only human being she met for the week,” says Paddy.

“She goes to the bank, there’s a machine. She comes to me, and I’ll talk to her. I’ll do anything she wants. So the post office is very important for any community, for anywhere, in the country more than the city.

“At An Post, everyone knows everyone and that is something that should be kept,” says Paddy.

He retired from the IPU’s Executive after a long service, 22 years, but intends keeping on the post office for as long as possible.

“I like the people,” says Paddy.

“They are very decent and honourable, and always in good form.”

So it is a pleasure doing business with them?

“It is indeed,” says Paddy. “Often, it is not like doing a day’s work at all.”

Paddy has done a lot of work in the community he loves so well.

“I started the boy scouts here and the youth club, which is still going,” he says

. “I was also involved in the juvenile GAA here.”

Paddy is always up-to-date on all community affairs.

“I used to write a sports column for the Evening Echo for 10 years,” he says.

Paddy is proud of the fact that the post office stayed open during Covid.

“We stayed open all the time during it,” he says.

I was there for our locals, and I think people saw the value of the post office and appreciated it very much.

Paddy won’t divulge his age to me for a very good reason.

“Somebody might be waiting to step into my boots!” he says, laughing.

What do people say to him, now that he is postmaster in Upper Aghada for more than four decades?

“People say, ‘you’ll do another 10 years’.

Wouldn’t doubt you, Paddy. Wouldn’t doubt you at all!