Cork postmaster Paddy retires after 44 years

Even though 80-year-old Paddy O’Shea has just retired from Upper Aghada Post Office after 44 years, he is still up with the lark.

“I was always an early riser,” says Paddy, who by 8am has already had his breakfast and done his regular morning walk up Power Head in Inch.

“6am in the morning was the start of the day for me. I could never lie-in, not even when I was on holidays!

“I always put in 12-hour days, no matter what.”

Paddy wanted to continue his beloved tenure in the post office beside his home in East Cork, no matter what.

“I loved it so much, I would have gone on forever,” he says.

I always enjoyed it, and they say if you are enjoying what you are doing, it’s not work.

How did he feel the day he retired then?

“I felt terrible,” admits Paddy. “I was very sad to leave the post office and shop after 44 years behind the counter.

“I already miss the chats with the locals about GAA matches, about people who may be sick in the area so we could help them out, the good news of new babies in the locality, and the general everyday chit-chat.

“The post office was the most sociable of places to work. It was a meeting place for people.”

Paddy was always a people person, with a word for everyone.

“I made many good friends through the post office,” he says.

I know I will miss it terrible. I can go many places, and I’ve travelled a bit. But I always prefer to be here.

Paddy was always working, and always reliable..

“Even all through Covid, we kept going,” he says.

He opened Christmas Day too.

“I’d stock the batteries for the toys,” says Paddy, who opened his shop in Upper Aghada in September, 1977 and then the post office on January 1, 1980.

“Someone would always forget to get the batteries in time.”

The post office was a way of life for him.

“I just loved it,” says Paddy.

So why did he decide to retire?

“My wife Frankie put pressure on me!” laughs Paddy.

“She worked there with me over the years, and she had had enough. Frankie likes doing other things. She went to night school to study fashion. 

I might have three other interests besides the post office. Frankie would have a dozen other interests.

“Our daughter Fiona, who lives in San Fransisco, agreed with her mother that it was time for me to stop working.”

Aside from his job and his customers, Frankie is the other love in Paddy’s life - and his first love.

“We met in Redbarn at a dance,” says Paddy, “and we got married in 1966.

Did he cycle to Redbarn, like a lot of his contemporaries did back in the day?

“No, I didn’t,” laughs Paddy, “I had a car. I was a welder in the dockyard, and I made good money, so I had my own car.

“All the talk at work that time was about what car you had or what car you wanted.”

Paddy always wanted to have his own business.

“I am working since I was 10 years of age,” he says. “And I always wanted to work for myself.”

He didn’t hang about.

I arrived here in Upper Aghada in September, 1977. It was All-Ireland football 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. The shop and house were together. It seemed ideal to move here.”

How did he get the gig of postmaster in Upper Aghada PO three years later?

“The lady in Farsid Post Office down the road had packed up,” says Paddy.

A friend of mine suggested, ‘Why not give it a shot?’ That was on a Friday, and I was up at Cork Post Office on the Monday.

But it appeared he hadn’t acted quickly enough.

“The boss man said I was too late. He told me he had three marvellous people for the job.”

Paddy was wasting his time. But he got a lucky break.

“Another man in the background there, a city boy, said to give me a shot.”

Paddy was given a task to do to test his skills.

He must have passed it with flying colours.

“Twenty-five minutes later, the boss man picked up the piece of paper he had given me, and his expression told me I had done good,” says Paddy.

No time was wasted.

A week after, I got the job. A man came down from An Post in Dublin and showed me all that had to be done.

Paddy was a quick learner - “I got into it fairly quickly.”

Was he double-jobbing?

“I used to open the shop seven days a week,” says Paddy.

“Nine or ten years ago, small shops were closing everywhere. Super-markets were opening up and I closed the shop. I concentrated on the post office, keeping newspapers and greeting cards in stock.

“Back then, our postman Liam Power, attached to the post office, was always kept busy.”

Paddy was kept busy too. So was Frankie.

“We had four kids which we reared here,” says Paddy.

“Sadly, we lost our son Niall due to a brain tumour.”

Paddy and Frankie worked together and lived happily together.

Was Frankie as ‘marvellous’ as Paddy, working with figures and doing calculations, etc?

“I had a great head, but she was better than me!” he says.

Ah well - behind every successful man, there is a woman, as they say.

“I loved running my own place,” says Paddy.

“We both enjoyed it. Even though there were tough times too; I am so glad I did it.

I would have gone on a bit longer, no bother.

What is Paddy going to do now he’s retired?

“I love gardening and tending to the flowers outside in the garden and at the front door,” he replies.

Is there enough hours in the day for Paddy, who never has a lie-in?

“To be honest, I find the day long now when I’m not paying out pensions, managing the post, managing the finances, talking to the customers, and enjoying the company all day long.”

Paddy’s working day would start after his morning walk.

“Often, when I got back from my morning walk, people would be standing in a queue waiting for the post office to open,” he says.

Some of them, used to getting their morning paper, would be waiting outside too.

What did they talk about standing in the queue waiting to be greeted by Paddy when he opened up?

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

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

Paddy is forever young. He might be whisked away soon.

“Frankie says we are going to San Franciso,” he says.

There is no time like the present.

“We’re off there soon I’d say.”

Paddy, blessed with green fingers, is surrounded by blooms even in his kitchen. He got lots of gifts for his retirement.

“People came here to the house with flowers, with cards, with mass bouquets and vouchers for us,” he says. “It was unreal.”

Paddy is still a people person. He always will be.

We went for Sunday lunch at the local pub last week after we closed, the amount of people who came up to me - you wouldn’t believe it.

I would believe it.

Paddy is a marvellous man.