Service with a smile: 100 years of Clonakilty Post Office

For 100 years, Clonakilty Post Office has been providing a first class service to its customers - but it’s fair to say there have been a few changes along the way.

“Once upon a time, horses trotted down Virgin Hill with the post,” says Gobnait O’Donovan, delivery service manager at the Post Office. “Now we have electric vans. Times have changed over a hundred years!”

Gobnait, from Kilmichael, tells me something else that has changed.

“The books must be balanced. We do that every Wednesday. It used to be done every day.

“Things are very technical now. Back in the day, we used a calculator to tot up the figures. Calculators were as high-tech as we got!”

Gobnait has totted up almost 40 years at Clonakilty Post Office, based in a historic building that was originally a Presbyterian church, and which last week marked its centenary serving the West Cork town.

“The one thing I can say about the post office, what I have noticed over my almost 40 years there, is how adaptable, resilient, and flexible it is. They are the three words I can describe An Post with in a nutshell.”

What did Gobnait mostly deal with back in 1986 when she joined the postal service?

“I started out as a post office clerk dealing with everything from welfare and pensions to savings books and stamps. Money transfers were done by postal order, and staff would encounter the same faces at the post office every day.”

The staff still know their customers well.

“If one of our regulars is missing for a period of time, we always check out that all is well,” says Gobnait.

“We look out for the people who come to use our services, to have a chat and enjoy a cup of tea on the bench outside the church with a neighbour or a friend. Visiting the post office is often a social occasion for people.”

It is a little outing for some.

“Community-wise, the post office is a very important place,” Gobnait said. “During covid, we were the only facility that remained operational with restrictions in place. And if people couldn’t come to us, then we went to them.”

While trends changed in the post office over the decades, adapting to new technology and introducing new services, it is still a staple in the community.

“It is one of the most pleasant places to come to,” says local man Teddy Murray.

“We’d be lost without it,” says June Harrington.

“The post office is the best of both worlds,” says Michael Compton. “It gives us earthly and heavenly strength!”

Gobnait says the mail business at the post office is parcel-orientated now much more than letters. “The bulk of our mail involves delivering parcels ordered online and drop-offs from local businesses,” she says. “We have a lot of contact with Amazon!”

Some days at Clonakilty Post Office are busier than others.

“At Christmas, our busiest time, there are a lot of letters and cards to be delivered both at home and abroad,” says Gobnait.

It can be a stressful time for some.

“I remember one Christmas Eve when I was locking up, a man came to the door just as I was leaving to go home,” says Gobnait. “He seemed a little stressed.

“Apparently, he was not at home when the postman called with a parcel for him. The postman left a note to say he had called and that the parcel was at the post office for collection. The man just made it in time. He got his ‘Santa’ parcel and went home very relieved!”

While Gobnait is in the mail department of the post office with a staff of 16, who sort and deliver, she still loves interacting with customers and loves the variety of the job.

“The post office is often the first point of contact for people,” she says.

“From a social hub to commuters looking for directions, to someone seeking genealogy information, the post office fills many roles.

“The interaction with members of the public provides great variety. No two days are the same.”

Gobnait loves interacting with her colleagues too.

“It’s like country girl meets city girl!” says Maxine Scanlon, who began her An Post career in Cork city. She is the retail manager at Clonakilty post office.

“Gobnait and I get on like a house on fire,” says Maxine. “We can bounce off one another.

“The two of us together with our 25 staff members are like a little family. We have a lovely bond going on.”

There was romance going on at An Post in Eglinton Street, Ballintemple, when Maxine worked there.

“My husband Michael drove the artic’ mail lorry to Little Island sorting office every morning,” says Maxine. “He had a very early start.”

Even so, Michael had time to chat up the friendly post office clerk.

“Yes, he sure did!” says Maxine. “And here I am in this beautiful town living the peaceful life running the office.”

Maxine’s roots are embedded in the post office.

“My grandad worked here in this very same post office in the 1940s,” she says. “It’s like coming full circle.”

Maxine is a people person.

“Working in An Post, you get to know people,” she says. “You smile at them, and they smile back. The post office is one of the very few places left doing business on a one-to-one basis.

“It is great to be able to help somebody open a bank account, to pay an ESB bill in stages, to help them do the lotto, or advise on costs regarding posting abroad.”

Maxine says Friday is a particularly busy day when people get their pensions.

“They love getting their pension and we find that physically feeling the money and putting it in their wallets give them a sense of purpose instead of a direct debit arrangement,” says Maxine.

Gobnait agrees.

“You see the pensioners heading down the road to O’Donovans Hotel for coffee or to go shopping. The local link bus is a great service for people who can’t drive or who are isolated.”

Storms and floods can isolate people and caused problems.

“When a bad storm hit one year, we had no permanent barriers up outside the post office, only temporary ones,” says Gobnait. “The mail stored in the cages blew into the river and the lads had to wade in to bale the cages out!”

Postman John O’Donovan is a busy man at the post office.

“I do an average of 200 calls a day,” he says.

Back in the day, postman Willie Wilcox was a telegram boy.

“I’d cycle out to Inchydoney or Fern Hill Hotel with telegrams for the wedding couple,” says Willie. “No sooner would I arrive back here when another few telegrams came into the post office and I’d have to repeat the round-trip journey all over again!”

Romance often blossomed with new telephonists in town.

“The telephone exchange was located in the parcel shed,” says Willie. “My mother was a telephonist, and met my father while working here.”

A century on, the workings of Clonakilty post office are alive and well.

“Let’s hope the post office goes on for another 100 years!” say Gobnait.

Outside, on the red bench, people are chatting in the sunshine. The statue of Michael Collins overlooks the happy scene. “The customers love to take time out for a chat when they visit the post office. It’s lovely to see,” says Gobnait.