Frustration over the planned closure of another Cork post office  

“The only thing that we have in Glounthaune is our post office, and now that’s going,” said Jill McMahon, the chairperson of the village’s residents association, after it was confirmed to The Echo by An Post that the local post office would be closing in two weeks time.

The closure, scheduled to take place on Friday, June 6, follows the recent advertisement by An Post seeking tenders to take up post office contracts in Glounthaune and Little Island. According to the statement issued by An Post, the company advertised both contracts, but only received tenders for Little Island.

The news comes in the same week as it was confirmed that Crosshaven Post Office would be closing on May 30. Customers will now have to travel to the SuperValu Shopping Centre in Carrigaline, where that town’s post office is located, to access services.

'No applications'

A spokesperson for An Post said they had re-advertised the Glounthaune Post Office contract on two occasions, “but no applications were received”.

“We also canvassed locally, but no suitable site was found,” they said.

“Our efforts throughout have been centred around keeping both post offices open. This has proven impossible, but we have been able to come up with a solution that serves both communities and provides them with a sustainable service for the future.”

The post office serving Little Island and Glounthaune will be located in the Centra shop on Little Island.

Ms McMahon of the Glounthaune Residents Association disputed the contention of An Post that there were no tenders for the local post office, and described Little Island as a traffic bottleneck “most of the time”.

She said: “We have an ageing population in Glounthaune, most people walked to the post office for their pension but due to the road structure in Glounthaune, which they’ve changed, that’s impossible for older people to negotiate.”

Difficulty

One of the issues raised by Fine Gael TD Colm Burke, of Cork North Central, and his party colleague, councillor Anthony Barry, was the difficulty in attracting people to fill vacant post office positions, given the lack of business.

“Post office operators are finding it difficult to keep their heads above water,” said Mr Burke, who pointed out substantial growth in terms of additional housing would be happening in the Glounthaune area in the future.

“In terms of Glounthaune and Little Island, while they’re amalgamated now, there is going to be substantial growth in the population of that area, and it’s a pity this has occurred now.”

Following the announcement made earlier during the week of the closure of Crosshaven Post Office, Cork South West TD and Independent Ireland leader Michael Collins raised his concern in regards to what he described as “an overwhelming sense now among rural communities like Crosshaven that the beating hearts of our towns and villages are being crushed into silence through a slow but steady process of service withdrawal — that policy of neglect and indifference must be reversed”.

Mr Collins referred to the closure of the post office in his native Goleen, which he said had a domino effect leading to the closure of other businesses in the West Cork village.