‘What is the point of a nice-looking town when nobody is left living in it?’
AWOMAN greets us cheerily as we push open the door. “Welcome to the Ceilí house,” she says.
That this is more than a post office is clear from the bucket of toys provided for young children and the party-like atmosphere within, with five pensioners leaning against the windowsills, having a proper chat. Everyone is dressed up. Pension day is very much a social occasion.
But this is a sad day for Killeshandra, Co Cavan.
The town has changed almost beyond recognition from the days when it was a thriving market centre, with tractors and brimming milk churns lining the streets every morning.
The post office is one of the last social hubs left.
In 2013 the bank shut its doors, amid promises that people could do their financial transactions at the post office instead. Then the credit union shut down.
But now the famous Cavan lakes town is on ‘the list’ of the 159 rural post offices destined to be ruthlessly given the chop.
After that, elderly customers will suffer the ordeal of journeying to another county to conduct their business, with Carrigallen, Co Leitrim – some 9.5km away – suggested as the alternative by An Post.
For pensioner George Drury, the loss of the post office in Killeshandra will be catastrophic.
He lives within walking distance and it means a lot to him to be able to collect his pension on his own steam.
Asked how he will manage from now on, George says: “I will have to get a lift off a man.”
“I’m very disappointed,” he says, explaining it will mean the loss of his independence.
After taking her uncle, John Tully (88), to collect his pension, Stephanie McLoughlan will usher him next door to do his shopping. “It’s upset him,” she says of the closure.
For Eileen Mannion, who came home after 34 years living in England, it presents a conundrum.
She collects her own pension as well as her brother’s – who is just out of hospital – and because she does not drive, plans on taking the new bus which will link Killeshandra with Cavan.
Butcher Nudie McGovern has his own grim concerns about the bus link.
“I’d prefer them to be bussing people into the town than bussing them out,” he says, as he chops up cuts of beef.
About 60pc of his business comes directly from the post office next door, he says, explaining that when Killeshandra used to sort its own post, he would have “15 customers guaranteed” every morning with people waiting for the branch to open.
‘It’s a sadlooking little town now,’ said a nun who came back after 39 years
Now, he fears that he may be “sitting around waiting for customers”.
In business here 35 years, he chats with customer Marie O’Reilly as they recall the days when the town was packed with workers from the creamery, the saw mills and the convent.
“You wouldn’t get up the town at lunchtime some days,” they agree.
Last week, B&B owner Geraldine O’Reilly had a nun staying who used to live here before spending 39 years in Cameroon. “She said it was a sad-looking little town now,” says Geraldine.
Concern
Chris Kirk – an Englishman who retired here because of the quieter pace of life – chats in the post office with Loretta McDermott and Pam Kiernan about how they will manage with this great change looming.
All drive but, Pam points out, “only for now”. “My concern is what will happen when I can’t,” she adds.
Chris recalls how they lost their library some years ago on promise of a mobile service that was never delivered.
However, Killeshandra does not intend to take this latest threat to its vitality lying down.
Eamon Sexton of the town committee says they are battling to get politicians to fight for the life of rural post offices.
“Killeshandra is a town on the lift and we are working hard on that,” he says.
They want to sell this quiet lakeside town for tourism and used development grants last year to devise a new town logo and website and to tidy up vacant shop facades.
“But what’s the point in a nice-looking town if there’s nobody in it?” wonders Marie O’Reilly.