Ballinskelligs’ post office set to remain open

THERE has been glowing praise for people power after An Post stated it would advertise a post office contract for Ballinskelligs, which had been set to lose its service in January.

There had been fears that the locality would be left with Waterville, 12 kilometres away, as its nearest post office, after Ballinskelligs was named as one of 12 post offices in the county for closure in the coming months.

But locals did not take the decision lying down.

A public meeting in September attracted more than 200 concerned members of the public, and a submission was sent to An Post asking it to review its decision.

Now, An Post has said the post office will remain open – provided a suitable candidate and premises can be found to run the service.

The decision follows an independent assessment commissioned by An Post. While the assessment found that the original decision was consistent with protocol, An Post re-examined submissions by the local community and its political representatives.

It would seem this, and the fact the proposal would have seen the work move from a Gaeltacht area to a non-Gaeltacht area, turned the tide in locals’ favour.

Mairead Browne is head of a committee formed in the aftermath of September’s public meeting, and she told The Kerryman ahead of last week’s decision that a local shop, Nicholas Browne’s, was willing to accommodate a postal service into the future. She is therefore “very hopeful” the locality can take the chance offered to it by An Post and has thanked everyone who has helped in the fight.

“I’m sure everybody is delighted at this news,” she told The Kerryman following An Post’s announcement. “We hadn’t expected a great outcome, but the community and our public representatives put in an unbelievable effort.

“You could see that on the night of the public meeting, when more than 200 people showed up.

“If our post office had closed, we may as well have forgotten about it. But I’d like to thank everybody who has helped, and I’m very hopeful we can go from here and meet the conditions laid out.”

Councillor Norma Moriarty said she was “thrilled to bits” at the news – but was by no means surprised at the outcome.

“There’s a good, sizeable community here – it would have remained relatively steady compared to other parts of the region – and to take the service away would have been very unfair,” she said.

“This, the fact that there is an existing business willing to accommodate it, and the absolute commitment locally meant I was not shocked that this decision came in.”

Michael Healy-Rae TD also welcomed the news.

“This development is most welcome”, he said.

“I look forward to seeing a new post office in Ballinskelligs open in the coming months.”

Martin Ferris TD said the decision was “the only sensible one for this isolated Gaeltacht community”.

“The people of the area deserve enormous credit for the campaign they launched,” he said.

“It showed once again what can be achieved when communities come together.”