THE LAST POST
POSTMISTRESS WHOSE GRANDPARENTS OPENED BROADWAY POST OFFICE IN 1958, CLOSED UP FOR THE LAST TIME LAST FRIDAY. REPORTER MARIA PEPPER AND PHOTOGRAPHER GER HORE PAID A VISIT ON AN EMOTIONAL, BITTERSWEET FINAL DAY
Broadway postmistress Áine Scallan with Cllr Ger Carthy and local garda Robbie Aylward on an emotional final day on Friday. The local post office, established by Áine’s grandparents in 1958, has closed down after more than 60 years serving Broadway and Our Lady’s Island. BROADWAY’S LAST POST
It was an emotional day as the community of Our Lady’s Island and Broadway gathered last Friday to bid farewell to the local post office which has closed its doors after more than 60 years, under the terms of a nationwide voluntary redundancy package offered by An Post.
Broadway post office was opened in 1958 by Nicholas and Girlie Doyle whose grandaughter Áine has now bowed out after 28 years as postmistress in the area. On her last day, Áine was showered with flowers, cards and gifts from customers, many of whom are very upset about the closure and left the premises in tears after their final visit.
‘I feel very sad to lose the post office. I think it is a great loss to any parish and it’s a great loss to our family’, said Áine whose premises is one of five in County Wexford and 161 in the country to close under a restructuring scheme. Ballycogley Post Office is due to close this coming Thursday.
‘We’re all having a laugh there today but it is bittersweet and people have been going out the door crying. They have been going out the door in tears all week. I am overwhelmed by the kind words, the gifts and the appreciation I have received over the past few weeks’.
‘This time next week we won’t have a post office’, said Áine who was joined by her parents Paddy and Ann (Ann formerly helped run the post office with her parents Nicholas and Girlie); her daughters Sharon and Karla; her sisters Deirdre, Jean and Orla; her granddaughter Holly and her nieces Saoirse, Aoibheann, Cora, Caoimhe and Clodagh. The postman Brendan Wickham arrived in his van and Garda Robert Aylward also called in to wish the retiring postmistress well.
Local politician Ger Carthy is 41 years old and the post office has been there all his life. ‘It’s been an integral part of the communications process in Lady’s Island and the wider community. It had a telephone exchange before the automated phone system came in’, he said.
‘It’s a sad day for the community. There are a lot of upset people who have been coming here for decades. It was such a user-friendly place. Áine filled out forms for people and was always very helpful. It’s a difficult time for the area’’, said Cllr. Carthy whose mother Anne also arrived.
‘Aine’s grandfather Nicholas was a very progressive fellow. He was President of the Postmasters Union of Ireland and was election agent for my father. The Scallans and the Carthys have been great friends for many years. The closure of post offices like this is an attack on rural Ireland’, he added.
The nearest post offices to Broadway are in Rosslare Harbour and Killinick but some elderly customers who don’t have transport are opting to go to Wexford town to collect their pensions.
‘A lot of elderly people meet their neighbours here. Some people have been coming here all their lives. If you want to post a letter now you have to go to Rosslare Harbour.’
Lillian and Richard Davis have been customers of Broadway Post Office for 49 years. ‘We’re very sad about it. I think it’s terrible that we have lost our post office. It will be sadly missed. It’s so sad for older people in the parish. Some of them come here on their bicycles’, said Lillian.
Betty Cullen arrived with a beautiful cake that she made and decorated with house facades in icing, representing the post office and the homes of neighbours around the locality. Regular customer Kathleen Meyler came to make her last transaction at the post office and described the closure as ‘disgraceful’.‘Everyone is giving out about it. I’ve been coming here since Áine’s grandfather ran it’, she said. ‘People have been coming here their whole lives’, said Áine’s sister Deirdre. It’s more than a post office. It’s a community.’ Mary Doyle who called in with her husband Oliver said she is ‘very sad’ about it. ‘My mother and my father before me came to this post office. I’ve been coming here since I was a child. We have to go to the harbour now, we’ve no choice but I don’t like it’, she said.
Áine thanked all her customers for their loyal support over the years. A get-together marking the closure will be held in the local centre on Sunday, February 3 at 12 noon.