End of era as Currow Post Office closing

Local post office to close doors for final time ending four generations of family involvement

GENERATIONS of history will come to an end this Friday when post master Gerard O’Sullivan closes the door for the last time on over half a century of serving the community of Currow and its surrounds.

“I have a heavy heart for sure... I met some great people in my time and I’ve seen some massive changes around here,” Gerard said.

Gerard feels he has no other choice but to close the post office on the back of An Post’s redundancy package incentive – a package that Gerard would miss out on two years from now when his current contract expires.

“I’ve received several cards from people wishing me well and thanking me and my family for the service we gave them over the years. That means a lot,” added Gerard.

THIS Friday marks a sad day in the history of Currow village when four generations of the O’Sullivan family’s involvement in the post office and local shop comes to an end. Post Master Gerard O’Sullivan took over the running of the premises in 1968 and in that time he has witnessed numerous changes in the village.

Life behind the counter has given Gerard many years of pleasure, meeting and interacting with generations of people from Currow and its surrounds. For the past number of years Gerard has worked alongside his daughter, Máire, who re presents the fourth generation of the family to work there.

It’s with a heavy heart that Gerard will close his doors for the final time after he accepted a retirement package put in place by An Post earlier this year.

It’s a catch/22 situation as the same package would not be available to Gerard two years from now when his current contract expires.

“I have a heavy heart for sure. I have my daughter working with me and I hoped I could have handed it down to her. I met some great people in my time and I’ve seen some massive changes around here,” Gerard said.

It was Gerard’s grand aunt, Nora Collins, who first ran the post office. She was later succeeded by Gerard’s parents, Bee and Den Dave O’Sullivan. Gerard asserts that a long and steady decline in services in the village has led to the closure of the post office.

At one point in the shop’s history it had a thriving butcher’s counter, a hardware section and coal delivery service. Each week Gerard made deliveries to his customers in places like Castleisland, Scartaglin, Farranfore and Currow.

“The first thing that kick-started the decline was when the creamery closed across the road,” he said.

“Online banking came in and people started doing that too. The big shops also grew and they did harm to the smaller shops. They even changed our Mass times in the village, which means that for one month Mass is on a Sunday, and the next month it is on Saturday nights. This means you don’t sell your Sunday papers every second month. Rural Ireland is destroyed,” he continued.

Some of Gerard’s earliest memories of the business is placing the feedstuffs outside the shop door in the morning before going to school. Travelling the locality in a horse and card making deliveries is another fond memory.

“I’m just going to see how it pans out for me. I’m going to do the things I never could before like going to football matches and following the Kerry team. I’ve received several cards from people wishing me well and thanking me and my family for the service over the years. That means a lot.”

THE FIRST THING THAT KICK STARTED THE DECLINE WAS WHEN THE CREAMERY CLOSED