A parish priest has spoken out against the closure
of a rural post office in Co Sligo which is under threat following the
death of the 55-year-old postmaster.
Speaking at the end of Mass in Sooey parish church on Sunday, Fr AB O’Shea urged parishioners to sign a letter, which was available in the church porch, urging An Post not to close the post office in nearby Ballygawley.
Campaigners have accused An Post of using the death
of postmaster Colm McTiernan, less than six weeks ago, as an excuse to
close the service now being operated by his wife.
With 700 post offices
nationally believed to be under threat, An Post has announced that the
contract for Ballygawley post office is under review.
Fr O’Shea told the congregation it was important to maintain services in the west of Ireland and “not move everything towards the capital”.
‘Heartbeat of the community’
Thomas Walsh,
chairman of Ballygawley Development, said local people were angry, not
just because they feared losing their post office , “the heartbeat of
the community”.
“I know An Post is a commercial company but people feel
this is being done in a very callous way”.
He said Mr McTiernan’s wife Antoinette was continuing
to operate the post office in their multi-use business which includes a
shop and filling station.
“An Post is now going through this rigmarole
of a process but we feel they are looking for an excuse to close the
post office.”
The late postmaster’s brother Padraig said the family
were very upset that the contract was put up for review so soon after
Colm’s death at the age of 55. “There is no humanity in it. Antoinette
has been running it and it is a very busy post office,” he added.
Campaigners said that within a 30-mile radius, four
post offices had closed over the past three years, so closure would
leave a large geographical area without a service.
More than 300 people
attended a rally outside the premises last week, including several local
school children with letters addressed to Santa.
Decision
Angus Laverty,
public affairs manager with An Post confirmed the contract for
Ballygawley post office was now under review, and said a consultation
period would continue until December 2nd.
A decision on whether to keep
the post office open is expected some weeks later.
Mr Laverty said the company was aware of the
sensitivity of the case.
“We are always sensitive to the family, and
this case was particularly tragic as Colm was only in his 50s and he was
our colleague. Unfortunately there is no good time to do this.”
Mr Laverty said that as postmaster, Mr McTiernan had
been the person contracted to provide the service, and “unfortunately
when a person dies that is the end of the contract”.
He said there were
1,130 post offices in the country, 51 of them run by An Post staff ,
while the rest were operated on a contract basis.