‘A village isn’t a village if it is without a post office’

THE outgoing postmistress of Goleen Post Office has offered to help out whoever might take it over, following her retirement.

Breda Buckley is retiring after running the post offices for the past 23 years and it now faces closure on Tuesday May 31st unless someone successfully applies to An Post to take it over before then.

An Post confirmed that no applications were received despite it being advertised twice, but only on their own website. Locals will now have to travel to Schull to access their nearest post office once Goleen closes.

Breda said she is willing to help in any way she can but pointed out that no one seems to be applying to take over the running of the business.

‘If there was a definite applicant I would have no problem in helping them out down the line just to show them how it operates,’ said  Breda.

‘I’m finishing up next week but unfortunately there hasn’t been any definite application yet so it looks more than likely that it will close.’

Bridie Roycroft of Ballydehob Post Office said it is very alarming that An Post isn’t offering enough money to a young business to take over Goleen Post Office.

‘A village isn’t a village without a post office and it’s sad to see Goleen closing,’ said Bridie.

While welcoming mooted plans to pay postmasters €1,000 a month to keep post offices open, she is critical of the government and said the real key to the maintaining post offices is support from State services. ‘We aren’t looking for money for nothing,’ she said. ‘They have had opportunities before to give us services like the issuing of passports, for example. If you do it through the post office it can take up to six weeks, but if you do it online you can get it back within three days,’ said Bridie. ‘We could have done driving licences and loads of different things. We’re offering a great service to the community and we want to continue doing that.’

Meanwhile, Cork South West FF TD Christopher O’Sullivan has organised a public meeting in Goleen Parish Hall on Monday night to explore options to save the post office. He said he has had numerous people contact his office who would be interested in the role. ‘There is a huge appetite there to keep the service in Goleen.

‘So, it’s come to this – community activism to try and keep the post office open,’ said Deputy O’Sullivan.

He added that an action group will be set up following the meeting.