AN POST delivery services manager Gobnait O’Donovan is reflecting on almost 40 years working at Clonakilty Post Office as it marks 100 years in operation.
It found its permanent home at the former Presbyterian church, a striking building which dates back to 1861, in December 2024. And while the building retains much of its earlier form and features, postal services have certainly changed and adapted considerably over the past century.
‘The one thing I can say about the post office, what I have noticed over my almost 40 years there, is how adaptable, resilient and flexible (it is), they are the three words I can describe An Post in a nutshell,’ said Gobnait.
When she joined the postal service in 1986, Gobnait started out as a post office clerk dealing with everything from welfare and pensions to saving books and stamps.
She recalled: ‘Calculators were as high tech as it got.’ Money transfers were done by postal order, and staff would encounter the same faces doing business at the post office every day.
Fast forward 39 years and the business has developed apace; adapting to changing trends while remaining a core part of the community. It is, Gobnait describes, ‘now a parcel business rather than a letter business’.
Facilitating the rise and rise in online shopping is a large facet of day-to-day operations now, and letters are on the decline. But for Gobnait the highlight has been meeting different people from all walks of life.
‘We were used for every single thing before,’ she reflected. ‘From meeting new babies when parents came to collect their child benefits, to carrying out business transactions, to chatting to elderly people collecting their pensions, each day brought something new.’
The diverse nature of the role remains very much the highlight for Gobnait, who said despite the changes over the years there is still ‘a lot of variety, no two days are the same’.
The post office remains a social hub for the Clonakilty community and offers a sense of connection and interaction for older people coming in to collect their pension and have a chat.
‘It’s a great place for people to meet,’ said Gobnait, noting that a lot of older people battling loneliness and isolation might only speak with their post office clerk and their shopkeeper in any given week.
As well as remaining a business hub for the community, Gobnait highlights how the post office comes to the fore during times of social and economic turmoil.
‘When disasters hit, or when crises hit the country, An Post pick up the pieces,’ she said, referring initially to the financial crash of the late nineties and early 2000s, when she was a sales clerk and encountered the spill of new faces into the post office queuing for social welfare payments.
And more recently during the COVID-19 pandemic, when all amenities were closed, and An Post remained operational to deliver supplies.
‘People were at home, the hardware shops were closed. We were delivering paint, paintbrushes, building supplies. The post office saw stuff coming through the post that we’ve never seen before,’ she reflected.
Clonakilty staff members of An Post at the 100th anniversary celebrations (left to rght): Miriam Cuinnea, Deputy Branch Manager, Donal Kelleher, Nicola Enright, Colm O'Sullivan, Gobnait O'Donovan, Delivery Services Manager, Claudine Crowley, Maxine Scanlon, Branch Retail Manager and Liam Murphy. . Photo: Martin Walsh.
‘It’s one company and we have a direct entry into every address in the country. During COVID it was
proved.’
An Post’s delivery people hold a font of valuable information – they can aid emergency services in finding addresses, they can assist with genealogy and they also provide support to the communities they serve, says Gobnait.
But the social element of the job remains the thing that Gobnait enjoys most, and she hopes Clonakilty Post Office ‘will go on for the next hundred years’.
