Hundreds of local people from the Kilnaleck area were joined by Oireachtas members and councillors to demand the retention of their local post office.

Don't put 'the final nail in the coffin' of rural Ireland

Sean McMahon

Published: Thu 20 Sep 2018, 5:30 PM

The people of Kilnaleck rallied to the cause in their hundreds last Saturday morning when they assembled outside their local Post Office demanding that it be retained. They also joined tens of thousands of people in Dublin to march from Trinity College to Dáil Éireann on Tuesday to protest at some 159 planned post office closures nationwide at the end of next month.
In County Cavan, along with Kilnaleck, the branches at Killeshandra, Corraneary, Mountnugent, Tullyvin and Swanlinbar are all set to close their doors under a deal brokered between An Post and the Postmasters Union. Representatives of those communities also joined in the national protest march.
At the protest in Kilnaleck on Saturday, hundreds of post cards bearing the words ‘I support the retention of Kilnaleck Post Office, Co Cavan’, addressed to David McRedmond, CEO An Post, were signed and posted.

The consensus among those present in Kilnaleck was, if the post office goes, the spending power goes with it, as happened in the wake of the closures of branches of the Ulster Bank and the Credit Union in the town in recent years.
Ruth Brady is a member of the local action committee in Kilnaleck and the Celt's Kilnaleck correspondent. “It is vital that the post office is retained and especially for the elderly people in the area who have no transport. We lost our bank and we have no ATM in the town – it is vital that the post office is kept for everybody in the community.”
Ciaran Clarke who owns a business in the town pointed out that there are very successful businesses on every road leading into Kilnaleck who use the post office regularly and, without it, the nearest branch will be Ballyjamesduff.
“We have a small village here with a big community with a lot of successful businesses. At the end of the day, we are being forced to other local towns to do our business – it really does not make sense,” said Mr Clarke.
Bernie Boylan was delighted with the great turnout and it illustrated “a show of strength behind the whole campaign. The bank closed down in 2013 – the credit union in 2016. On one hand Government is pumping money into rural towns for rural regeneration and, on the other hand, they are taking it back with the closure of the Post Office,” she contended.

Disputing population figures
“It would appear that they put a pin down on a map - checked the Census – they have come up with the figure of 393 in this area – that does not give a fair representation of the actual population. Any town that is under 500 is automatically earmarked for closure. We are really going to campaign against this closure,” said Ms Boylan.

The committee is examining the population in the wider area.
They contend that, according to the electoral register, there are in excess of 5,000 people living within a five-kilometre radius of Kilnaleck. “There are also 40 businesses within the town zone and 45 outside the two-mile radius,” added Ms Boylan.

Vital service

Sinn Féin Dáil hopeful Pauline Tully is another member of the action committee. She said that the turnout showed the strength of feeling on the issue.
According to the former councillor, the closure of both the credit union and the bank had taken business out of the town.
“We want to keep the last financial institution here – a lot of people do not have transport to go to the nearest post office in Ballyjamesduff or Ballinagh. It is not fair on those people – you are taking away a vital service for them.
“I think the post office is a service. It should not be seen as a profitable business – that is the way An Post is looking at it.
“If it is not doing a certain number of transactions, it should be closed – that is not the right attitude,” she continued.
Ms Tully hoped that the postcard campaign would be effective in showing the CEO of An Post that “there are a lot of people here who depend on the post office – they want it kept open and our village kept alive. If this closes, it is like putting the final nail in the coffin of Kilnaleck,” she said.
Local public representatives also turned out in strength to support the community in their quest to retain the post office and they included Deputies Brendan Smith and Niamh Smyth (FF), Senators Joe O’Reilly (FG) and Diarmuid Wilson (FF) and Councillors Paddy Smith, Noel Connell, Winston Bennett, Philip Brady and Shane P. O’Reilly.