THE TINY mainland sub post office at Roonagh Pier, near Louisburgh, Co Mayo, closed at the weekend, having provided a lifeline for Clare islanders for 130 years.
Over the decades, four generations of the seafaring island family the O’Gradys have in storms and swells, hail and sleet, sunshine and fog, transported love letters and epistles, notes and cards, parcels and packages to and from the windswept little post office.
Coincidentally, three generations of the Scott family, stretching back to 1879, have administered the office, which was once also a telephone exchange and used to dispatch geese and turkeys by post.
“Today is a strange day at Roonagh. I feel sad the post office is closing. You know, the Scotts were like an extension of our family,” said septuagenarian Chris O’Grady, as he disembarked from his sons’ ferry, the Clew Bay Queen.
For over 60 years retired island hotelier and ferry company owner Mr O’Grady has collected and delivered the post at the remote post office.
“When I look back now, I don’t know how I survived landing in this spot,” said Chris, flinging the postbag over his shoulder.
Just like his grandfather, Austin, and father, Michael, before him, Chris has often risked life and limb landing at the volatile little harbour, renowned for its raging swells.
“I started off with Dad when I was 12, just after the second World War. It was all sailing then in [27-foot long] Achill yawls, and we used to come in here to the old pier.
“Back then there was no breakwater or shelter,” Chris O’Grady said.
The proposed computerisation of the country’s network of post offices expedited 85-year-old Margaret Scott’s retirement last weekend.
The mother of eight took over as postmistress after her husband Dick retired in 1969.
The late Dick Scott’s grandfather, James, was the first postmaster in Roonagh.
“The post office first came here in 1879 and it closed and opened a few times until the 1890s. There used to be a lot of mailing done in the old days. People even brought geese and turkeys to be mailed.
“We had a telephone exchange here too. So all the phone calls from Clare Island would come through here,” recalls Margaret,
For Clare Island postmaster, Pádraig O’Malley, last Friday was also a poignant day, as he likened the little post office to a mainland beacon for the entire community.
“Scotts was always much more than a post office for us. It was everything, a hub for our community,” Mr O’Malley said.