A Chinese national who shot and murdered a Kilkenny Post master just two days after he took over running the post office from his father who died of cancer has been given a life sentence.

A man who is on trial for the murder of a Kilkenny postmaster, who he shot following a raid that netted him about €15,000, told postal clerks "thanks" as he left, a court has heard.

THE pre-Christmas excitement surrounding Kilkenny on one of the year’s busiest shopping days was shattered in cruel and brutal fashion with the killing of local postmaster Alan Cunniffe, a single man in his 30s, seconds after an armed robbery yesterday afternoon.