Postmaster ‘the nicest man you could meet’

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.

Brightly lit Christmas decorations still shone incongruously yesterday evening outside the John’s Green post office and Cunniffe’s Centra, the businesses run by Mr Cunniffe and his family which were subjected to an armed robbery shortly after midday.

The chase which led to Mr Cunniffe suffering a fatal gun wound took place along streets barely a stone’s throw from the thronged city centre, near a normally-tranquil river walk and just around the corner from Kilkenny’s railway station.