Elves at Post Office working overtime as post bags swell to 7.5m items per day

“The handwriting is so bad — but at this time of the year you have to smile a little wider.” So says postman Denis McCarthy as he wades through the sea of letters and parcels.

It’s all hands to the pump at An Post’s Delivery Services Unit in Ballinacurra outside Midleton, where the madness begins at 6.30am.

The automated sorting machine at Cork’s Little Island central depot often can’t read colourful Christmas card envelopes, meaning more work for staff, who hand-sort the Christmas mail.