Closure of post office leaves Cork Gaeltacht village without shop 

The retirement of Bernie Murphy after 29 years as postmistress in Cill na Martra  sees the doors close at the only general shop in the village

Bernie Murphy, who retired as postmistress from Cill Na Martra Post office after 29 years’ service with staff Gearoid Creed, Finbarr Kelly, Nora Buckley, Paddy O’Callaghan, Pat Cronin, and Helen Lynch. Picture: Eddie O’Hare

The closure of a post office in rural Cork has brought to an end a family dynasty stretching back four generations and 136 years.

The retirement of Bernie Murphy after 29 years as postmistress in Cill na Martra, near Macroom, sees the doors close for the last time at the only general shop in the Gaeltacht village.

It also marks the end of a remarkable family lineage which began when Bernie’s great grandfather Conchubhar (Con) O’Riordan of Drom a’ Gharraí was appointed sub-postmaster in 1886 upon the establishment of the first sub-post office in the village, listed in Guy’s Postal Directory of Munster that year as ‘Ballyvoge’ post office.

When his daughter Mary O’Riordan married Micheál Ó Murchú of Cúil Aodha in July 1902 it began an association between the Ó Murchú or Murphy family and Cill na Martra post office which endured for 120 years, almost to the day, until ill health forced Bernie’s decision to retire.

In the intervening years, the post office and shop passed in 1949 to Micheál’s son Peter, an uncle of Bernie, and on his retirement in 1984 Bernie’s mother Agnes took over as postmistress.

Micheál (Mike) Murphy, the second postmaster to be appointed in Cill na Martra, with his wife Mary, their daughter Mary, and son Peter outside the post office.

Bernie took on the running of the post office in June 1993 following the death of her mother, who had kept a record of the chronology of its stewardship in a book which had lain undiscovered until preparations were being made for closure.

“My mother had it written down in a little book she had here. We only found it ourselves the other evening,” said Bernie.

“The same family has been here since the very beginning and I’m the fifth one in the family to run it,” said Bernie, whose father also ran the village garage.

My uncle Peter and my father Michael were postmen as well for the area.

Various other family members helped out in the post office and shop over the years, including Bernie’s aunt Mary Murphy, who returned after living in America and until her final years was a familiar sight, adding up customers’ purchases with pencil and paper. 

Two further uncles, Jack and William, also worked as postmen before emigrating.

Bernie, who grew up in a house behind the post office, where a senior citizens’ housing development now stands, said both the post office building and the functions it serves have altered radically over the years.

“The telephone exchange was still here in the post office when I took it over,” added Bernie, who recalls connecting callers from the premises, which also housed the village’s first public telephone.

Finbarr Kelly, regional operations officer An Post, makes a presentation to Bernie Murphy on her retirement as postmistress in Cill Na Martra. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

“I did it myself and my mother did it before me, and my uncle, when you’d ring the operator to make a phone call. I remember the number here in the post office was Cill na Martra 601,” she said.

Though the main postal business remained largely the same over the decades, computerisation in 2010 was “a huge change — before that everything was pen and paper”.

While the shop still acted as a grocery, selling sweets, newspapers including the Irish Examiner, and a full range of supplies, the number of customers had “dropped hugely”, she said.

“As the years went on and the older generation died off, the younger people didn’t come in as much or as often.

“There were five shops in the village of Cill na Martra and this was the last.” 

There would be a few of the older people that would still come in but no one actually relies any more on small shops like this.

“If they’re around or if they forget to buy something, they drop in and buy it here, but I see Tesco delivery vans around here practically every second day so people are ringing in their orders and getting things delivered now.”

Life without the post office and shop in the heart of the village will require some adjustment for Bernie and for local residents, who turned out in force for a presentation made to her by An Post and a surprise community function to mark her retirement.

Bernie Murphy with staff and villagers at a surprise community function to mark her retirement. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

“It’s a bit weird really when you’re used to doing something every day for so long and it stops — it will be a bit strange for a while,” said Bernie.

“The people who worked here with me — Nora Burke and Helen Lynch, who helped me out when I got sick — organised people to come and there was a crowd of people outside the door, which I knew absolutely nothing about, but it was very good of them all to come.”