ICONIC post office buildings across West Cork have been put up for sale by An Post but they insist services will not be affected in towns.
An Post this week confirmed four post offices in West Cork are for sale – as predicted by The Southern Star last March – three of which are listed heritage buildings, part of a portfolio of 14 post offices for sale nationwide. The entire sale is expected to fetch €3m.
How the Star broke the story last March.
Among the post office buildings for sale are Skibbereen, Bantry, Macroom, and Kinsale, as well as a separate development site adjacent to Bantry Post Office on William Street.
Auctioneers Cushman & Wakefield are the selling agent, with Skibbereen Post Office on Market Street selling for €270,000; Macroom Post Office selling for €350,000, Kinsale Post Office on Pearse Street, dating to the 1880s, selling for €350,000, and Bantry Post Office selling for €250,000, with the separate commercial land in Bantry on the market for €100,000.
A condition of the sale will involve the post office staying in place, a spokesperson for An Post said.
‘An Post’s responsible divestment protocol has been followed and each post office remains in situ as part of the sale,’ the spokesperson said.
‘A key feature of the sale is that the properties will be sold with the post office remaining in place. This adds the benefit of an income from the ground floor post offices which are operated by local postmasters.
Skibbereen Post Office is in the background of Michael Collins’ 1922 speech.
‘This sale will ensure continuity of trade in these locations, while at the same time providing a significant development opportunity in each town. In the bulk of properties offered for sale the post office occupied a relatively small portion of the overall site with the local mail delivery office having long moved to new purpose-built or purpose-fitted premises elsewhere.’
Bantry Post Office on William Street Town Lots dates to around 1880 and is heritage-listed. Delivery and sorting services in Bantry previously moved to a delivery service unit at Bantry Business Park, but Bantry postmaster Gerard Harrington told The Southern Star that he will continue to operate counter services on William Street after any sale.
‘I have no plans to move and it will be business as usual,’ said Gerard.
‘The post office is a community hub. We are busy here and we have a lot of new business customers too since the Bank of Ireland closed in Bantry.’
One post office which is moving premises is Skibbereen.
Postmaster David Jennings, who took over from Adrian Healy in the autumn, said plans are in place to move services to a premises in the Drinagh building on nearby Market Street.
‘We’ll be moving sometime early next year, around February or March, but we want to reassure customers we aren’t moving far from the existing building,’ David said.
‘It will be business as usual here until then.’
David is the third generation of his family to work in the An Post building in Skibbereen, which dates back to 1904.
‘My grandmother worked as a cleaner here, and then my mother worked in the post office,’ he said.
