Postmistress closes for last time
Friends and family, neighbours and customers gathered in the church hall on the main road in Carrigans on Tuesday to wish good luck to Bernie Moore, just months after crowds packed the same hall in an unsuccessful campaign to keep her as the village postmistress.
An Post terminated Bernie's contract on Tuesday, ending months of pressure that began in February 2009, when three armed men raided the post office.
Bernie's 30 years' service to An Post ended quietly, as she locked up for the last time. When she finished her day's work, surrounded by family and friends, she walked up to the church hall, where people gathered for a reception in her honour. Friends and supporters had come into the post office throughout the day and people were standing outside along the main road when An Post staff came at lunchtime to clear the branch of equipment and cash.
An An Post spokesperson said they plan to have a post office in Carrigans open and running "as soon as possible", perhaps as soon as next Monday.
"We had 30 great years," one local man said to Bernie as she entered the church hall for the reception. "We did," Bernie said.
But even as supporters said they recognised Bernie would no longer be the Carrigans postmistress, they said that there were still questions to be answered.
Bernie, 49, represented by O'Gorman and Cunningham solicitors and barrister Peter Nolan, had appealed an An Post decision to terminate her contract at a hearing held in Letterkenny earlier this year. She received notification of her termination in May. There was no reason for the termination given in the letter, but a spokesperson for An Post said the issue involved "ongoing security issues in the post office in Carrigans."
Bernie had been under pressure since the February 2009 raid, when three armed and masked men held the terrified woman at gunpoint at about 11 o'clock in the morning. It is believed that more than 100,000 euro was taken in the raid.
Speaking to the 'Democrat' earlier this summer Bernie said, "When you have three armed and masked men coming into you and they are after the safe, there is no security in the world that can help you."
The former postmistress was grateful for the support she received from Labour councillor Frank McBrearty Jr., Fine Gael councillor John Ryan, Fine Gael TD Joe McHugh, and the members of the public who rallied around her.
"I'd just like to thank everybody," she said on Tuesday. "Everybody did equally as good for me."
She said the last day of work was "hard and emotional. It's just been draining."
As people kept coming into the hall, Bernie greeted them by name. There were hugs and kisses, good wishes and commiseration.
Heather Peoples of Carrigans said, "Everything is so final now. It's really hard."
Bernie said that even after all these months, the finality of Tuesday came as a shock. "I haven't had time to sit down and think about it," she said. Bernie's husband, Norman, lost his job recently. The couple has three daughters: Emma, 17, Norma, 16, and Shauna, 14, all students at Deele College in Raphoe.
Mary Crossan, co-ordinator of the St. Johnston and Carrigans Family Resource Centre, was also a member of the local delegation that met with An Post earlier this year on the matter. Local support for Mrs. Moore has never diminished, she said, adding, "But that bus wasn't for turning. It's very sad."
She called the reception "a celebration of what Bernie has meant to this area," saying that Bernie's leaving "will leave a huge gap.
"People aren't angry at this stage. They feel really let down," Mary said. She said the local delegation had requested a meeting with the CEO of An Post, but that meeting never took place. The delegation also sent a letter to Minister for Justice, Dermot Ahern, TD, requesting a progress report on the Garda investigation into the post office robbery, but received no response.
"While An Post may have finalised what they've done here, I think the people of Carrigans still have a lot of questions," Mary said. Earlier this year Donegal County Council passed a motion brought forward by Cllr. McBrearty calling for a public enquiry into the Garda investigation into the robbery.
Cllr. John Ryan, speaking outside the church hall, said he knew Bernie and her family for 30 years, calling her "a person of impeccable character."
"She has given all of her life to the post office in Carrigans and I feel she deserved better," he said. The councillor said Bernie "was in no way responsible for what happened on that fateful day, and if that wasn't bad enough she had her career taken away from her." He said that a priority now will be to see that Bernie receives her full entitlements.
Cllr. McBrearty said that it was terrible that Bernie lost her job, calling her "somebody of a very high calibre and very highly throught of in the community.
"An Post should be ashamed of themselves for what they've done to an innocent family," the councillor said, adding, “It's far from over as far as I'm concerned.”
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Monday 21 May 2012
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