*Locals queue up in the new convenience store in Carrigaholt. Photograph: Tom Micks
BY TURNING a traumatic event into a positive situation, Carrigaholt have not only retained their post office but have now restored a shop to serve the local community.
There was an end of an era at the beginning of October 2024 with the closure of Keane’s grocery shop which had been run by the same family for 194 years and still functions as a pub.
Up until Monday morning, Carrigaholt had been without a shop, a revamped post office now includes a convenience store giving locals the opportunity to purchase staples like milk and bread in their own community.
Publican Mark Carmody was part of the five-person committee that launched a GoFundMe campaign which raised over €60,000 enabling the reopening of the post office and the addition of the store.
Donations were received across the globe as part of their efforts. “We got together as a committee, we realised that the future of the post office was in great danger, initially our focus was to try and save the post offices, it grew and the concept of a shop adjoining was a new idea so the next step was to go to the community and try raise funds, it really blew us away when the GoFundMe was launched and it surpassed our wildest expectations with people from England, Australia, America, the diaspora were very generous along with people from Ireland and the local community who gave us lots of money, it helped us get going and then with the committee formed local volunteers helped us to clean it out, we approached local tradespeople and they got involved and came up with a plan, all the tradespeople were really good to try get it over the line”.
Local support ensured Carrigaholt turned a bad situation into a positive to help the community, he said. “What happened was so unfortunate and so hard on Maura our postmistress first and foremost, our community were saddened and shocked by it, something positive was born out of a very sad and tragic situation, it just shows with community spirit and people were moved to get involved and helped”.
Mark is one of four generations to have run Carmody’s Bar since the 1800s in Carrigaholt. “we’ve been here for a long time,” he remarked. Reopening the post office has provided a huge lift for the entire Loop Head Peninsula, he said. Carrigaholt is a tourism spot in the Loop Head Peninsula with loads of potential, really and truly we didn’t have a shop for the last year, we had one up to last year but we see it as a vital piece of infrastructure and it has given a real positive air to the village, we feel with community involvement and the right attitude that anything is possible”.
