*Maura McKiernan. Photograph: Tom Micks
CARRIGAHOLT’s postmistress has said there was no doubt in her mind about returning to work.
Maura McKiernan returned to work as Carrigaholt’s postmistress on Monday morning after the post office reopened following a temporary four month closure.
In January, four men were arrested on the outskirts of Ennis following a high-speed car chase across West Clare. Sergeant Shane Graham who was involved in the car chase to apprehend the men said the four acted “in concert and colluded in order to carry out a cold and calculated robbery” at the post office where Maura was “violently and viciously assaulted with iron bars”. Three of the four men are to go forward on indictment to the circuit court on a single charge each.
Speaking to The Clare Echo on Monday morning, Maura said she was always determined to return to work. “I had to close on a Wednesday and I would have come back on the following Monday if I could but we had to obviously up the security”.
She added, “there was never a doubt in my mind that I wasn’t going to come back”. The post office is now open for five and a half days a week, with full days from Monday to Friday and a half day on Saturday.
As part of the redevelopment, a convenience store has been added to the post office adding a new dimension to the offering in Carrigaholt. “An extra service and more people around so it is a lot safer from every aspect, I’m not on my own,” Maura outlined.
It has been a busy seven months for Maura since taking over from Pat Gavin, whom she worked with for thirteen years. “Pat Gavin had it before, he gave his resignation in August and sadly passed away in October, I took over from Pat in November, it has all been very fast”.
Addressing the crowd of locals on Monday morning, she said, “thanks so much to everyone for all the support. It hasn’t been easy, we’re back and better than ever”. She added, “Thanks to everybody for the support over the last few months, for coming out today and for standing out in the rain”.
A native of Cappa, Kilrush, she told The Clare Echo she has been blown away by the public support which included a GoFundMe campaign that raised over €60,000 to ensure the reopening of the post office. “Even since before I took over, everybody got behind me and hoped that I’d stay on so it has been great, we’re very lucky to live in a community like Loop Head. Even today, the whole school came down and it’s great”.
“It is great, it wouldn’t have happened without the community support, the Community Development Association led by Tony Lynch, Luke Ashton, Mags Keane, Aideen Day and Mark Carmody, without their help we wouldn’t be here at all”.
Services like the post office are very important in rural Clare, she noted. “There’s some people that you would never see and I would never know who they were without the post office because you would never see them anywhere else, especially older people”.
