The regular use of the words ‘litir’ and ‘post’ in 15th century Irish manuscripts suggests that by that time a postal system was already in existence in Ireland. The English postal system was completely reformed by a man named Witherings in 1638 and he was then invited to do the same in Ireland. By the 1650s, mail was being carried by post boys who walked 16 to 18 miles a day between towns. It is believed the Galway Post Office was set up in 1653 when the Cromwellians were still here. In those early years, the local postmaster was expected to provide the premises, so every time a new postmaster was appointed, it meant a new main Post Office.
Most official Post Office archives were destroyed in the GPO during the 1916 Rising so early postal records are scarce. In 1663, the posts increased from once a week to twice a week on the three post roads from Dublin, the Cork Road, the Ulster Road and the Connaught Road but it could be dangerous driving the mail van. Some years ago, in this column, we reproduced a poster from 1837 offering a reward of five guineas for the recovery of mail bags lost on Christmas Eve between Galway and Tuam. For much of the nineteenth century, the mail coaches needed to be accompanied by two armed guards to discourage robberies.
In April, 1921, the Carraroe mail car was held up just past the crossroads at the top of Taylor's Hill at 4.30am by a masked man in a fawn coat carrying a revolver, who forced the driver to leave the car as he searched the mails. After half an hour he called the driver back and told him to proceed, but all of the old-age pension money (some £300 ) was missing. So the driver, an employee of Mr Patrick Irwin, went back to Galway and reported the theft to the RIC. In 1923, two masked men, one armed with a rifle, the other with a revolver, stopped the Galway to Tuam mail car at Cregboy and removed 10 mail bags which included registered letters containing large sums of money for the banks. That year also, for the first time, a covered in mail van, the property of Mr P Irwin, carried the mails to Spiddal and further west. In 1925, it was the turn of the Galway–Shrule van to be robbed, it was held up at Feeney’s Bridge about four miles from Galway. Two armed and masked men stole three bags of mail. One man kept the driver covered while the other ransacked the bags, taking anything he considered of value.
On at least two occasions in the 1970s, the GPO in Eglinton Street had to be evacuated because of bomb scares and in 1978, thieves got away with £30,000 after breaking into the one-storey post office on Fr Griffin Road. They broke in through the mineral felt roof and used the same tool on the safe on the Wednesday night of the Races.
The postal and telegram systems were the main forms of communication until 1892, when a Mr Dudgeon of the Dublin Telephone Company applied to the council to erect telephone poles for the proposed new phone system. The exchange was at the corner of Daly’s Place and Francis Street, where Emerson & Conway is today. The phones were slow to catch on with the public. The Post Office took over the phone company in 1912.
As the city grew, so the Post Office network also grew. They opened a sub-office in Salthill in 1852, and one on Dominick Street in 1853. The Taylor’s Hill branch opened in 1905 and later transferred to Fr Griffin Avenue in 1974; Newcastle office opened in 1938, Renmore in 1970 and Mervue in 1975. At one point, more than 500 people worked in the GPO in Eglinton Street.
In 1925, the committee of the Galway Postal Reunion, which was held in the Town Hall, had a novel way of providing music for the event, they installed four loudspeakers in the hall to pick up the music from the radio, discoursed by the famous Havant Orpheans and Selma IV Orchestra in the Savoy Hotel, so that the dancers in Galway could keep time to the music simultaneously with those in the Savoy Hotel 500 miles away.
Today, we have two staff photographs for you, the first is of the organising committee for the Postmen’s Annual Dinner in the Warwick Hotel, c1968. In front are George Guest, Eamonn Diviney, Tom Kelly and Edward Griffin. Standing are Pat Compton, John Flannery, Paul Galvin, Joe Killeen and Eamonn Kennedy. The second is of the committee of the Indoor Branch of the Post Office Workers' Union annual dinner in the Southern Hotel in 1969. Seated are Mary McManus, Mairéad Tierney, Peadar Joyce (postmaster ), Philomena Burke, Maurice Cosgrove, Maurice Power. Standing are Mary Kelly, Seán Walsh, Mary Canavan, Stephen Conneely, Nicholas Lyons, Henry Wall, Mary Gilmore, Imelda Qualter, John O’Reilly, Walter McDonagh, Helen Clancy and Patrick McDonagh.
The retired members of the former Department of Posts and Telegraphs, An Post, Telecom Éireann and Eir at Eglinton Street are holding a reunion tomorrow evening, May 19, at the Menlo Park Hotel, a perfect event for the retirees to look back on their time working in the GPO, hopefully with great affection. If you are interested, you can contact any committee member or Nicholas Lyons at 086 320 1550.
