Two Killarney residents were among a small group of Ukrainians invited to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky during his official visit to Ireland this week.

NEWKD community worker Natalia Krasnekova and former St Brendan’s College student and current UCC student Stepan Krykun attended the meeting, which was organised by the Embassy of Ukraine and brought together around 40 Ukrainians from across the country.

President Zelensky and the First Lady chose an open conversation format, with attendees asking questions and raising issues about life in Ireland and the ongoing war. Natalia said it was “an inspiring and warm meeting” that gave Ukrainians who left home due to the war a sense of connection and support.

Stepan asked the President what Irish young people should know about Ukraine.

President Zelensky said Irish people already understood Ukraine’s resilience and compared the country’s struggle to Ireland’s own fight for independence.

Natalia also briefly spoke with First Lady Olena Zelenska about the rollout of Ukrainian book collections into Irish libraries.

Shelves have already been introduced in Tralee and Dingle through NEWKD’s Ukrainian team.

The Embassy also invited Robert Carey of NEWKD and Michael Hall of MTU to attend President Zelensky’s address to the Dail.

MARIE MEETS

After more than three decades of dedicated service, Mary O’Shea has hung up her counter keys at Killarney Post Office, retiring last Friday, a decision that surprised even herself

. “I’m off one Monday every month,” she laughed, “so on Monday morning I decided I needed to wake up without an alarm clock on Tuesday to see if it had really sunk in!”

Although the offer of retirement came suddenly, Mary said the timing “just felt right.” Ever thoughtful of her colleagues, she first wondered how her leaving might affect the office. “But then I came around to thinking about my own family life,” she added. “I knew I’d miss it, but I also knew I was ready.”

A native of Kenmare, Mary first stepped behind a post office counter as a schoolgirl, working summers in the town’s post office before taking up maternity-leave cover in the sub-office run by John and Eileen O’Sullivan.

She married her husband Connie in 1992, and the couple set up home in Pinewood. The daily 45-minute drive to Kenmare soon made a post in Killarney an attractive option. In 1994, Mary made the move and never looked back.

Over the years she rose through the ranks, first as Acting Branch Manager alongside Seanie McCarthy (RIP) under Pat O’Donoghue, and later as Deputy Manager under Liam Hartnett and Sean Byrne.

“No Calculators and Christmas Turkeys”

Mary has seen extraordinary changes across her 31 years with An Post. “When I began, there were no calculators,” she recalled. “Christmas parcels weren’t online shopping deliveries, they were turkeys, bracks and cakes sent abroad,”
The Killarney office even had a full-time postcard stamp clerk, and rookies knew they weren’t fully initiated until they’d accidentally stamped themselves with the giant black date stamp. “It’s all done in Portlaoise now,” she said, “And I’m sure not even one percent of those postcards are sent anymore.”
She remembers the days of selling licences for bulls and black-and-white TVs, district court stamps, and doing all calculations in your head or with the old Ready Reckoner. Then came computers, and with them a new era of banking, bill payments and gift cards, though the timeless savings certificates and bonds remained a constant.

As Killarney Post Office moved from specialist counters to ‘all-service counters’.”
Mary and her late colleague Mary Bailey travelled to Mallow for six weeks’ training, a memory she recalls with great fondness.
In 2000, her husband Connie joined the An Post family as a postman. “Once they got one O’Shea, they must have thought they may as well take the set,” she said.
Mary is deeply grateful for An Post’s flexibility over the years. “The term time meant I could raise our son Ian, family time I’ll never get back.”

Since the retirement of Maurice Switzer in 2016, Killarney Post Office became an all-female team and earned a playful nickname from Manager Pat O’Donoghue: “Paddy’s Angels.” Mary looks back on those years with huge affection.

The pandemic brought some of the toughest days of Mary’s career. “It was one of the most unprecedented and unwelcome changes,” she said. “We really missed our elderly customers collecting their pensions. The relief when restrictions lifted, to see them and talk to them again, was enormous.”
That interaction, she said, has always been one of the greatest joys of the job.

Mary expects retirement to begin with a few simple pleasures. “I’ll miss all the girls at the counter, but I’ll enjoy daytime walks in the park with Margaret O’Connor, who’s retired nearly three years now. And who knows — maybe Anne Clifford might join us on her days off.”
As for a grand plan? “There is no plan — and that’s the plan,” she smiled. She looks forward to family time, crafting, and especially this Christmas, when her son Ian and his girlfriend Dayna return after two years travelling. In a lovely twist, Ian will be returning to take up his role with An Post just as Mary steps away. “We’re keeping the tradition going,” she joked. “One O’Shea clocks in as the other clocks out!”

A fond farewell
Warm tributes have poured in from staff, customers and friends — a testament to how deeply Mary has been woven into daily life at Killarney Post Office. Though she won’t say it herself, her presence will be missed far beyond the counter.