Opposition to new Mailboxes, Clonberne, Co. Galway, Ireland 1987

Moves by An Post to cut costs by introducing roadside mailboxes in rural Ireland are meeting with opposition.
For many people living in rural Ireland, the home postal delivery service is being replaced by mailboxes at roadside delivery points.
The controversial boxes, now a growing feature of the rural landscape.
For farmer Martin Higgins in the parish of Clonberne, ten miles from the town of Tuam, County Galway, his new mailbox is just 200 yards from his house. At the other end of the village people are not so lucky and now have to walk half a mile to collect their post.
Those against the new delivery system point to a lack of security and claim that An Post never offered them a choice that they were forced into accepting the mailboxes.
I ask you would Feargal Quinn or his buddies in the board of An Post... would they go to O’Connell Bridge or somewhere like that and go mickey mousing trying to get a few letters out of a box. That’s when you’d have an outcry and you’d have Gaybo and all the boys with him and it’s just not good enough. I’m not having the box any longer. I’m giving it back and they can do what they like with my letters.
Not everyone is opposed to the new mailboxes, one man says it is a small price to pay if the new system saves money for the country.
Dan Joe O’Donovan Chairman of the Irish Farmer’s Association (IFA) Western Committee is critical of the new system and is demanding that the whole experiment is scrapped. IFA Vice President John Donnelly maintains that many older people would not have agreed to the new system had they been presented with the facts.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 18 November 1987. The reporter is Jim Fahy.

[@420Tombstone]

RTE even then trying to blame the residents for not wanting the box, then the typical backtracking by an post 'it was voluntary' sure it was...

[@jbland3509]

Imagine having that technology thrust upon you in the late 80s

[@choctaw6838]

😂😂😂

[@jamesbradshaw3389]

Frightening

[@_Tabasco]

Very good..🤣🤣🤣

[@THEGIZS]

It was her who agreed to it lol pure irish🤣

[@cjryan4097]

She who must be obeyed.

[@michaelkennedy6445]

In eireann fado twas always the wife's fault whenever things went wrong 😕

[@jamesbradshaw3389]

Yes go on, blame the wife on camera but i wet my like you would not go home and blame your wife to her face, she would give you a bang on the ear with the broom and you would not get any dinner for 5 days

[@longday3654]

The way the reporter assumes Everytime that the residents agreed to the boxes 😂😂😂

[@thechosenone3197]

RTÉ and An Post both been state owned companies are going to stick up for one another. No one in their right mind would agree to those boxes. Such an easy target for vandals. Honestly, the cheek of the late Jim Fahy to suggest otherwise.

[@Sparkey]

They wouldn't believe you if you told them the crack in Ireland these days. :(

[@cruachankeith]

craic

[@lindahughes4409]

This was an big thing and fishing rods

[@maxpower1337]

👍

[@RichardDunnisainmdom]

Love your videos, CR, thanks. Been meaning to message to say that for the last few months the sound quality has been quite poor. There's a strange reverb going on that makes some of them quite hard to hear. Bit like listening through a pringles can. I just watched one from 8mo ago that's perfect, it's definitely a more recent development, not sure exactly when it started though. I first noticed it less than 2mo ago.

[@Pyappers]

When you visit Ireland you come to realise that Father Ted was not a comedy about Ireland but a documentary.

[@lmtt123]

IT WASN'T VOLUNTARY AND IT DOESN'T WORK! THE END

[@choctaw6838]

Down with that sort of thing!!

[@tonemc6047]

Careful now !

[@brianm2881]

I didn't agree to it! 'twas herself that agreed!

[@subtlestevey09]

A great bunch of lads

[@jaydaawg.8191]

Some craic if his smoke fell into it and burnt the whole lot😎

[@polodoc234]

These videos are gold. Go raibh míle maith agat

[@seanmaher7733]

He nearly took out the cameraman with the mail box.

[@ciaranclancy3296]

They were the Great times 👏👏👏😁😁

[@thelastdetail1]

Our forefathers didn´t take siege in the GPO for this..........travesty.

[@lindahughes4409]

‘Twas the Wife and the young fellas Fault

[@martinhynes768]

When mail goes missing all you get from A post is the mother of all run arounds

[@jamesbradshaw3389]

I have a serious complaint to make, and it is all those local people who are complaining about having to walk a short distance to collect their mail, don't they know that the walk will do them good also they will get some fresh air into their lungs. It will also get them to come away from watching TV, it will also give them less time to lean over the boundary fence to argue with their neighbors. Those people are spoilt but they do not know this, Some years ago my brother worked in a place called Mtwara which is on the border of Mozambique, A letter would take 3 months or more to arrive and that was if it had not been stolen, a phone call would only happen 2 times a pear, it cost £1 per minute to make that call, Yes those good farming people in this place in Galway are spoilt rotten, they want the postman to deliver their mail, open their letters, read the content of those letters, put the kettle on, make a cut of tea then wash up before he leaves the farmer house, This is not on and I object to their reckless behavior on the most strongest terms

[@mattb1951]

They’re too High and too small

[@joepineapples9332]

Down with that sort of thing!

[@truthplease4868]

‘Tis shocking-- And the young lads from the town could Come out and lift there mail ……. Like 200 yards is outrageous. In Africa they have to walk 10 mile For a drop of water .

[@fromireland8663]

If you are elderly, half a mile is a long walk. So less of your sarcasm.

[@truthplease4868]

@@fromireland8663 Get a scooter

[@lekal6247]

How come all farmes use suit jackets?

[@Hastur876]

This fella is a gentleman farmer.

[@Roscoe.P.Coldchain]

My auntie used to own a guesthouse in ballivaughan , excuse me if I have spelt it wrong 👍

[@seandelap6268]

Fr Ted essential mimics Irish life.

[@daithiocinnsealach1982]

That's the point really

[@shanehughes3511]

Ireland was literally a poor catholic nation ran by old men so yeah father ted was more than satire back then haha. We really were a show haha

[@cjryan4097]

This episode of Last of the Summer Whine is a bit shite.

[@Mftw767]

These boys are right..

[@dirtyunclehubert]

"whats your view on these boxes?" "NO." they dont make these kinda guys anymore

[@legin3753]

So they posted the key back to the box lol

[@haimbenavraham1502]

Put that Jack back, in the box!😊 Only a criminal would implement such a scheme.

[@christianmcdonald9921]

@5:55 a young Robert De Niro 🤣

[@benji.B-side]

2:42 Haha Class.

[@choctaw6838]

Jasus, hed never be a keeper 🤣

[@michaelkennedy6445]

We have a tradition down the country that whenever something goes wrong thattis always the Wfe's Fault.😂

[@jamesbradshaw3389]

Progress they said, the donkey in my field could not stop laughing for weeks, he would remind me every evening and morning as I brought him his breakfast at his nightcap how funny though this was, Then he would say to me as I walked away, them posh city people at UnPost think that I am a smartass, Yes he was a smart donkey, he never smoked and only drank in moderation at the weekends

[@Hastur876]

this is gold

[@jamesbradshaw3389]

@@Hastur876 You are correct if brilliant

[@martinwalsh3228]

Letter boxes in area there was no Post Office.

[@Jungleland33]

If you think this is bad wait until McRedmond is finished with An Post.

[@bernardkavanagh3528]

2:38 Early inspiration for Arthur Matthews and Graham Linahan 🤣

[@daithiocinnsealach1982]

Oh it's terrible 😂

[@danielrowan9669]

The boxes look like the dog shit boxes that's about now 😂

[@zakmartin]

When people still got mail.

[@ruairijoseph]

Meanwhile farmers in South Armagh…

[@tonemc6047]

You wouldn’t want to opening strange boxes by the roadside at that time in South Armagh .

[@moonlightttt156]

Blame the old wife lol

[@johnmccasthy6153]

They were good times do

[@franksmith8364]

At least theres no covid on that box 😂

[@markryan3136]

...and the Earth is flat.

[@maxpower1337]

Kinda ugly mail bucket's imo

[@Tara-ix6cj]

Does it still exist?

[@daithiocinnsealach1982]

I've never seen them

[@MOUNTKENNEDY]

Yes there is still hundreds of boxes still in use you will see them dotted around Rural roads . An post actually had to sell them for a fee because of high demand . The have a modern day version out now called delivery box which is very popular as parcels can fit in , look around they are everywhere

[@rocon86]

My uncle has one of these boxes at the bottom of his lane, his mail still delivered to it. He lost the key for the lock a long time ago, takes the mail out through the top slot no problem.

[@MOUNTKENNEDY]

@@rocon86 cool i wouldn’t think he removes mail from slot as it is very thin. If you lift the lid there is basically another lid which is the part with the slot so the postie can put mail in while it’s locked . Most people don’t bother with any lock at all

[@Discover-Ireland]

Brilliant sure wasn’t life so cool back then.

[@lindahughes4409]

Poor auld harmless goms

[@fromireland8663]

How offensive can you be?

[@shanehughes3511]

Always makes me laugh how backward this country was before the 2000s lol

[@thomasgrice8864]

Yeah like affordable houses, two parent households, etc.

[@MrRaglanroad]

it was heaven compared to the hell hole it has become

[@MB-pe1dw]

Old Ireland will always be a rural Catholic country. I am born and raised in England but my people are Irish and we always went to the old country every summer. We always looked forward to seeing the green fields and mountains of Ireland and the peat fires burning.

[@MrRaglanroad]

@D dR in my 50s now and I have great memories from the 70s and 80s and the 90s I think people were less greedy and more selfless then.

[@MB-pe1dw]

@@72mossy The people in most parts of Ireland still have respect for religion particularly in the north.

[@InglebertHumptyDump]

Yahoo did the same to me