A Northern Ireland-based Post Office believed to be the UK’s longest family-run branch is celebrating 175 years of continuous operation.
Galbally Post Office in County Tyrone opened in 1850 and has been run by the Donnelly family ever since.
This year marks a double milestone for the branch as current postmaster Dessie Donnelly celebrates 40 years at the helm.
Dessie and his late mother Annie - who was postmistress for 50 years - have impressively run the branch for more than half its lifetime.
In 1935, Annie became postmistress and moved Galbally Post Office to its current location at 160 Gortnagola Road, Dungannon. Dessie was born in the home attached to the branch and has always lived there.
The first people to run Galbally Post Office were Dessie’s father’s uncles. The family know Bernard and Peter definitely ran the branch and possibly a third of Dessie’s great uncles. Dessie’s brother, Charles, still lives in the location of the original Galbally Post Office.
“I’m really proud to think that my family appears to hold the UK record for a post office run by one family for the longest length of time. It’s great that the Donnelly family has achieved 175 years serving this Galbally community,” said Dessie.
“Despite the difficult times during The Troubles in Northern Ireland, these have generally been very happy times for my wife, Bernadette, and I, running Galbally Post Office. I love interacting with customers as I really like dealing with people.
“During the Covid pandemic I stayed open to maintain vital post office services including sending mail and banking, as the nearest bank is seven miles away. Times have changed over the years and the number of banks has greatly decreased, so the post office has become the place for many people to do their banking. In this rural farming community many people still want to use cash or cheques rather than online banking.”
To mark Dessie’s long and loyal service to the Post Office, he will be presented with a Post Office 40 Years’ Long Service Award later this year.
Post Office area manager Timmy Grant said: “I want to really thank Dessie for the great service that he’s provided to his rural village and outlying areas for four decades.
”I was blown away to find out that Galbally Post Office has been run by the Donnelly family for its entire time. Dessie is a founder member of the local Torrent Credit Union, formed in 1969 and has served on the board for over 56 years.”
The world’s oldest Post Office is in Sanquhar, Scotland. It first opened in 1712 and has been in continuous operation for 311 years. It has had 17 different operators during that time from many different families.
No comments yet