By Dionne Meehan
LETTERKENNY Post Office’s longest serving staff member Briege McCafferty has clocked out for the last time.
When the well-known Letterkenny woman left school with the intentions of undertaking a secretarial course in what was known at that time as the regional (ATU), little did she think an almost 43 year career lay ahead of her with An Post.
Urged to apply for the job by her mother Mary after spotting an advertisement in the local paper, it wasn’t long until Briege received the job offer that would, in time, carve her life’s path.
Briege’s career with An Post began in January, 1982.
After attending training school in Cavan, she was sent to Naas, Co Kildare, where she worked for two and a half years before transferring to Lifford.
Six months later, she got the chance to return to her home town, Letterkenny, where she has worked ever since.
Down through the years, the mother of four has worked in various different roles.
When she returned to Letterkenny in March, 1985, her duties each day included an hour of sorting and an hour in telegrams before taking to the counter at 9am.
As time went on, Briege had to complete backroom duties.
“I was doing everything from wages to transport,” Briege told the Donegal News.
“I had to look after the vans and get them serviced.”
In 2002, Briege was offered another exciting role when a number of new jobs were created to deal with the processing of TV licences.
Jumping at the opportunity, she remained in this role for the last 22 years of her career.
Down through the years, Briege has witnessed huge changes within the workplace.
From having to do everything manually when she took up the role to now having a helping hand from technology.
“When we were doing the counter, we had to balance every evening,” she said.
“Everything that we paid out, pension dockets for example, had to be all added up.
“We had to do everything in our heads, write it all down into a book and balance it up in the evening.
“Now, it is all done with the press of a button.
“Everything is computerised.”
These changes also applied to Briege’s role in processing TV licences.
“Even in my job with the TV licences, we used to have to write everything down, credit card numbers, key it into a credit card machine, issue the licence and post it out,” she said.
“Now, you just take the credit card by phone, key it into a computer and that is electronically sent to Dublin and they issue the licenses and post them out.”
Briege has also noticed a huge difference in the turn-over of staff compared to when she started working with An Post.
“All the people I worked with down through the years stuck it out for 40 years, that is all changed now,” she said.
“As well as that, when I started in Letterkenny, there was 50 to 60 staff because the sorting office was there as well.
“Postmen, sorters, we all worked together.
“Now, there is nothing but the counter.”
Taking time to recall her favourite thing about the job, Briege said it had to be the staff she worked with down through the years.
“We all worked together for years, socialised together and many a party we had in the tea room,” she joked.
Looking to the future, Briege will now enjoy some well-deserved time off and hopes to travel.
The first destination on her long list is New York.
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