Heart of our town has been torn out by a move decided hundreds of miles away

An Post has relocated our post office here in Listowel from Upper William Street to a big Supervalu supermarket complex. Supervalu is thriving as it is. The store is well run and the staff are very friendly but the heart has now been torn out of our town.

I had better declare an interest right now. I own a small pub, no more than a long stagger from the post office, but the loss for me will be very small. John B's trades mostly by night when the post office is closed.

Listowel is a heritage town, a town with a soul. We box well above our weight with hugely successful writing and racing festivals. We care for our town, with brightly painted shopfronts and a hard-working Tidy Towns Committee.

There's a sense too that we are only guardians of the buildings we live and work in. We owe a duty to those who came before us to keep our town from dying out. An Post deals in figures, not context. The words 'people or community or loyalty' do not appear on its balance sheet.

There will be some who will disagree with the history, but it could be said Irish freedom began in a post office. Isn't it ironic then that the attempted relocation of the Irish town centre is being planned and executed from the same post office. A few weeks ago, it was announced that An Post has plans to establish an interpretative centre in the GPO, where men died for Irish freedom in 1916. I suppose we should be grateful An Post saved the building from fast food and amusement arcades. But does An Post care about the communities from which it profits? Is there any semblance of duty other than that of harvesting money, like some sort of absentee landlord?

Dungarvan, Skibbereen, Carrick-on-Shannon, Athy and Loughrea are next up for the An Post small-town makeover. Our sources tell us the future of at least five other towns will be decided in the GPO. The post office will remain as is in some towns, but many more will suffer the fate of Listowel.

The attitude of those who occupy GPO 2014 is that we're a commercial company and we can do whatever we like with "our" post offices. I would say post offices are more than mere items on a balance sheet. The post office is an integral part of small-town life.

For the record, here's the proclamation from the GPO: "An Post is a commercial entity and we have to ensure we remain competitive by ensuring the post office is in the area where we can gain the maximum footfall. The Listowel post office will be run by local people and there will be no loss of services, in the best quality premises, with adequate parking."

There's a large free car park within two minutes walk of the existing post office and lovely, local people work there as it is. As for footfall, the Listowel post office does a mighty trade.

It's all about the profit and loss account but even then, like so many of our institutions, An Post has that side of the equation all wrong. Bald figures on their own do not tell the whole story. Towns need lively streets and people love chatting on their way to and from the Post Office. A town should not be transported at the decision of a few executives in some office far away.

The heart pumps the blood. Tear the heart out and the town will die.

An Post was so sneaky and arrogant. There was no consultation with the community. The dealings of An Post only came to light when Donal Nolan of the 'Kerryman' broke the story this week. Most of the post office staff in the greater North Kerry area only found out about the relocation when they read the 'Kerryman'.

And you will not believe this. For a company so faithful to the god of profit, An Post did not put the relocation out to tender.

It should have gone public on this months ago and allowed us to make proposals as a community or as individuals to keep our post office. Why all the secrecy?

We know these plans were made a long time ago. The town was the last to know. An Post will say it is a commercial entity with no duty to disclose business decisions.

So who are all these people who live and trade near the post office?

Sheahan's is the last pub and grocery combo in our town. The shop is run by Conor O'Docherty and it's famous for the lovely, freshly cut, crumbed ham. Sheahan's is just two doors away from the post office. Conor will fight on.

"It's a huge blow but they will not close us down." So proud of you, Conor boy.

Right next to the post office, is the charity shop run by the excellent Irish Wheelchair Assocaiton. The future of the shop is now very much at risk.

Next door are the Lawlees, who run a thriving plant business. They're fierce busy with Christmas trees right now.

The Lawlees, like their hardy plants, would survive in the North Pole but the big supermarket sells plants too.

Back down again to the other side and you have the Saddle Bar. Sean and his wife, Dara, worked all hours in the United States and like my own parents bought a pub with their savings. Like the Lawlees, they too have a young family.

I was in a shop lately and this old lady was in front of me in the queue.

"How did you get on at your eightieth last night?" asked the shopkeeper of the lady.

"Wonderful, wonderful," replied the octogenarian. "I was in the Saddle all night."

Such are the lives, the loves and the laughter of a small town. What does An Post know of our town? Does it know all of these people - or footfall as they call us. From bad comes good. Our town has rallied together as one. The shock and the hurt will unite us and we will survive.

We've been through recession, repression, war and famine. Old Listowel will still be here, living and loving and trading and battling, when all of us and all of you in An Post are long gone.