The last post: popular Inver postman Christy Jordan retires

After 35 years, popular Inver postman Christy Jordan hung up his mailbag for the last time on Friday.

Since taking over from Sean Ward in the late 1980s, Christy has delivered the post in his home parish.

At St Naul’s National School on Friday, he delivered his last ever letter to the school secretary, Mary Lynch.

“I felt a bit emotional leaving all the gang behind me,” Christy, who will turn 66 in June, told Donegal Live.

“I really enjoyed the job and it didn’t really feel like work at all, getting out and meeting people every day.”

He followed in the footsteps of his father, Jack, in pursuing a career as a postman.

The job itself might be along similar lines, but it has a much different feel in the modern era.

“A lot of young people aren’t at home now - you don’t see very many of them - and they’re firing out a note to say where to leave their stuff,” he said.

“The older people, some of them would be depending on the postman to come. I would have had houses where I could have called in any time for a cup of tea and a chat.

“You have a lot of delivery companies now, whereas when I started you only had the postman. There have been a lot of changes like that.”

Time was when Christmas cards would’ve had the van full. Birthday cards, Valentine’s day cards and other such occasions are rarely marked by posting cards now.

“Even letters are almost gone,” Christy said “Parcels are the big thing for postmen now.”

At its height, the job had Christy covering 65km a day, but the mileage lessened in recent times.

“We were 15 years there based in Donegal Town after we moved in from Inver postoffice,” he added. “We were used to being out in the country and were sort of our own boss. But in Donegal Town, John Lafferty is brilliant; you couldn’t ask for a better man to be in charge.

“I’ll miss all of the people that I worked with as well as all the people I delivered to.”

Among those he visited was Maggie Maguire of Keelogs, who turned 105 last week.

The 4.30am starts might be a thing of the past now for Christy, who’ll continue working some shifts at the Milltown Bar.

“I’ll not do much for a month or so anyway. I’ll miss being the postman and it was emotional to see that so many people felt the same in the last couple of weeks.”