However, there is, and was, more to Julia Buckley than meets the eye. She was reared on the edge of the Curragh, and when she left school, she got a job as Post Office clerk in Ballina. She came back to Kilcullen on holidays and applied for a post here. However, there was no vacancy at the time, and it wasn't until almost a year later that she heard of a vacancy for Postmistress in Kilcullen sub-post office. She applied for, and won, the position, and took up her duties on December 13th, 1949. The opening morning as Postmistress the first two men to call with good wishes were Jim Byrne Snr and James Nolan. At that time, there was only a telephone in the office for receiving and despatching telegrams. Two years later, an exchange was installed, and local people were able to have phones of their own. Mrs P Nugent started with Miss Buckley in the early time of her work here.
After another two years, a twenty-four hour service was inaugurated, and it was not uncommon for Miss Buckley to have to get up eight or nine times in the night, to put through calls to and from the local subscribers. The problem was aggravated by the fact that Brannockstown exchange was transferred to Kilcullen after six o'clock! Miss Buckley's voice became well known to every telephone user in Kilcullen during the fifties, and though tempers might sometimes become frayed, both she and her customers held each other in high regard, in the heel of the hunt. Times were more leisurely then, and the local operator played a very important part in the community. An era ended in 1963, when Kilcullen exchange was transferred to Naas, and eventually to the ultra marvellous, perfect (?) automatic, time saving (!) STD system. Miss Buckley could at least get an unbroken night's sleep!
Many people do not realise that a sub-post office is run entirely from the Postmistress's salary. There are no profits to the office from the sale of stamps etc, and rates, rent and all the overheads must be met from the wage packet of the person running the place. This does not apply to a full office, such as are in Naas and Newbridge, etc, so if you think your Postmistress is finicky about the pennies, she has a very good reason to be!
Julia Buckley retired on December 16th, 1975. She intends to carry on living in Kilcullen and enjoy her retirement in the town, and with the people she knows so well. She will live at the pace of life of the time when people were not too busy to have a chat with the operator before a call was put through. What price progress?
(Reprinted from my original article in The Bridge, March 1976.)
