One of two post offices in the region believed to be under threat has finally closed.
Blacklion Post Office in County Cavan, just across the border from Belcoo in County Fermanagh, is now shut and its equipment removed.
However, An Post is saying the closure is temporary, although it’s not known if, or when, a contract will be given for the running of a new post office in the town.
The situation in Blacklion was somewhat different to Ballygawley, in Co Sligo, where the future of the post office there also seems uncertain.
In Blacklion, the post mistress, Dympna Stewart, is retiring but had remained on. In Ballygawley, a question surrounds the post office since the post master there passed away but whose family still run the business.
John Paul Feely, a Fianna Fail member of Cavan County Council, says what has happened in Blacklion is bad news not only for the local area but for rural Ireland in general:
