Thank you Wallace

Omagh postman, Wallace Black, has retired from Royal Mail  after 50 incredible years of dedicated service.

Before Saturday, Wallace was our longest serving postman in Northern Ireland. That title has now been handed down to fellow Omagh postman, Liam O’Keefe.

Omagh delivery office manager, Paul Devlin, said: ‘I will really miss Wallace. His attitude to his work was amazing. He just got on and performed his role to such a high degree, faithfully serving his customers, who will undoubtedly miss him too.

‘Liam is also an amazing colleague, whose work ethic is outstanding. He turned 72 earlier this month. He’s a really fit man with no plans to retire any time soon.’

Wallace attended the Chairman’s Awards of Excellence in London last week, where he was honoured alongside seven other long servers celebrating 50 years in the business.

‘Before leaving school I used to say that I would never be a postman,’ said Wallace. ‘My reason for that was my brother and I used to stay with our grandparents for the few days before Christmas. They used to live at the end of a long lane deep in the countryside.

‘At the time, Paddy Mullan, the postman, used to deliver the mail on a bicycle. He would arrive in the wind, rain, dark and even snow, and although he wore a cape and leggings, he was usually wet and miserable when he came into the house for some light so that he could see his letters.

‘One day at school a notice arrived for school leavers who might be interested in a vacancy for a telegram boy. I wasn’t interested, but my pal was. He asked me to put my name down so that I could accompany him and get out of school for a few hours to sit the exam. To cut a long story short, I passed the exam and he failed. When the job was offered to me I accepted and I’ve been here ever since!

‘My first two years were on telegrams with a bicycle covering a three or four mile radius from Omagh. When I was 18, I learned four town walking duties. A bicycle with a front carrier was used on the second delivery, but that was soon changed to a van. After seven or eight months a vacancy occurred on the Clanabogan, Mountfield and Drumquin routes, which I applied for, and as I was the only applicant, I got the job.

‘My first van at the time was a Morris 1000, which had one driver seat, a basic heater, no carpet, no plastic trim, and a Yale lock on the doors. The doors always locked when they closed so you had to make sure you had the key with you or a window open because otherwise, you’d be locked out.

‘Snow chains were used in heavy snow and were great when conditions were right, but when a few cross sections broke, they came off and usually wrapped around the axle causing plenty of swearing in some God-forsaken part of the country. In those years, we took great pride in completing our delivery in adverse weather conditions and we never gave up until the job was finished - no one ever wanted to admit defeat.

‘I was later to drive Mini, Marina, Escort and Combo vans. In 1981 during the hunger strikes, I was hijacked at Greencastle and my van was burned. I managed to save the mail and subsequently received an award at a function in Belfast.

‘In July 1984 I transferred to Fintona when a vacancy occurred after Billy Wilson retired. I remained in Fintona until March 2015 when we all moved back to Omagh delivery office, where I finished my career.’