Anger is mounting in a rural suburb of Cork, where outraged locals will meet representatives of An Post later today in an effort to discover the truth behind the closure of their local branch office.
The closure of the rural post office in Whitechurch, which came less than 24 hours after a former postmaster was buried, has caused anger in the community in recent weeks.
"We were told that the post office was closed because Joe Sheehan died, but Joe was an invalid for some years, and there was a different postmaster and postmistresses running the place," said Mr Tim Mulcahy, who is leading the campaign to reopen the office.
"It's one of the most efficient post offices around, having been purpose-built within a filling station and shop and was revamped only 18 months ago."
However, despite reassurances from An Post that the closure was only temporary and full services would resume, locals were shocked when they discovered that the current postmaster, Mr Teddy Roche, had been informed by An Post that it would only reopen if he would work as an agent for it.
This meant that services would return on a limited basis, allowing for the collection of pensions and the children's allowance, but not including registered post, Swiftpost or TV and dog licences.
The community was dealt a further blow late last week, when pensioners received a letter from the Department of Social, Family and Community Affairs, instructing them to collect their pension at a different post office branch.