It is the end of an era for Dromkeen post office in rural Co Limerick.
It has been run by the same family for over half a century but closed its doors today.
It is one of almost 160 rural post offices earmarked for closure by An Post as it consolidates its services across the country.
Postmistress Mary McKenna is the second generation of her family to be postmistress there.
She took over the running of the post office from her own mother, also Mary, who had run it since 1968.
Mary said she is deeply saddened to be closing the doors of the post office, located in a thatch cottage dating back to the 1800s.
She said she had great loyalty from her customers and the post office was much more than the services it provided. It was also a focal point for the community who met and chatted there regularly.
Locals gathered there today to say goodbye. There was plenty of tea, sandwiches and cake and chat as they marked the final day of business.
Mary's brother Paki Redfern said he believed it was the only thatched cottage post office in Ireland if not in Europe.
He said he regularly checked on local neighbours to see if they were alright if they did not show up for a few days at the post office.
Neighbour Mike Ryan who grew up down the road and is a customer all his life said local people are devastated to be losing their post office, run by the same family, after more than half a century.
He said there was a queue of people outside on busy pension and payments days.
Damian O'Dwyer said it was a very sad day for the village as it had a postal service dating back to the 1800s with the Bianconi coaches passing through en route to Co Tipperary.
It was also such an important part of the social fabric of the neighbourhood providing services far beyond those of the post office itself.
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An Post said 159 post offices across Ireland have been earmarked for closure as part of a consolidation of its services, and the locations of those were identified last August.
It is expanding more into financial services such as small loans, insurance services, phone sales and mortgages.
It has pledged that no one in rural Ireland will be further than 15km from a post office.
However many postmasters and postmistresses felt they could not carry out these new contracts and decided, like Mary McKenna, to get out of the business.
99 of those identified have already closed.
All 159 will be shut by the end of this month, marking the end of an era in many rural communities across the country.
