The North’s longest serving postman Raymond Black, who has clocked up nearly 50 years in the job. MC 5
He may be the North’s longest-serving postman, but Raymond Black’s beloved memories of his 48 years of service – and counting – remain crystal clear.
The Fintona man currently works in the Omagh Sorting Office – the same place where he started his lengthy career back in 1968 – and he has no intention of retiring just yet.
However the 64-year-old admits that his career might have been very different had it not been for the lure of getting an afternoon off school nearly half a century ago.
“I never intended to be a postman at the start,” Raymond explained. “Instead I had my sights set on going into a local printers for an apprenticeship as a type setter.
“But it was a pal at school who mentioned there was a vacancy for a telegram boy going in Omagh, and he asked me, ‘Would you come there with me?
I don’t want to go myself’. It was a Wednesday afternoon and it got us out of class, so I said, ‘Right’.
“We did the exam, but he failed and I passed it. I went for the interview, and I thought, ‘This doesn’t sound bad, and the wages aren’t bad.’
“Then I passed the medical, and started work soon after. I intended to do it for a couple of years to see what I thought of it… And that was 48 years ago,” he smiled.
Raymond Black and Liam O’Keefe help work colleague Chris Arundell load up for the Christmas rush at the Omagh Sorting Office. MC 2
It was July 1968 when Raymond began his first day of service at the Omagh Post Office. The wide-eyed 15-year-old had just completed his education at Omagh High School and despite being only 5ft 2 in height, he was determined to make a big impression.
“I remember delivering telegrams around Omagh and the surrounding areas on a bicycle,” he recalled. “I did that for two years. It was some feat.
“You could have had anything between a dozen and 30 telegrams a day. There weren’t very many telephones in those days, so sometimes you had to deliver bad news.
“There were also greetings and congratulations telegrams, and money orders. But all that is in the past now.”
He continued, “There was a carrier on the front of our bikes which we stacked the parcels on. It would have been very top-heavy, so if I hopped off my seat, the back wheel rose off the ground.
“There were no postcodes, road numbers or road names back then. It was difficult and made things awkward – especially when you had a lot of people called the same name.
“You just had to memorise who lived in what house. In that first year, I grew ten inches and had to get re-measured for a uniform. My colleagues, in ther 40s and 50s, were mostly ex-Army service men.”
Eventually swapping his bicycle for a trusty but basic Morris Minor van in the 1970s, Raymond recalled having to deliver an avalanche of last-minute Christmas cards on ice-cold winter mornings.
The oldest working postman in Northern Ireland, Liam O’Keefe at 70 years of age, gets a helping hand from the longest serving postman in the North, Raymond Black who has spent 48.5 years in the job. Both men are based at the Omagh Sorting Office. MC 3
“My van’s heater was non-existent – there was just an on-off switch and a single speed. You either put it towards the windscreen or to your feet. The interior was made of metal, so whatever temperature it was outside, it was the same inside.
“Back then, people didn’t start posting their cards until mid-December. They wanted all their cards arriving as near to Christmas as possible which meant we were very busy… and very cold.”
In 1984, Raymond moved up to the small Fintona delivery office full-time. He would continue to work there until it closed down last year.
Aside from building a wealth of friendships along the way, the father-of-three says that he favourite part of the job is delivering mail on a nice day in the countryside.
“I remember one occasion climbing up a mountain in Mountfield – it was very cold, foggy and grey. But once I got half way up, I came out of the fog and it was lovely.
“There were clear blue skies and the sun was shining. I was above what looked like a great sea of cloud, and the mountains were like islands. Even the dew drops were sparkling.”
Raymond concluded, “It is certainly a privilege being the North’s longest-serving postman because Royal Mail is an excellent company.
“And sharing in people’s happiness and sorrow is also a meaningful part of the job.
“I’m taking it a year at a time, but I intend to keep going for a good while yet.”