In Rush, residents campaign to keep Postman Dave

Postman Dave has picked up a nickname while working in Rush, Joseph Harkins said as he walked the village’s winding Harbour Road on Thursday afternoon. “The Pope.”

It’s an odd one for a postman, he said, laughing. “It’s because everybody waves to him, right? And so, I imagine, Dave has a reflex now. Whenever he hears a beep, he just raises his hand.”

Harkins turned onto Tayleur’s Point, a residential street with views of the sea at both ends.

The sky was clear and about 200 metres up the road, a green An Post van was parked outside one of the semi-detached homes.

That’s Dave, Harkins said, as the uniformed figure in a baseball cap walked out of the driveway.

He waved to Harkins as he climbed back into his van, driving off as an Amazon delivery van went by in the other direction.

Dave’s just really good at his job, Harkins says “He always looks after us.”

Harkins pauses for a moment. “And it’s the thing where you can feel that somebody genuinely cares about you,” he says.

It’s been 10 years that Dave has been doing this route, making deliveries to about 800 people, he says.

Many locals are upset that he’ll be changing route soon, with a new postal delivery person taking up his mantle in the coming weeks.

In one last bid to keep Postman Dave – real name David Kelly – in Rush, one local launched a petition asking An Post that they don’t relocate him.

The petition, started in December, has so far collected 787 signatures.

It is time to return the favour for all the years of his help, Harkins says. “I feel a responsibility, because, in a way, I’ve been looked after so well for a long time that that means something.”

Above and beyond the call of duty

It’s very simple, in a way, says Belinda Keegan. “He’s such a lovely man, such a genuine man. He takes the time to chat to you.”

Keegan moved to Rush seven years ago, and almost from the get-go, she was delighted by Postman Dave’s attentiveness, she says. “He knew my name. I didn’t even think he knew my name, and I’m just going ‘Oh my god.’”

She recalled a story from during the Covid lockdowns in 2020. An elderly woman’s husband had gotten sick, she says.

Dave would do odd jobs for them whenever he could, she says. “Get the prescriptions, get their messages.”

There were so many stories like that, Suzanne Devine says. “He would check in if a lot of the older folks were good for prescriptions.”

Essential groceries too, says Harkins. “On his own back. On his own time.”

He’s considerate too with how he handles each individual, Harkins says. “I live with my mother who has some health issues, and if he sees my car is gone, he knows my mam is going to answer and he gives her a good amount of time to get to the door.”

That doesn’t sound like a big deal, he says. “But it’s not special to me. He knows that about everybody.”

It was devastating when, in early December, word got out that Dave was leaving his route in Rush, Keegan says. “It broke my heart. You know, it’s like back in the day when you knew your postman, your milkman. It’s just that.”

According to the petition, he is to be moved onto a different route by An Post and is due to be replaced by somebody else who has been employed by the postal service for longer.

A spokesperson for An Post confirmed that it is currently redesigning delivery routes across the country. “The changes are all about speed and efficiency and are being introduced in agreement with staff and their representative union.”

That includes the allocation of newly drawn postal routes based on staff seniority, or length of service, they said. “As a result, there is much change everywhere for thousands of people.”

The spokesperson didn’t address the petition, saying they do not comment on individual workers or routes.

But, they said that the redesign was being implemented to take account of more parcel deliveries, growth in online shopping, and a steady decline in letters.

He’s still at the door

Keeping Postman Dave is very much an expression of the wish of local customers, Harkins says. “We are trying the best we can to prevent this from happening.”

But Kelly himself has no involvement in the campaign, Harkins says.

While Suzanne Devine was speaking over the phone, Kelly just so happened to be chatting with her husband at the front door.

“He’s still at the door,” she said. “Will I go out to him?”

There was a long pause down the phone line.

“Dave, c’mere a sec,” she said. “There’s a reporter. He’s found out your story.”

The sound of a distant, partially distorted male voice replied.

He wasn’t going to say anything, she said. “Absolutely not.”

The temporary postman

Out on his walk through Rush on Thursday afternoon, Harkins stopped in the park by Rush harbour to grab a flat white coffee from a recently opened kiosk.

He pulled a white letter from his pocket, the size of a postcard. On its front, in the place of an address, he had put a sticker, which said “Save Postman Dave”.

Over the last few days, Harkins had delivered a couple of hundred of these to people living on Dave’s postal route, he says. “I kinda turned into a temporary postman a little bit.”

In all, Harkins estimates that Dave covered a total of 800 homes, and Harkins intends to hand-deliver these letters to every single address.

Bringing the campaign to people’s letter boxes was necessary because a lot of residents in the area are quite elderly, he says. “They are not on Facebook, and a petition is excellent, but a community coming together is a powerful thing.”

As he has steadily carried out the deliveries, the first 200 or so over the past couple of days, there are a lot of minute details involved in doing a route that he has come to appreciate, he says.

“Like, we have estates, but so many named houses where you would have to know over time lots of those little hidden quirks,” he says.

None of this is to criticise a new postal delivery person, he says. “This is just an exceptional circumstance that requires an extraordinary response.”