TRUSADH: NA LÀITHEAN MU DHEIREADH – “IT’S ALL OVER NOW”
Monday 25 May, 9pm, BBC ALBA
In 2007 the Government announced that 2,500 Post Offices across the UK were to close - a large number of these are in rural areas, and a high percentage per head of population in the Western Isles. Many communities in the Highlands and Islands were affected.
A moving programme in the Trusadh documentary series titled ‘Na Làithean Mu Dheireadh – ‘It’s All Over Now’, produced by Mactv for BBC ALBA, provides an intimate portrayal of four rural Post Offices in the Highlands and Islands, as poignant moments are captured.
For many villages and small communities the closures were tinged with sadness. This brings to an end a service at the hub of the community, a place where people met, a place where much more could be done than simply sending a letter, local Post Offices were a place very close to people's hearts.
For Christina MacAskill in Knock, Point, the closing of her Post Office was the end of a family tradition, while for Wilma Macdonald in Borve, Isle of Lewis it meant the prospect of having to find new employment.
Elsewhere in the Highlands, Mary Finlayson, who ran two Post Offices in the Black Isle for a number of years, has a 20 mile round trip to cycle to open her Post Office in Jemimaville for two days a week, while Hamish Fraser, based in Breakish, Isle of Skye, spent over 25 years running the local Post Office until it was closed in April 2007.
Trusadh: ‘Na Làithean Mu Dheireadh – ‘It’s All Over Now’, will be broadcast on BBC ALBA on Monday 25 May at 21:00 and is available on Sky channel 168 & Freesat channel 110.