Glenmore Postmistress: Alice Ryan née Cody (1918-2009) [Updated]

A frustration that Danny Dowling (1927-2021) often articulated was that his work was misquoted in newspapers. When we were working on the article regarding the Glenmore post offices in 2019, Danny spoke of how he put together a history of the Glenmore post office for a retirement celebration and two of the newspapers that covered the retirement got the history wrong. He worried that this wrong information published in the newspapers would mislead. This week we are featuring Glenmore Postmistress Alice Ryan née Cody (1918-2009) and the newspapers articles that frustrated Danny.

See our previous article of 24 November 2019 entitled “The Glenmore Post Office Its Rise and Demise” that identifies all four of the Glenmore Post Offices from 1870-2018).

Alice Ryan’s Parents

Alice Ryan née Cody (1918-2009) was the daughter of John Cody (1878-1957) and his wife Alice nee Cody (1874-1957) (Cody Headstone, St. James’ Cemetery, Glenmore). Her parents were married in Glenmore on 18 February 1901. John, the groom, was a labourer and his address was recorded as Glenmore. The bride Alice Coady (sic) was a servant, with an address recorded as Ballyverneen. John the groom, was the son of John Coady (deceased, labourer) and Alice was the daughter of Patrick Coady (deceased, carpenter). The witnesses were Patrick Forristal and Johanna Coady.

According to the Glenmore Parish records Alice Coady née Coady was born on 23 February 1874 at Ballycroney, Glenmore the daughter of Patrick Coady and his wife, Catherine Long. Her husband, John Coady was born on 24 December 1878 at Graiguenakill the son of John Coady (farm labourer) and Catherine Butler.

1901 Census Glenmore

Alice Ryan’s parents, according to the 1901 Census, began their married life living in a 3 room house in Milltown that they rented from Thomas Forrestal. John’s age was recorded as 22 in the 1901 Census while Alice’s age was recorded as 27.

At the time John and Alice Cody were married, John’s widowed mother Catherine Cody (age 45) was living in Glenmore Village (Graiguenakill Townland) with 7 of her children: Maria (age 19); Thomas (age 16); Bridget (age 12); Ellie (age 10); Stasia (age 8); Nicholas (age 4); and Richard (age 3).

Also present in the four room house were six boarders: Laurence Curran, of Co. Carlow (age 30); William Murphy, of Co. Wexford (age 60); John Kiely, of Co. Waterford (age 29); Mike Bearley of Co. Wexford (age 44); Peter Trainor, from Tipperary (age 40) and Richard Burke, from Co. Kilkenny (age 36). All of the boarders were single and worked as navvys (sic) (railway labourers).

Thus, there were 14 people living in this four room house in 1901. The house was in Catherine Cody’s name in the census (no landlord was recorded). Maria Cody (age 19) was working as a farm servant and interestingly Thomas Cody (age 16) was employed as a “post boy.”

1911 Census Glenmore

The 1911 census reveals that John and Alice Cody were residing in Graiguenakill (Glenmore Village) in a three room house with their two children; Pat (age 8) and Kate (age 4). Also present in the home were three of John’s siblings, Nicholas Cody (age 15), Richard Cody (age 13) and Johanna Cody (age 33). Also present is John’s nephew, John Cody (age 4). Thus, in 1911 eight persons were living in the 3 room house that was in John’s name (no landlord was recorded). It is assumed that John’s mother died and he and his family moved to Glenmore Village, however, it is not clear how the house went from 4 rooms in the 1901 census to 3 rooms in 1911.

John and Alice Ryan

According to Danny’s notes Alice Ryan née Cody was born on 30 September 1918. Unfortunately, her birth is just outside the available public records, but it does line up with the information recorded on the Cody headstone. Alice married John Ryan sometime in the mid 1950’s. According to Danny’s notes, John Ryan was born on 7 Sept. 1922 and was employed at Clover Meats. Shortly after John and Alice Ryan were married both of Alice Ryan’s parents died within a few months of each other in 1957. John and Alice Ryan had at least three children Mary Ryan, John Ryan and James Ryan.

Post Mistress

The New Ross Standard (Thursday 3 June 1993, p. 15) published an article in 1993 entitled “Alice was at her Post for Over 40 Years.” Corrections or comments not original to the article are placed in square brackets [ ]. It was noted that Alice spent about twenty of her forty year service in the employment of the Cluskey family, who had been operating the post office from the early days. Alice was the postmistress in her own right and in her own house from 1974. [We know that the second post office was located in Fluskey’s shop. The name Cluskey is obviously a typographical error.]

New Ross Standard

The article provides that Alice received from the people of the parish of Glenmore a beautiful Waterford Crystal table lamp to mark her retirement. It was presented to her by Father Dunphy who thanked her for her service to the community and wished her many years of happy retirement.

“Local historian, Danny Dowling … gave the interesting background to the post office system in Ireland. He referred back to the mid-80’s [this should be the mid 1800’s] when letter writing [by the masses] first began and recalled that no envelope, or stamp was used, but the open letter was conveyed by a courier. He [the courier] was paid by the sender and the charge was in keeping with the length of the letter. The gummed envelope and stamp came into being later, as did the post office, the postmaster/mistress and the postmen. “

“The first post office in Glenmore was run by Robert Fluskey whose son, James, took over in 1929. [The first postmaster in Glenmore was actually a retired RIC Officer named Powell. The first post office was opened around 1870. Robert Fluskey was the second postmaster]. The first postman employed was Edward Kehoe, Aylwardstown, who had to deliver letters on foot throughout the parish of Glenmore. A second postman was later appointed and the deliverymen were supplied with bicycles. Danny Dowling said that the post office had always been the centre of the community and he felt it would be a sad day if the present system was ever terminated.”

Alice thanked the speakers and said that she would treasure the presentation from the community. The evening concluded with song, music and dance. Joan Doyle performed step dancing and the ICA performed set dances. Music was provided by John and Liam Doyle.

The Kilkenny People

The Kilkenny People  (Friday 4 June 1993, p. 11) also covered the event but added a few more details. For example, Alice actually retired in March 1993, her father John Cody was one of two post men and “Mr. Danny Dowling said that the Post offices had a busy time today with old age pensioners, children’s allowances and many other duties. It would be a sad day for the community if this system was abolished, he added.” The Kilkenny People article states that John Cody worked with Jim Power, Robinstown. This newspaper also made some errors. It wrongly stated that “Glenmore’s first post office opened in 1929 and was in the name of Edward Kehoe and his son James.” [Edward “Ned” Kehoe was never the postmaster and did not have any chidren.]

In addition to Alice Ryan and her father John Cody working for the postal service, thanks to the 1901 Census we also know that Alice Ryan’s uncle, Thomas Ryan, while a teenager, worked as a “post boy.”

John Ryan died in November 2003 and was buried in St. Mullins, Co. Carlow. Alice Ryan née Cody died on 14 October 2009 at the age of 91 and is buried in the Cody family grave, St. James’ Glenmore.

The featured photo above is from an old postcard of Glenmore Village. The second post office (Fluskey’s) is the tallest building on the right. The third post office (Ryan’s) was located on the left in the line of attached houses across from the pub. It was the second house from the corner near where the two people in the photo are standing. The post card has a caption “Glenmore, Waterford” which was the mailing address for much of the parish for many years.

Please send corrections, further information or photos to glenmore.history@gmail.com.

UPDATE

5 July 2022: Thanks to two readers we have further information concerning two of Alice’s sisters. In the 1911 Census, Katie Cody was four years of age and was the eldest of the sisters. Catherine “Katie” Cody (c. 1907-1973) married Thomas Walsh (c. 1905-1988) of Parkareid, Kilmacow. Another sister, Mary Ann Cody married Thomas Desmond of Slieverue. For over 40 years Thomas owned and operated Desmond Garage of Slieverue, the first local garage outside of Waterford City. Prior to their marriages both Katie and Mary Ann worked at Power Seeds of O’Connell Street, Waterford. Mary Ann Desmond née Cody’s obituary has been placed on the family pages under Desmond.

Dr. Kathleen Moore Walsh