The times we lived in

Post office girls published March 24th, 1987 photo by Paddy Whelan irishtimes.com/archive

AH, THE UNIFORMS of yesteryear. Just 12 months ago, there was great rejoicing in the land as An Post staff members took delivery of their new urban-chic outfits.

Now a familiar presence on the country’s highways and byways, the studiously unstructured beanies and baseball caps, shorts and gilets have been declared to be more practical and hard-wearing than the uniforms they replaced – not to mention better supplied with pockets in which to carry the mobile phones, keys and “postbox scanning equipment” without which no self-respecting 21st-century postman or woman could effectively operate.

Our photo, however, reveals that in the spring of 1987, a previous generation of postal workers was also stepping into the future in distinctly sprightly fashion, showing off its cutting-edge costume with obvious delight. And why not?

The 1987 An Post uniform was designed by Paul Costelloe, who went on to design landmark work-gear for – among others – British Airways, Sainsbury’s supermarkets and Formula One team The Orange Arrows.

It was, at the time, greeted as a huge improvement on the highly masculine pullovers and old-style trousers that had preceded it – though, looking back, the peaked caps, striped ties and tailored lines are almost quaintly natty and retain a distinctly military feel.

It’s surely no accident that the photograph features four particularly smart-looking female postal operatives. Perhaps An Post was emphasising Costelloe’s female-friendly silhouette in order to attract more women into the job. Two decades on, however, postwomen are still sufficiently unusual in certain parts of Ireland for the Mayo News to feature the county’s first of the species, Cathy Scanlon, on its front page in September 2011.

We don’t have names for the four postwomen in our photo.

Respect, though. Never mind the marauding dogs, intransigent letterboxes and incorrect addresses which can make the most determined postman or woman weep: it can’t have been easy for them to carry out that cheesy pose – part hokey-cokey, part step-it-out-Mary, part eerie Riverdance preview – and still keep smiling.