From the third through twenty-third of December, I had an opportunity to make money for the first time since I came to Ireland. Back in October, I applied for a casual Christmas employment position at An Post. This is an Irish name for the Irish Postal Service, which is also where my husband works as the company solicitor. On the second day of December, I was notified to start on the next day. I felt really lucky to be called in, because there were three thousand applicants who applied for the job. I was happy at the prospect of making some money over the Christmas season to be able to buy presents for my loved ones.
To get to work, I walked to the city centre from Harold’s Cross (a forty-minute walk) and took the Luas train from Jervis Street (a twenty-minute journey). To get home, my husband graciously came to pick me up from work and it would take about fifteen minutes. The work typically started at 3:30 in the afternoon and lasted until about 10:15 at night. There was one 45-minute break in the middle.
The work consisted of either sorting post or sorting parcels. Trucks brought in loads of parcels and letters into the building to be sorted by some two-hundred temporary workers. There were some twenty full-time postal employees who supervised the temporary workers and answered their questions.
Parcel Sorting
Parcels arrived in a blue sac that is tied around at the tip. These sacs were brought in and are piled into a tall mound at one corner of the building. A few men were designated to empty these sacs one at a time into carts. These carts filled with parcels, both small and big, were taken to sorting stations. Each station consisted of a hug rectangle that is divided into many small quares. Each square is labeled with a name of a specific place and has a bag to catch parcels. When the bag for a square is filled up, a worker has to unfasten the bag from the square, tie it with a string and a correct label, and carry it over to the correct section going to a set destination. I had to do this duty. Many of the parcels were destined to go to places I have never even heard of. I had to ask many people, both casual as well as full-time employees, to help me. Towards the end of the work season, I became much more knowledgeable about the names of places in Ireland and asked far fewer questions.
