Local community gets Don’s stamp of approval

With ten grandchildren and another on the way, Don Redden is definitely going to be kept busy in his retirement. A relaxing trip or two to Dún Laoghaire might be on the cards too.

The popular Derry postie, who retired last week after 29 years on his rounds, praised his colleagues as “a great bunch of lads”.

“It was a good job,” Don said, “and I loved it. I have so many good memories, like the night in The Cosh I won a charity ‘Stars in their Eyes’ performing as Tom Jones,” he laughed. 

Originally from the Lone Moor Road, Don’s father was Tony Redden and his mother was Mamie Harkin from the Lecky Road. 

Before he joined the Post Office, Don was a painter, which proved useful when he was given his first round in the newly built Hazelbank, a housing estate he had actually painted. 

“I decided to go into the Post Office because there was a wee bit more job security,” said Don, “because anytime I worked for a company, you were laid off about December and you were brought back about March. It was my brother-in-law Denis, who is married to my sister Rosaline, who suggested it. He was a postman and liked the job. 

Former Mayor of Derry, Pat Ramsey along with retiring postie, Don Redden.

“Actually, it was probably the perfect job for me,” smiled Don. “I delivered papers from when I was eight years old, for Denis Jackson in Bishop Street.

“There is a black and white photograph of me up on the wall of the community centre in The Fountain. I was taken by Willie Carson. I was crossing the road. It was taken from behind but how I know it was me was because I had a wee Spurs bag at the time. I am a Spurs supporter and you can see the emblem of Spurs on the bag. 

“I got that photograph enlarged and I have it in the house. The Jail is still there and I am walking across the road with the barbed wire and all up. It was taken in 1971.

“I always delivered papers. I used to deliver them when we lived in the Lone Moor Road. Wanes were a bit more independent then. We were left at school, The Wee Nuns, the first day we started and on the second day, you went up to school yourself and you were only five. 

“There would have been five of us at school at the one time, so my mother could not have taken the five of us up and left the others,” said Don, who has eight siblings: Marie, Helen, Rosaline, Jimmy, Paul, Gerald, Anna and Toni.

After the Wee Nuns, Don went to the Christian Brothers, where he remembered, like so many other boys of his and earlier generations, “getting slapped all over the place for being a couple of minutes late”. 

“Barney Doherty was a lovely teacher. He was the best teacher I ever had and then there was a Nobby Carr. I had Brother Doyle. I did not like the Brothers. 

“After that I went to St Peter’s which had just opened but because of the gun battles I ended up going to St Brecan’s. The Principal there was Jack Austin and Brendan Flannery was his vice principal. That was a great school,” said Don.

Don, who is 43 years married to Tina (née Semple) and dad to, Joseph, Dawn Marie, Ciaran and David, recalled back in the day being “left out” with one bag of post to deliver. 

“Now you would have 10 bags and it is all packets that is why there are vans. 

“Within a year I was full time so then I went on the road services, down and up to Belfast, driving the lorry. The only drawback was driving in the snow. After that, I signed into a floating duty in the Rural, which meant up around the back roads of Killea, Strathfoyle, Culmore and Drumahoe, I did that for 10 years. Then I decided to sign into a town duty which I did for 14 years. I started in William Street and ended up in the Fountain. 

“My first day in the Fountain, a wee woman asked me if I wanted a cup of tea and, do you know, I got a cup of tea in that house till she died and it was lovely. Betty Holland and her husband Jackie were the couple. I would have done the odd wee message for Betty, if  maybe she needed something out of McLaughlin’s of William Street. We had a great relationship,” said Don.

Don spoke with affection about his late friend, Charlie Kelly, who sadly passed away recently.

“Were two union men. I was Charlie’s sidekick. We had some battles but we always won them. We never lost a battle and that is why Charlie was such a popular fella. We saved plenty of jobs in our day.

“I’ll never forget the time Charlie left a parcel at the backdoor of a house in Nelson Drive and caused a bomb scare. The woman of the house came out and she did not know the parcel was there and she phoned the bomb squad. The whole of Nelson drive was sealed off.

“It was a good job and I loved it,” said Don.