Three Bank of Ireland branches in Tipperary are set for closure later this year

Photo from Google Maps

In all 103 Bank of Ireland branches on the island of Ireland are to close by September.

Templemore, Cashel and Cahir are among the 88 in the Republic with a further 15 in Northern Ireland.

Bank of Ireland staff have been briefed on this morning’s announcement.

The bank says it’s joining forces with An Post to offer banking services at over 900 locations.

Templemore based County Councillor Eddie Moran says it’s a huge blow for the mid-Tipp town.

“Templemore is a great farming town and a great shopping town. The bit of business we had in it – this is not going to help it now by a long shot.”

“We have the Garda College and some great factories there as well which employ local people.”

“This is a big, big blow for the people of Templemore – we’ve no bank in the town at all now.”

The Cahir branch had closed for a period last year during the pandemic but had since reopened with restricted hours from 10am to 1pm.

Local Councillor Andy Moloney says these hours simply weren’t suitable for a lot of people and cited the Post Office hours as a better way to do business.

“The Post Offices are open there until 5.30 every evening and they’re open on Saturday so they’re accessible.”

“Anybody wanting to do a financial transaction with Bank of Ireland – they were antisocial hours and it didn’t suit the working man. People were finding that they had to get time off work to go.”

“Even at the moment you have people queueing out on the street to go into the Post Office in Cahir so now we will have Bank of Ireland customers going down now as well to queue. So they’re going to have to make alterations indoors due to the increased volume.”

The Cashel Bank of Ireland branch is also among those facing closure – local activist Tom Wood is hoping that the iconic building on the towns Main Street can be put to good use.

“Extremely disappointed but not surprised at all.”

“The concern now is that that building and the area adjacent to it cannot be just boarded up and locked up. There has to be a plan put in place and hopefully it might be incorporated into something else in the town centre itself if Bank of Ireland don’t have to lease it to An Post.”