As published in Rosscarbery Past & Present Volume 8 -- courtesy of the author Ted Coakley -- CJ

This institution was more than a shop -- it was a supermarket long before the term was used or understood, it was a meeting place, a landmark and it benefited all who had the pleasure of doing business there.

It would be difficult to think of a more extensive range of goods in one store: Hadfield`s paint with the fox on the side of the tin, Jeffers' bread from Bandon, glauber salt, lime lemon and acid sweets, Heaslip's ration for farm animals, Ymer seed barley, Aughadown butter, chain saws and lawnmowers, folding pens for farrowing sows, postage stamps and knitting needles.This enterprise provided local employment when such a facility was rare; a horse and cart was used to draw provisions from Ballineen railway station and a delivery service was standard procedure, covering a wide area.

But the crossroads in this townland is long associated with commercial activity, trading and services; it is in the parish of Kilmeen , has a Reenascreena/Rosscarbery address and 5 roads converge there as well as 2 rivers that join nearby. Prior to the Stanley family arriving from Shanaway near Ballineen , a general store was operated by a man called Mason who was related to the Stanleys and before that a shopkeeper named Jones traded there. At that time the cross was called Bradeen's Cross and this referred to an O'Donovan family who operated a public house there but it appears that some pub fights brought about the closure of this premises. It seems that 2 different tailors operated in the place at the one time - Deasy and Crowley. There was a well known forge, originally owned by Noonans and later by O`Sullivans. The place had its own corn mill driven by a stream that still flows from Poulacorn - a waterfall on the river Glashagloragh which flows from a north-westerly direction to join the Argideen from the west at the "meeting of the waters" just below the cross and close to Poulnagapall- a famous "hole" in the river where many fish were caught and perhaps some big ones got away. The mill referred was owned by a man named Brien. Another man , O`Sullivan, had a saddlery there but he also mended shoes; a small school , the walls of which still stand, operated in the adjoining area of Sarue.

A manually-operated water pump stood near Stanley`s shop until the group water scheme was established and there was a dance platform too but it seems that clerical influence gave it a short life- some claim that not one dance was ever held on it!

Despite all the changes, there is a vibrant future for the district of Inchinattin. It is an area of highly productive farmland; a modern housing complex is under construction ; John McCarthy imports and distributes machinery parts all over the world through extensive usage of the internet and David Bushby has a large business growing organic strawberries, courgettes, pumpkins and beans.

But it's fair to say that the humble mail box, still standing at the cross, is the main but perhaps tenuous link to other days.