Our smallest branch

Photo: Naoise Culhane.

90 SECOND READ

Our smallest branch is on the island of Inis Mór (permanent population approximately 850)

That’s about 30 miles out from Galway city over the Atlantic in the Aran Islands, an official Gaeltacht. The branch is open on Wednesdays throughout the year and on Wednesdays and Thursdays from June to September, when the population can double as tourists start to arrive on the island. A Bank of Ireland ATM, the only one on the island, is in Powell’s supermarket.

Photo: Naoise Culhane.

An eight-minute commute by air

Colleagues from our Eyre Square branch in Galway take the eight-minute Aer Arann flight over. When the visibility is too bad to fly, they have to take a 45-minute ferry trip instead, sometimes in rough winter seas.

Bank of Ireland staff taking the 8-minute flight from Connemara to Inis Mor. Photo: Naoise Culhane

“Some of the staff do get a bit green on the boat”

‘Some of the staff do get a bit green on the boat,’ admitted one bank assistant who works in the island branch. The branch has many personal and business customers, including the local pubs, guesthouses and supermarkets. It also exchanges currency for the tourists who are drawn to the tiny island in the summer doubling the population.

Photo: Naoise Culhane.

Overnight stays

The weather also sometimes means that our colleagues can’t get back to the mainland by boat or plane after work and they need to find a bed for the night – sometimes at short notice. They have to ask around among the locals in the winter, when most guest accommodation is closed for the season, but the islanders always seem to come up with a place for them to stay for the night.

Photo: Naoise Culhane.

Find out more

Read more community stories like this in our Responsible Business Report 2016.