We did the interview in the Concern offices in Camden Street, Dublin, on Monday morning. On Monday evening there was a profile of him on the television news, showing him riding horses. He had given no indication during the interview of aristocratic presumptions.

He is quite obviously very much in command of his brief at Concern and of his new brief as general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. He was fluent and relaxed throughout the interview, except when he came to explaining why he was leaving important work at Concern for obviously much less important work at ICTU.

Then he tightened up and struggled with his answers, clearly unimpressed himself with his explanations. When the interview was finished he offered a reason for leaving Concern, which, initially, he said was off the record and then agreed to allow on the record: he hates travelling and as head of Concern he travelled all over the world on a regular basis.

He was born in 1950 and reared in Rolestown in north Co Dublin, which is four miles west of Swords. He has lived there all his life. He went to school in Swords and then joined the ESB in the late 1960s. He got a scholarship to do engineering in Kevin Street and qualified in 1971.

He worked in the ESB transmission department until 1978 and then for a year in personnel as a job analyst. He became a member of the ESB Officers' Association, in 1979 deputy general secretary of the association and in 1982 general secretary. From 1985 to 1990 he was general secretary of the Postal and Telecommunication Workers' Union.

He joined Concern Worldwide as chief executive four years ago on a five-year contract. In its most recent report he writes passionately about justice for the Third World, especially Africa: "[Africa] is a continent that has withstood centuries of slavery, colonisation, pillage and exploitation, genocide, environmental destruction, disease and famine. And for those who express alarm at the small number of asylum-seekers that reach Ireland's shores, remember that Africa accommodates over 20 million refugees and internally-displaced people."

He married Maire Boland from Sligo in 1971. They have three children aged 28, 25 and 23.