Sir, - Dr Joe Hennessy (January 7th) is quite correct. I was certainly not the first Catholic appointed to the Guinness No. 1 Staff. And I never claimed to be such. My good Catholic friends Joe Hennessy and Brendan Foreman got there a few years before. They showed one way of breaking through the hierarchical personnel structure. They were pathfinders who deserve and have the thanks and congratulations of those who, like me, came after them.
For the record it should be said that, for some time before Hennessy and Foreman, there were a few (very few!) Catholics on the Guinness No 1 Staff. But, unlike Hennessy and Foreman, they had come in from the outside, e.g. via a competitive exam plus interview or with appropriate qualifications for specified jobs. Incidentally, the whole matter of personnel structures within the Guinness organisation at that time is one of the many aspects of the company dealt with in my book Guinness Times, due for publication later this year. Happy New Year, Joe and Brendan! - Yours, etc.,
Al Byrne, Sandyford, Co Dublin.