Sir, - Mary Holland's tribute to Mary Cummins (Opinion, November 18th) was so sensitive it made me cry. She referred to Donal Foley's "babes" of the 1960s. I was one of those "babes" but only as a copytaker who was married with a young child, and considered by other employers as being unemployable.
I never got my name in print, but had so much job satisfaction being on christian-name terms with people like Mary (Cummins), Mary (Maher), Phyllis (Knott), Fergus (Pyle), and many, many more. Our "station" in the Newsroom was beside the Women's Page desk, and Maeve (Binchy) was always good for a laugh between calls on our phones.
Mary Holland's article brought back a whole decade of my life, and I trust Mary Cummins died with the same sense of happiness I have of a time in The Irish Times newsroom. - Yours, etc.,
Ann Barnes, Doonsalla Park, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.