A chara, - Vincent Browne's interview with the Provost-elect of Trinity College Dublin, Dr John Hegarty, suitably entitled "A man unburdened by pretension", made for interesting reading (The Irish Times, March 17th). It opens with the statement that Dr Hegarty possesses "a persona so different to the Trinity College one" because "there is no pretence, no self-importance, no grandeur, no conceit".
I fully agree that the Provost-elect has such qualities in abundance, but Mr Browne gives the impression that it is precisely these attributes which distinguish him from those who preceded him in the office. This is both unfair and untrue as, I know, the Provost-elect would be the first to point out.
In 22 years in Trinity, I have known to varying degrees Dr Hegarty's three immediate predecessors, the late F.S.L. Lyons, Bill Watts, and Tom Mitchell. Applied to any one of them, words such as pretence, self-importance, grandeur and conceit could not be less appropriate. - Yours, etc.,
Sean Duffy FTCD, Secretary to the Fellows, Trinity College, Dublin 2.