Editors letter

Hello and Welcome
to the March issue of EM.

We hope you find EM's new layout helpful and easy to navigate. The biggest change is that items will now be presented under the various business lines of the company so that if, for example, you'd like to see something in particular about ESB Power Generation you can go straight to that section. Each business division has its own colour code so the branding should become very familiar to you.

Some regular items have been reduced in size to accommodate new features but we hope this will not affect your enjoyment. We will continue to run the Staff Photography section but on a bimonthly basis. While this is a hugely supported item, we are trying to make room for other items that we hope you will equally enjoy.

In the April issue, we will be including a Readers' Survey which will also be available as an electronic version on the intranet. We would encourage you all to please take a few minutes out of your routine to complete the survey - it's important that you have a say in what is your staff newspaper and without your assistance this will not be possible. All those who return a completed survey to EM will be entered in a draw for a really good prize!

In the new-look EM there is an increased emphasis on Safety and the Environment - two issues that concern us all. We also intend to focus more on Health and Wellbeing - something that is so important to each and every one of us. So sit back and enjoy this issue, see what you think of the changes and give us your comments when you receive the Readers' Survey in the next issue.

Thank you again for your continued support of EM and your positive comments on an ongoing basis. While we might not be able to meet all your requests, we will continue to do our best.

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor,

I would like to express my most sincere thanks to friends and colleagues in ESB for their kind expressions of sympathy in attending the funeral of my wife Peggy and in sending Mass Cards and letters of sympathy, which are still coming in.

Although my dear Peg had multiple sclerosis since childhood she had a long remission from the illness. She worked in the Head Office restaurant during 1944 and 1945.

We were married in June 1946 and Peg was able to come with me during the Rural Electrification between November 1952 and November 1955 to Athlone, Sligo and Dublin No. 2 districts and back to Glendalough and Summerhill (Co. Meath) districts. We brought with us our two young children, aged three and two respectively -moving house at least four times in the process.

We enjoyed 62 years of happy married life and travelled half way around the world under the care and protection of 'Mr. SPORTSCO' himself, Jo Weir.M

For my dear Peg, ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam dilis.

Yours faithfully,

Joe Fortune
Engineer, retired 1981
Terenure, Dublin 6W

Dear Bernie,

I received the January edition of EM from my cousin Tommy O'Brien from ESB Networks Clonmel. I have lost contact with all of the friends I made during my college days including John Kirby. I am semi-retired and living in Watford, Hertfordshire. I would be keen to hear from any of them if this was possible through your newspaper. My email address is mobrien00@googlemail.com. It would be interesting to discover where they are now.

Regards,

Michael O Brien
Formerly of Waterford

Dear Bernie,

As a former employee who left under a voluntary severance scheme in 1990, I have lost contact with many of my former colleagues in ESB. However, it is great to receive EM and all the snippets of information again.

I am looking for contact details of the class of 'new' electrical apprentices that started in Autumn 1963 and qualified in 1968. I would dearly like to contact some of these former greats by email. My email address is sathompson@eircom.net.

Kindest regards and keep up this important service.

Seamus A Thompson
Oldwood, Roscommon.
087 922 6810