Sir, – In your obituary for Prof John Byrne ("The father of computing in Ireland", April 22nd), you rightly referred to his generosity in giving of his time "to assist the growth of computing education and research in the other universities".
I recall that in the late 1980s, when University College Galway, now NUI Galway, was in the process of introducing computer science to the university, John Byrne was very supportive in developing our ideas. At the time, the university was in receipt of a very generous gift from Digital Equipment Corporation, to help establish a formal academic programme in computing. John Byrne gave freely of his time and advice as we created what ultimately grew into a very fine discipline of information technology in the university. – Yours, etc,
Dr JAMES J BROWNE,
President,
NUI Galway.