Talk:Paudie Sheehy

Clarity on Reference no. 1 w.r.t Context

Can you please check reference number 1, if it has any link with the context to which it is being referred? Cast1234 (talk) 18:40, 15 March 2022 (UTC)

This link applies more to para. #2 - "Early Life" - on Sheehy's family. It had an error or two in the citing link, now corrected. Tamjk (talk) 13:53, 7 August 2023 (UTC)

Paudie Sheehy - Business Career

A Wikipedia editor, Gulio Lopez, seems to interpret editorship very defensively.

Example:

He accepts - with citations provided - that (1) Sheehy had unusual interest and investment (i.e. sent to USA top business schools and industrial visits) in his career by his MD; (2) that his elevation to the job of secretary to Irish Sugar & Erin Foods allowed him board meeting observation; and that (3) many secretaries of Irish state companies later attained the top job (MD/CEO) later.

Yet he regards my assertion that Sheehy's appointment of secretary was a way of preparing him for the MD role as "improper synthesis" . . .

Surely it is simply putting into words what business-savvy readers would already be thinking after absorbing facts 1 - 3.

It is my intention to expand on the existing Death & Legacy paragraph w.r.t. what might have been had Sheehy lived, specifically how his business career would have evolved post O'Reilly's appointment as Heinz-Erin MD. It is known that some of the more socially-oriented executives of Erin Foods like economist Brendan Halligan left in 1967 after the Heinz tie-up. Sheehy's death in 1967 allowed O'Reilly to move Vincent Ferguson from financial controller into the secretary position and shortly afterwards into a Joint-MD role until O'Reilly left to join Heinz. Ferguson's subsequent career as AIIB investment banker and corporate finance adviser to O'Reilly's Fitzwilton, Independent Newspapers and Atlantic Resources showed him to have more concern for self-enrichment and art-collecting than socially beneficial enterprise. One couldn't envision Paudie Sheehy being comfortable in such a person's vision for the Erin Foods company.

The late '60s and early '70s were a period of serious advances in the Irish dairy sector. Golden Vale and Kerry Co-Operative creameries were building businesses that would become global corporation in 20 years. It is possible that with his Kerry and agricultural connections that Sheehy may have become a finance, commercial or strategic director for The Kerry Group. This would perforce be a high stress job and many healthy men found working for Kerry Co-Op under the relentlessly expanding Denis Brosnan to be just too intense.

It is possible that Sheehy might have moved into corporate finance in the 1980s when expert analysis of the many companies seeking expansion finance from institutions was sorely lacking.

But it is also possible that he might have become a finance adviser to the GAA as it commenced major projects in the 1990s like rebuilding Croke Park and other venues.

I would be interested in the views of others here on how Sheehy's post Erin career might have gone.

Tamjk. Tamjk (talk) 13:21, 7 August 2023 (UTC)

Hi. In terms of your "intention to expand on the existing Death & Legacy paragraph w.r.t. what might have been had Sheehy lived [..] It is possible that Sheehy might have moved into corporate finance in the 1980s [..] it is also possible that he might have become a finance adviser". Please re-read the WP:VER and WP:ATTRIBUTEPOV guidelines I've already pointed-out. Please do not add unsupported and speculative "alternative history" to the project. Guliolopez (talk) 21:37, 7 August 2023 (UTC)

The text above is addressed to people interested in Sheehy's career. I'm not proposing a What if ... broadcast on Paudie Sheehy. It's already clear to me that he likely died of a congenital heart ailment of the sort that claimed his late mother in her early 40s. But equally, with Ireland and particularly Co Kerry suffering a dearth of professional executive talent during that period, anyone reading this chap's life story could not but wonder about how such executive skills would be brought to bear in the 1970s Irish industry. Just a note of wonder in the piece, that's all - a most welcome and down-to-earth change from all the mythical tales of sporting heroism.

Tamjk. Tamjk (talk) 22:13, 7 August 2023 (UTC)

Hi. Unless clear and verifiable as to who did any wondering, please don't add an uncited and unattributed "note of wonder" to the article. Guliolopez (talk) 02:02, 11 August 2023 (UTC)