To voice a personal opinion for once, I think Hoffnung's rendering of the story is much much funnier than the cod-Irish song version. I have a ten-inch Decca LP called 'Hoffnung At The Oxford Union' (LF 1330 for those who like to know these things) and on the cover it says 'recorded in co-operation with the BBC on December 4th 1958' and 'featuring the famous Bricklayer's Story "Respected Sir"', which seems to indicate that the story was already well-known by then. Hoffnung attributes the story to a letter from a bricklayer in Golders Green to his employer and published in 'a recent number of the Bulletin Of The Federation Of Civil Engineering Contractors' but this may be an example of the spurious detail which humourists love to use to lend authenticity to unlikely stories.
I wonder if this is the same LP that Harvey Andrews has?