80 Years of Providing Vital Services

2011 was a significant milestone in the life of NCBI as we celebrate our 80 year anniversary.

80 years is a long time in any organisations history and the societal improvements and changes in people’s circumstances during this time have been immense. NCBI was founded in March 1931 when poverty and limited educational and employment opportunities went hand-in-hand with vision loss.

Today our mission has a very different focus – to enable people who are blind and vision impaired to overcome the barriers that impede their independence and participation in society. The range of service that NCBI now has on offer are specially tailored to respond to people’s individual needs. Find out more about these services.

NCBI 80th Anniversary Leaflet 1931-2011

NCBI was founded on the 10 March 1931. As a way of marking this event, a new leaflet was produced, outlining the background to the date of our founding.
Download this leaflet.

Nearly half of the people who use our services are over 80

In Ireland today, there are more than 15,500 people who are blind or vision impaired known to NCBI and of this figure, 6,676 people are 80 years and older. In fact, over half (7,867) of NCBI service users are over the age of 76 and 1,807 people fall within the 66 to 75 year age category.

In addition to this, 125 people with congenital vision impairment (that is, from birth) are over the age of 80, some of whom have been using NCBI services for 80 years.

Increase in Sight loss with an Ageing Population

The number of people affected by blindness or vision impairment in Ireland is growing enormously. These projected increases are due to an ageing population in this country.

Find out more at the ageing population and increase in vision loss in Ireland

NCBI Head Office

Find out more about the history of NCBI’s head office on Whitworth Road, Drumcondra, formerly the Drumcondra Hospital and its connection with both James Connolly and James Joyce.

Read a further article in the NCBI News Summer 2010.