President Mary McAleese, patron of NCBI, marked the organisation’s 75th anniversary this week and met with service users from around the country.
The President congratulated NCBI on reaching this milestone and spoke of the support the organisation has provided and received over the years.
“We owe a great deal of thanks to the hundreds of people who supported NCBI over the last 75 years and to NCBI itself for providing a caring service to those who have needed it. What happens in a life when there is a diagnosis of blindness? Take a child for example – imagine the feeling of sheer loneliness and helplessness. For many hundreds of families, NCBI had been a place of support, a friend to turn to,” remarked President McAleese.
The President unveiled a plaque featuring NCBI’s founder Alice Stanley Armitage, and the chairpersons who have been involved with the organisation since 193, before meeting with around 100 service users from around the country.
President McAleese also spoke of the importance of mainstreaming disability issues into everyday life and decision-making. “We make assumptions that people can see, hear or read and this means that people with disabilities have to fight to make people remember them. What we need is for disability to be included in the mainstream so that people with disabilities are not always tugging at the sleeves of others to make themselves heard.”
Finally, the President urged NCBI to continue the work that was started 75 years ago. “This has been a fantastic year of celebration for NCBI and you can now face into the next 75 years with a really strong sense of confidence. There is still a lot of work to be done and it needs passion and commitment. Thank you for 75 good years and we hope you have the energy for the next 75. Thanks for making Ireland a place we all want to live and a place where everyone counts.”
NCBI was established in 1931 to promote the physical, economic and social independence of people living with sight loss and today provides a range of services to more than 10,500 people experiencing difficulty with their eyesight in Ireland.