NCBI boss launches book of poetry

THE boss of the national sight loss agency has published his first book of poetry.

Des Kenny, chief executive of the National Council for the Blind, Ireland (NCBI) in Drumcondra, launched

‘My Sense of Blind and Other Collected Poems’ at the Irish Writers’ Centre.

Retired broadcaster Micheal O’Muircheartaigh and Mr Kenny read a number of poems from the 40-poem collection.

Mr Kenny spent his early years during the mid-1950s, in Newbridge, until a childhood accident was the cause of him losing his eyesight, leading to total blindness at the age of nine.

Many of the poems in this first collection of verse bring to life for the reader the poet’s interpretation of the wrench of pain in separating from his family, and having to leave his home for a residential school for the blind in Dublin.

“Newbridge was my only world of sight,” Mr Kenny told Northside People.

“I keep the precious memories of my early years there alive with different re-calls of memories which I have worked into my writing.

“The pain in some of the poems may read to the reader as being

‘raw’. But they are not sores which didn’t heal over the years as I went on to success in my work and happiness in marriage with my family of three daughters and three sons.

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Mr Kenny will retire next summer from his prestigious job where he has been at the helm for 27 years. His second collection of verse is promised for early 2014.

Copies of

‘My Sense of Blind and Other Collected Poems’ can be purchased from amazon.com or downloaded as a Kindle version from their Kindle store.