Jim Dennehy

Jim Dennehy's acceptance speech when he was conferred with a Degree of Doctors of Laws by University College Cork on 13 September, 2018.

I lost my sight in 1968 after being involved in an accident.

I was married to my wife Pat and had two young children called Audrie and Tara. I had my own business, which was running very smoothly and I was playing rugby with the Highfield team and had earlier that year won my second Munster Senior Cup medal. Life was good and the future looked rosy, when the accident occurred and the total loss of sight was immediate and traumatic. This shock was further compounded when I learned that there was no mobility training of any kind, in our country.

I was finally knocked for six, when a senior medical consultant told me, that I would be of great help to my wife in our home. Instead of this demoralizing future role, condemning me to becoming a prisoner in my own house, the statement acted as an enormous incentive to prove this eminent gentleman wrong.

The lack of independent mobility was my greatest need and in June of 1969, I was fortunate to acquire a place at a rehabilitation training centre in Torquay. I was extremely impressed with the magnificent facility and the selection of course's available, not to mention the positive attidude and professionalism of the instructers.

I very quickly regained my mobility and progressed to using the long cane which had just arrived in England from America. I also benefited from other training course's which were to be of huge benefit to me later.

However, I felt outraged and saddened by the unavailability and lack of such a vital facility in Ireland for our own blind community. Before leaving Torquay, I with others visited the Guide Dog training centre at nearby Exeter. Once again I was taken with the fabulous facility and after hearing from a young lady who spoke to us, how the Guide Dog had changed her life, I was so impressed that I signed the application form to train with a dog.

I was called for my Guide Dog training in 1970 and on that very first morning I had my initial walk, I was overwhelmed with excitement, I found it difficult to comprehend, how a dog could be trained to such a high standard.

Before I left the Guide Dog training centre, I pledged that when I returned to Ireland, I would move heaven and earth to have a mobility training centre established in my own country. This was no dream, this was a task and a mission which had to be fulfilled and the quicker the better.

When I came back to Cork, I met with Mrs. Mary Dunlop who at that time was collecting funds in Ireland for the Guide Dogs For The Blind in England and she was of like mind regarding the provision of a training centre in Ireland.

We began by hoping to convince the Department of Health, to fund this vital training facility. Unfortunately, they were most sympathetic at our many meetings, but believed that there was not a sufficient demand and in any case, those few who wished for mobility could travel to England.

Together we both developed a strategy to prove conclusively that there was a huge demand. This was accomplished by holding a number of conference's for those blind and visually impaired who were interested in having our very own training centre. These conference's proved that the demand was exceptional.

The next step was to prove that there would be sufficient support from the public and in 1975, we held a public meeting at the Mansion House and to a packed meeting, the support was practically unanimously in favour of going ahead with the project. The offers of assistance and support came flooding in, from volunteers from all parts of the country.

The decision was easy to make and in 1976 the Irish Guide Dog Association was formed.

We established our first training centre in Dublin in 1977, but after eighteen months, we had to admit failure.

Undeterred and still full of confidence and the will to succeed, we purchased a three and a half acre site with a large farmhouse on the Model Farm Road in Cork. We trained our first two guide dogs.

Our success could have been achieved without the fantastic support from our volunteers and dedicated staff: all have performed heroically through the good and difficult times. I would love to name many of those volunteers, but space does not permit.

Before concluding I must pay a special tribute, to my wife Pat, who has been of enormous help to me and in her own modest way has worked tirelessly for the organization. Without her valuable assistance and my four wonderful Guide Dogs, I would not have co-founded the Irish Guide Dog Association.

Jim Dennehy. Co Founder and President