Surviving the sledgehammer
The Irish Times, in a feature article to mark World Glaucoma Day, told the story of Martin Murphy, SJ, who lives such an active life in Gardiner Street that few people would realise what he has coped with. It is a dramatic story. He spoke of how he first became aware of a problem in his eye when he was working in Tanzania. He was diagnosed with open-angle glaucoma, and surgery was required immediately. Years later, back in Ireland, his eyesight had disimproved enough for him to be placed on the blind register. The psychological blow was tremendous. “It was like a sledgehammer,” he says. And yet, as his account below shows, he has not been beaten by his affliction.
