Leixlip musician describes how he overcame sight loss at 16 years old
A young Leixlip man behind a breakthrough handbook for musicians explains how he has overcome being blind.
Robert Creed is behind an innovative handbook for blind musicians assisting the new generation to read music despite vision loss.
The First Class Honours student at University College Cork is leading the way in new ways for blind musicians to learn their craft.
He devised the idea of developing the handbook for UCC after being inspired by the way that he was taught music at St. Joseph’s School for the Blind & Visually Impaired in Dublin.
Robert particularly attributes the work carried out by his teacher Maeve Smith during his time at St Joseph’s, for giving him the ability and confidence to make the handbook a reality.
This method of learning music, while similar to braille, is specific to music.
Robert Creed was born at 25 weeks gestation and for the majority of his childhood was robbed of vision in his right eye.
However, he had full sight in his left eye until the age of 16, but lost it suddenly.
Speaking to KildareNow, Robert, recalls the impact of losing all vision, one week before his Junior Certificate.
He said: “I walked up the stairs of the house, turned on the TV, and I could not see anything. It was a massive change for me.”
For about a year afterwards, Robert managed to get by through recalling what the images had looked like, while he could see them.
He said: “If I went on to the street, I would still have a picture of the street in my head. For about a year I went around almost thinking that I had not lost my sight.”
The full realisation hit him when Barack Obama had become President, he was unable to see the television.
Following the realisation, he began to attend counselling provided by the National Council for the Blind.
Music has helped Robert cope with his sight loss. He described how a song that he heard by Jason Grey gave him the motivation to keep going and work at his music.
He said “I have lost my vision and that is a terrible thing, but I have created a handbook for blind musicians.”
The future is bright for this young man who plays a host of musical instruments including the button accordion.
He has also written a poem about the experience of being a blind musician. Additionally inspired by the commemoration for the George Boole bicentenary, he also composed a piece in his honour at a recent UCC ceremony.
Robert said: “My faith in music has helped me to transcend sight loss.”