Richard Moore – blind man with a vision

LIVE REPORT – CHILDREN IN CROSSFIRE DIRECTOR, THE MAN WHO BROUGHT THE DALAI LAMA TO IRELAND
Richard Moore from Children In Crossfire introduced the 14th Dalai Lama in Dublin this morning.
Richard set up the NGO some years after losing his eyesight as a child to a British bullet in Derry in the 1970s.
Richard  said the Dalai Lama always teases him about how beautiful his wife is.
Richard and the Dalai Lama have become solid friends, with the Dalai Lama publicly naming him a “hero” and asking people to imagine what it would be like aged ten to find you’ll never see your mother’s face again.
“I don’t cope with being blind, I (now) enjoy being blind,” said Richard.
Today’s event is being held to inspire people to realise they have a duty to seek change.
He gave one simple but glowing example from his own life:
“A woman called Teresa Matterson from Co. Down read about what happened me  in the newspaper and wrote letters to my mother for many years after.”
“My mother has never met her, but she kept all the letters and last year I met her for the first time.”
“Well, there’s one simple action by a woman in a small town in Northern Ireland  that she took when she was moved (by the story and how his mother must feel). She wrote to her every week. She’ll never know how much that meant to my mother.”
Richard then told in a humorous way of how his mother’s religiosity weighed him down literally:
“My mother was very religious. She used to pin holy medals to my vest as a child. When I walked I rattled.
“She used to rub holy water, Knock water and St. Anne’s oil in my eyes and someone said I was lucky I didn’t drown.”
Being serious, he added:
“My mother’s prayers were that I’d get my eyesight back. Well I didn’t but I got a hell of a lot more out of life. You can take away someone’s eyesight but you can’t take away their vision and mine is Chrildren in Crossfire.”
– Report by Allen Meagher