Former Manchester United, Chelsea and Northern Ireland defender Mal Donaghy has been helping visually impaired people from Derry hone their footballing skills at Templemore Sports Complex.
The footballing classes run on Saturday afternoons and are organised by the RNIB in conjunction with the IFA (Irish Football Association).
Mal said: “The sessions at Templemore are open to anyone with a visual impairment who has an interest in pla
ying football.
“It’s a two-hour session. The first hour is for the under-15s and the second hour is for the over 15s. We have had one or two ladies come along too who thoroughly enjoyed themselves.”
Future sessions at Templemore will be organised by Kevin Doherty, IFA grass-roots development officer in the city, and have a structured programme.
Mal said: “It’s a great way for visually impaired people to make new friends, get active and improve their fitness. The sessions involve dribbling, passing, shooting and game practice.
“For blind people, we organise sessions in Cookstown every month which incorporate the use of an audible ball.”
Barry Macaulay, of the RNIB, said: “We have a partnership with the IFA and began holding sessions for partially-sighted adults and children in Lisburn. It was so successful we started to ask around if there were visually impaired people in the North West who would be interested.
We started in late September and hold sessions every Saturday. We held a few taster sessions earlier in the year and realised there was enough interest to start up a club in Derry.”
RNIB provide volunteers for the sesisons and the IFA provide coaches who have been trained to work with the partially-sighted.
For more information, contact the RNIB’s Foyle branch on (028)71 320167.
