A blind woodturner has said told how his passion for the craft has helped him get through the pandemic. Robert Dowdall, from Dublin, believed to be Ireland's only blind woodturner, lost his sight following a car crash at the age of 18 in 1989.
A couple of years later, he began to learn how to turn wood, as a "personal challenge". He was initially skeptical about beginning lessons until he realised he could "work by feel".
He added that he also approached it as a way of "proving people wrong" and ever since it has become Mr Dowdall's passion. When Mr Dowdall’s work as an acupuncturist slowed down due to Covid-19, he found himself spending more time in his workshop and it became a place for him to switch off and forget his worries.