Bill Harvey: Emerald

The Irish community in Birmingham is integral to the great charm of the city’s people, a people as resilient to bombs as to town planning. Growing up there in the 1970s, it was with my Irish and Asian friends I shared most and whom I most still see today.

Shortly after becoming clinical editor of Optician, I remember jumping at the opportunity to go (again) to Ireland. The plan was to travel to Waterford and interview ophthalmologist Stephen Beatty and a young Dr John Nolan, then fresh from acquiring his PhD and already a major player looking at nutrition and eye health.