Mark Pollock - Early Life and Background

Early Life and Background

Pollock was born to Barbara and Johnny in Holywood, County Down. He had been having problems with both retinas since he was a child. When he was five years old, he lost all sight in his right eye, with the rest of his childhood being spent attempting to avoid rough team sports, in order to preserve the vision in his left eye. He studied Business and Economics in Trinity College, Dublin, where he became a champion schools rower and captain of the university's rowing club. The college later awarded him an honorary degree following confirmation of his blindness.

Read more about this topic:  Mark Pollock

Famous quotes containing the words early life, early, life and/or background:

    ... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.
    George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)

    It was common practice for me to take my children with me whenever I went shopping, out for a walk in a white neighborhood, or just felt like going about in a white world. The reason was simple enough: if a black man is alone or with other black men, he is a threat to whites. But if he is with children, then he is harmless, adorable.
    —Gerald Early (20th century)

    Guilty, guilty, guilty is the chant divorced parents repeat in their heads. This constant reminder remains just below our consciousness. Nevertheless, its presence clouds our judgment, inhibits our actions, and interferes in our relationship with our children. Guilt is a major roadblock to building a new life for yourself and to being an effective parent.
    Stephanie Marston (20th century)

    Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)