HE has a shy, boyish smile and the hands of a pianist. The smiles come often, lighting up his face, whenever he is teased or when he is remembering a singer or some piece of music he loves. The hands sit quietly in his lap.

There is an alert stillness about Dominic Slowey, a bird-like intensity of listening. He listens well. He listens a lot. Ever since he was a child in Dublin, an eager audience to his grandfather's collection of old 78s, Dominic has known the habit of listening with care.

And all through the years, the years when he could see and the years after his sight went in his mid-30s, that habit of careful listening and remembering was his special gift.

It was a gift which opened up to him the whole universe of music, allowing him to build a world of wonderful sounds inside his head, a world he dips into each day – and a world which he is now sharing with listeners to the community radio station, West Limerick 102.

Along the way, Dominic has also built up a formidable collection of music– and it is that collection which Ian Michael, the presenter of "The Classical Selection" programme on West Limerick 102, draws on each week.

It is, Ian Michael says, very rare to find such a comprehensive collection in private hands. And without it, the programme could not really happen. Apart from anything else, Ian points out, a community station could not afford such a library of sound.

Dominic takes great satisfaction in the collection he has built over the past 15 to 20 years.

It started, he says, with tapes. Then he moved on to CDs, carefully compiling his list of "must-buys" over several weeks before buying in bulk.

The collection dominates the sitting room of his independent-living apartment at Rathfredagh Cheshire Home, carefully catalogued and shelved by his right-hand man and personal assistant, Denis Callanan who cheerfully admits he has learnt a lot about music over the years from Dominic. The CDs sit in serried rows, boxed sets here, the single CDs over here. All alphabetised. And all known and carefully remembered by Dominic. "Is that the EMI one? " he asks of one boxed set brought out for scrutiny.

Over the three years of "The Classical Selection", a ritual has developed. Ian arrives at Dominic's place on a Monday and together they draw up a play-list, Ian carefully working out the times, Dominic always pushing for his favourites. The CDs then go into a special bag and on Thursdays, Dominic and the bag arrive at the radio station where the programme is recorded. Not to be parted from his precious collection – that was Dominic's only stipulation when he was approached about the programme.

"I agreed to the programme because I felt it would be good that the music would be played," Dominic explains, adding with a certain satisfaction: "The programme has a lot of listeners."

"I feel good that the music is being shared. I feel I am doing something, being part of the community," he goes on. " It is not like the old days. In the old days, you were cut off but those days are gone."

There have been painful aspects to Dominic Slowey's life, growing up as an only child with cerebal palsy in a less than inclusive society.