Welcome to BADMINTON MUSEUM OF IRELAND.

The purpose of the Badminton Museum of Ireland is to preserve the great heritage of Irish Badminton and to make the general badminton public aware of it.

Many organisations realise, too late in their development the value of retaining material that would be of interest and benefit to future generations of members. In an interesting article recently in the Irish Times, Sean Moran writes on this topic. He indicates the early lack of interest on the part of the G.A.A. in retaining its heritage and only realised the possibilities at the time of its Centenary in 1984. He points out the importance of a central archive to collate the varied amount of material available in Ireland and abroad. The Trustees of Badminton Museum of Ireland is of the same view in relation to our own sport.

The Gallery item in this issue is a photograph of the Irish Team that played Wales in the Guildhall in 1971. Through the Museum website I was saddened to hear of the recent death of Sammy Blair. He was a very exciting player to watch. A feature of the team is that it consisted of five men and only two ladies.

The Historical piece is an interesting Gazette article on one of the early Presidents of the Irish Badminton Union (Badminton Ireland as it is now known). The article gives a picture of the game at that time and also the fact that International players were prepared to get involved in progressing the game.

For those coming to this site for the first time I would welcome any comments and more particularly any information on Badminton memorabilia that could be loaned or donated to the Museum.

Dick O’Rafferty
Curator