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.

The Historical item in this issue gives a very detailed report of the 1947 match between Northern Branch (now Ulster Branch) and Midland Branch (now Leinster Branch). It is interesting that during this period such reports featured in Badminton Gazette, the organ of the English Association. The structure of these matches showed a greater weighting towards male involvement. Four of this Midland team played for Gas Company B.C. which features in the Gallery Section. These players were Olive Byrne (nee Poole), Eileen Trapnell, Geoff Trapnell and Jackie Brewster. Also a number of these players gave great service to Leinster Branch off the court. Frank Peard and Dick Bell were very heavily involved in the establishment of Terenure Centre at Whitehall Road. It was nice to see that on the invitation of the Branch Frank Peard cut the tape at the opening of the new developments at the Centre just a couple of weeks ago.. Colin Maidment was a future President of the Branch. Geoff Trapnell was a long-standing Executive member and Trustee of the Branch and also acted as Honorary Secretary of Badminton Union of Ireland.

The Gallery section displays an interesting photograph of Gas Company Badminton Club members. The note attached clearly shows that it was an unusual club in that the Commercial Company was highly disposed to Badminton and for many years it was one of the most successful clubs in Leinster.

Progress is being made in the provision of storage facilities by Leinster Branch and the Museum will be delighted to receive loan or donations of memorabilia.

Dick O’Rafferty
Curator