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 Gallery item displays an image of the Ailesbury team that won the Irish Junior Cup in 1980. We are grateful to Barry Coffey, who supplied the photograph to us. There are a number of interesting points in relation to the team. Firstly there is the contribution of the Marron family with three members on the team. It can be seen that Joan Alcorn is the only player who retained the use of wooden framed rackets and there is no doubt that Carlton were the major racket suppliers at the time.

The Historical section displays a Gazette article from 1927 reporting on the AGM of the Northern Branch or Ulster Branch, as it is now known. It is interesting that of 186 clubs affiliated to Badminton Union of Ireland 116 were from the Northern Branch, representing more than 62% of the total. The advertising by coaches is also interesting. Even at this early stage commercial coaching was being done. One wonders how much benefit coaching by correspondence would achieve. As least court hire costs would be eliminated!! It would be interesting to know what fees were being charged at that time.

We were saddened to see that former International player, Dorrie Donaldson, passed away recently. She played eleven times for Ireland between 1950 and 1957. She was Irish Ladies Doubles Champion on eight occasions, partnered by Barbara Good five times and Jean Lawless three times. Partnered by Frank Peard she won the Irish Mixed Doubles titles on five occasions. Dorrie also represented Ireland at hockey and was a fine golfer.

I will, as usual, be pleased to receive comments and suggestions through the website.

Dick O’Rafferty
Curator