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.

In the Gallery section of this issue I am displaying the cover of the publication of 75 years of Kerry Badminton Association. The museum is delighted to have received this book from Junior Griffin who has given so many years of service to Kerry and Munster Badminton. The almost 200 pages are packed with much historical material spanning the period of 1936 to 2011 including items on the Association, Clubs, Competitions and Tournaments. This detail plus a very large number of photographs makes this a very valuable contribution to the history of the sport and I suspect was a labour of love for Junior.

Displayed in the historical section is an excerpt from the Minute Book of Midland Branch(now Leinster Branch)from 1932 relating to Leagues and Cups Committee. It is interesting to note that Dundalk had decided to run their Leagues separately and that they would retain the fees and buy their own medals. It seems that Midland West Badminton Leagues took the same approach and there was no objection from Dublin. In the same Minutes the following extract is interesting. “Honorary Secretary reported that he had sent to the Sports Manager Dunlop Coy list of Secretaries playing in League so that the Dunlop Company could notify each club where shuttles at reduced prices could be obtained for play in League matches.” So there is nothing new in obtaining this type of support.

We are pleased to receive indications of support from various quarters but development will be frustrated without more serious support from the National Governing Body. We have to say that there is little that we can report on this.

We are keen to receive indications of any memorabilia that would be either loaned or donated to the Museum and contact can be made at any time through the website.

Dick O’Rafferty
Curator