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 this final issue for 2014 we display our normal items under Gallery and Historical.

The Gallery image is of Ailesbury members taken in the late 1940s or early 1950s. It would be interesting to know what the occasion was. In any event it is a nice gathering of members of one of Ireland’s oldest and successful Clubs.

The Historical item is displayed by kind permission of Brian Carson. In reading old press reports it is interesting to compare events with the present day. The Minor Interprovincial was for players under 23 years and it is interesting that it was played in Longford that year – well away from the “assumed centres” of Badminton. The Junior Interprovincial Series was played in Larne. At that time it was felt that the game could be promoted by playing events in different locations around the country. Nowadays all Interprovincials are played in Dublin – possibly for ease of organisation. At that time The Dublin and District Leagues were synonymous with Ernie Curtis who controlled this very large league with determination and efficiency. It is good to see details of the Midland Branch (now Leinster Branch) appearing in the media. Although Terenure Centre was well established it is noted that the venue was the Standard Hotel in Harcourt Street. I was agreeably surprised to see my younger sibling mentioned in the august company of Jim Fitzgibbon and Frank Peard.

The main objective of the Museum is to ensure the retention of the heritage of Irish Badminton. We invite the badminton community to contact us with details of memorabilia that may be held over many years and allow us to display them. All queries can be sent through the website

Dick O’Rafferty
Curator