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 item in this issue we are displaying a nice photograph of Mary Bryan and Judy Hashman. They had won the Ladies Doubles in the 1964 Baltic Games. Judy would normally have played with her sister Sue Peard but she was unable to compete on this occasion. I suspect Judy was delighted to obtain such an accomplished replacement in Mary.

The Historical Item gives a very interesting account of the Irish Open Championships of 1947. This event had not been played since 1938 on account of the war. The event was played in Woodbrook near Bray. There seemed to be some complaint about the coldness of the hall but there was not a suitable venue in Dublin. Interestingly the International Match against England seems to have been played between the first and second day of the Tournament. The only Irish winners were Tom Boyle and Jim Rankin who were the holders. They defeated Frank Peard and Jim FitzGibbon in the final making it an all Irish affair. Rather frustratingly the report mentions a surprise win for a young Belfast pair over an English International pairing but it does not name them.

The Museum has had some interesting requests for assistance recently. William Kings has been commissioned to write essays on all past Presidents of Badminton World Federation. We were very pleased to be able to offer information on two Irish holders of the office J.Plunkett Dillon 1955-1957 and J.D.M.McCallum 1961-1963. Both were elected as Honorary Life Vice-Presidents when they retired from Office. The Polish Badminton Association which is hosting the European Junior Championships this year sought some photographs for an exhibition of Badminton History which will be on display at the event. We were delighted to be able to help. John McCloy, ex International player then sought information on Ulster players that played for Ireland. This would normally not be a problem but he needed to know if any of them had attended his old school as he wanted to have their names on the Honours Board in the school. Unfortunately we did not have this type of information.

We are keen to obtain either by donation or loan of memorabilia that would enable us to build up a solid base of information on the heritage that is Irish Badminton and contact can be made through the website.

Dick O’Rafferty
Curator

 

This Edition: 1st Of April 2015 | Next Edition 1st Of May 2015
 
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