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 in this issue displays a page from the Programme of an International Match between Ireland and Malaya in 1949 and is displayed by kind permission of Ian Frost. The Malayan line-up included four times All-England Singles winner Wong Peng Soon, regarded by many as one of the best players ever to compete. Ooi Teik Hock was a double winner of Mens Doubles titles at the All-England and a Singles finalist. Ong Poh Lim was an All-England Doubles winner and Singles finalist whilst Teoh Seng Khoon was an All-England Doubles winner. This was an amazing array of talent, apart from the top Irish players, seen at Jacobs Recreation Hall. This was a very fine two court hall and home to Jacobs Badminton Club. When Ian showed the programme it was noticed that Frank Peard was the only player who had not signed it. It was good fortune that Frank was in Baldoyle at the time and gladly penned his signature. It would not be often that an item would be fully completed 63 years after the event took place.

I broke my self-imposed embargo on personal references in the Historical Item because I felt it very clearly conveyed the excitement that was in the Centre in Cardiff on occasion of the 1988 Finlandia Cup. I think the players felt less stressed than the officials and obviously non-attending supporters. The players showed wonderful team spirit right through the competition. The team was Maeve Moynihan, Tanya Cooke, Joyce Walsh, Jane Plunkett, Fergus McDonald, John Foley, Nial Gannon and Shane Fitzpatrick.

I would to thank those who have contacted me on the website for their offers of material and I am always keen to receive suggestions and criticisms.

Dick O’Rafferty
Curator