In May 2020 work began with collating the women’s International information into one database. We had the famous Black Book with information from 1896 to 1990, match sheets from 1990 onwards and the Tournament Management System (TMS) introduced by the FIH in 2014, bringing together team lists for over a 1000 matches. The men’s international database began its work nearly 20 years ago and it is pretty much up to date. This work also prompted a working group to be set up managing the Irish Hockey History Project whose purpose is to gather and preserve the many interesting facts and figures of Irish Hockey. Peter Agnew, who is behind the Irish Hockey Archive Facebook Page, has already collected a wealth of information and artefacts and is part of this team.
We are asking the hockey community for your help. If you have an area of particular interest, are you a former international with paper clippings in an album at home, do you have interesting information about your Club, University or Province, whatever it may be, we would love to hear from you and maybe you can help us with this massive project. The contact email is history@hockey.ie.
The Irish Hockey Archive
The Irish Hockey Archive is curated by hockey stalwart Peter Agnew. The archive started by accident when one day Peter was in the hockey office and saw the men’s international book that had all the hand written names and records of the Internationals going back to the very first Irish hockey international ever played.
“I thought if I can come and take the book anyone can, all that history would be lost, so I decided to make sure it was kept in a safe place”
Peter contacted different libraries and Dublin City Library, Pearse Street (a wing of the National Library) who specialise in Dublin Sport came up trumps and agreed to house the material. Since then Peter has gathered material from clubs and individuals from all around the world and country.
All photos are scanned before they are handed over to the archive and then Peter puts them up onto the Irish Hockey Archive Facebook page. The material is not yet catalogued but Peter keeps a rough log of all material.
Peter has made good contacts with the Hockey Museum in England and with people in Wales and Scotland. He is hoping these contacts will uncover more international material and in particular would like to get more material from the Munster and Connacht regions.
It is hard to put a value on items, but Peter believes the most precious items are the honours caps and possibly some medals. Peter discovered the Connaught Challenge Silver cup in a bank vault which is now in the hockey office for safe keeping. The minute books are irreplaceable holding a wealth of information and a Black Book exists with all Irish Women’s international games recorded since 1896 to 1990.
With a world of items out there to gather and record, the Irish Hockey Archive is always interested in hearing from you about your gems and where possible collect your items.. If you have old programmes, photos, memorabilia, any material that relates to hockey in Ireland or to Irish Hockey Players please contact Peter at irishhockeyarchive@gmail.com or email history@hockey.ie
To take a closer look at the items collected so far head over to Facebook here. To help you navigate the page, click on Photos, then Album “See All” and you will be brought into the many albums which have been created, including albums of the many clubs from around the country. Also check out the Irish Hockey Archive Twitter account @irishhockeyarh1
Former hockey goalkeeper, Peter Agnew is a freelance journalist. He was a member of the Irish senior team in the 1980s under then national coach Ray Cantan, when the side was ranked 12th in the world. Agnew is a regular umpire and has played with his club, Avoca for over 5 decades.