County Wexford
County Wexford () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was ba ...
, Ireland as Mary Dinan, was a former
camogie
Camogie ( ; ) is an Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women. Camogie is played by 100,000 women in Ireland and worldwide, largely among Irish communities.
A variant of the game "hurling" (which is played by men only), it is organised ...
and
badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...
player.
Biography
Mary Dinan was born Mary Sinnott in Aughfad,
County Wexford
County Wexford () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was ba ...
in 1943. She was the daughter of John and Mai Sinnott (nee O'Connor). She had two brothers, Nicholas and Sean. Her uncle was Mick O'Hanlon a hurler in the Wexford All-Ireland winning teams in 1955 and 1956. She attended Loreto Convent in Wexford. She married Gay Dinan in Taghmon in 1968, and the couple moved to Dublin. They had one daughter, Elizabeth (born 1969).
Camogie
She was selected on the camogie
team of the century
In team sport, team of the century and team of the decade are hypothetical best teams over a given time period. For the century team, it can be either 100 years, or for a century (always the 20th). Similarly the team of the decade can be for 10 y ...
in 2004, and winner of All Ireland medals in 1968 and 1969.
She played club Camogie with
Taghmon
Taghmon (; ) is a village in County Wexford, Ireland. It lies on the R738 regional road, west of Wexford town and east-southeast of New Ross. The village is in a townland and civil parish of the same name.
History
It can be established, ...
Wexford
Wexford ( ; archaic Yola dialect, Yola: ''Weiseforthe'') is the county town of County Wexford, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the ...
Player of the Year and received the Hall of Fame Award in 1980.
Her citation read "Tall and athletic, Mary was very confident on the ball, a fine catcher and striker, she was capable of turning defence into attack with one puck of the sliotar."
Badminton
Having moved to Dublin, Dinan joined Pembroke Club, from where she joined the Leinster badminton team. Later she moved to KADCA, winning the
Irish Open Irish Open may refer to:
*Irish Open (golf), a golf tournament on the European Tour
** Irish Senior Open, a golf tournament on the European Seniors Tour
**Ladies Irish Open, a golf tournament on the Ladies European Tour
* Irish Open (darts), annua ...
and six national titles. In 1975, she won her first international cap against the Netherlands, going on to represent Ireland 59 times. In Norway in 1981, she won the
Helvetia Cup
The Helvetia Cup or European B Team Championships was a European mixed team championship in badminton. The first Helvetia Cup tournament took place in Zurich, Switzerland in 1962, when it was still known as the Nations Cup ().
From 2002 to 2009, she has trained the Wexford badminton team when they won four All-Ireland victories. She coached
Sonya McGinn
Sonya McGinn (born 17 December 1973) is an Irish former badminton player. She competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, became the first Irish player in badminton at the Summer Olympics. The Howth women lost in the second round ...
, the first Irish Olympian badminton player. She served as the president of the Leinster branch of Badminton Ireland.
In
Badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...
she represented Ireland on 59 occasions, was voted Wexford Badminton Star in 1965 and again in 1988.