Irish Open (badminton)
The Irish International or Irish Open in badminton is an international open held in Ireland since 1902 and is thereby one of the oldest badminton tournaments in the world. It was however interrupted by the two World Wars. This tournament is currently a part of the European Badminton Circuit and takes place at the beginning of December every year as part of the home nations loop of International tournaments that include the Scottish Open and the Welsh Open in consecutive weeks. The tournament for most part and in recent years has been an International Challenge rated event . The recent exception was in 2012 when the tournament was downgraded to International Series due to funding. Recent editions have been held in the Baldoyle Badminton Centre except for 2007 and 2011 tournaments which were held in Lisburn, Northern Ireland. The Irish Open was the first senior international title won by Spain's Carolina Marin at the age of 16 in 2009. Marin went on to win the European & World Championship in 2014 in Copenhagen as well as the coveted All England in 2015 in Birmingham, England before adding another world title in 2015. Marin then claimed Olympic Gold in  Rio 2016. Other greats to lift the Irish Open title have been Kenneth Jonassen and Tine Rasmussen (Baun) of Denmark with Adam Cwalina of Poland the most prolific of champions in recent years with Men's doubles victories in 2011 (partnering Michal logosz) and back-to-back titles in 2013 & 2014 alongside Przemyslaw Wacha. Recent Irish winners have been Scott Evans (MS) in 2012 and Chloe Magee alongside Huang Bing in 2007. In 2018 Sam Magee reasserted himself as the most successful Irish badminton athlete of the modern era adding the Irish Open mixed doubles title to his European Games  and European Championship medals. Sam Magee partnered his sister Chloe to the title, a part of the European badminton circuit, at the National Indoor Arena in Blanchardstown. In 2016 the Irish Open moved to the new National Indoor Arena in Blanchardstown, Dublin as the first ever event in the new state of the art arena before its official opening in January 2017. The December 2017 edition reverted to an International Series level tournament which saw three Irish players/pairs reach the final.