In June 2021, the Board of Cricket Leinster announced its intention to establish a Cricket Archive so that cricketing memorabilia could be preserved safely and made accessible to future generations, and Jim Bennett of The Hills CC and President of Cricket Leinster for 2022 volunteered to assist with this project.
Joe Curtis, a native of Balbriggan and now resident in Naul, has had a lifelong interest in social history and photography, and he has combined these interests to produce a magnificent record of life and times in Fingal over many decades. Recently Joe decided to donate his collection of cricket photographs to Cricket Leinster to assist with the Archive Project.
On 23 December, in a very simple ceremony which was witnessed by Martin Russell, ex-President of The Hills CC, Michael Dwyer, President of The Hills CC and David O’Connor, ex-President of Cricket Ireland, and recorded for posterity by Margaret, Joe’s wife, he presented Jim Bennett, President of Cricket Leinster with an external hard drive containing over 500, 000 photographs.
Cricket Leinster is hugely indebted to Joe Curtis for this very generous gesture, and it guarantees that his photographic collection will have an honoured place in the Cricket Leinster Archive when it is established.