Image credit – Genevieve McDonnell
Happy New Year to all! As we bid farewell to 2024, attention swiftly turns to the season ahead, with 2025 hopefully providing a thrilling, action-packed calendar of racing in Ireland. With several Heads of the River still to be run before regatta season kicks off in April, let us mark your card with some key players in the Irish Women’s rowing scene.
Old Collegians/UCD Senior Eight
The top tier event at the Irish Championships was won by a University of Limerick/Shannon composite last year. This year’s renewal would be made an even more exciting race should the women of UCD past and present line up in July. This composite crew raced at the Head of the Charles regatta back in October as a full Old Collegians crew and improved on their seventh place finish of 2023 in the alumni eights category. Containing a wealth of experience from Tokyo Olympian Aileen Crowley to seasoned Championship pot winners Sarah Daly, Siofra Bennet and Breanna Larson to name but a few, I very much hope this crew does make an appearance at some of the racing in the lead up to the Championships in Cork.
Neptune RC Intermediate Pair
The green and black saw both promising and agonising results at the Irish Rowing Championships with their Intermediate coxed four and pair who twice finished just off a title win to University of Galway who practically swept up all the sweep titles in the intermediate categories. In Neptune crews for both events were Miriam Kelly and Orla O’Loughlin who will return again for another season hoping to go one place better in the Intermediate pair. Whilst also contesting the coxed four, I feel their pair showed promise in 2024 and is definitely a crew to watch throughout this season.
Skibbereen Junior Quad
Under the guidance of former Irish lightweight Denise Walsh, the junior women from Skibbereen have grown in confidence and produced a dominant display in the Junior quad Championship final. It would be foolish not to consider them again this season as whilst there are returners from that 2024 quad in the form of Aoife Hendy and Jessica Crowley, there will be plenty of others waiting in the wings to carry the hopes of achieving the two hundredth Irish Rowing Championship title.
Athlone Junior Double
The Midlands club has been known for producing powerful junior men’s sculling crews, but also their women are proving themselves equally successful with a win in the Junior double in 2024. This year’s crew could well be the same as last year’s as Sarah Rockett is only starting her Junior 18 grade year this season having won both the Junior 18 double and Junior 16 single at last year’s Irish Rowing Championships whilst 16 years old. She will undoubtedly look to make her mark in the Junior Single alongside defending her Doubles title.
Other Mentions:
With the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris completed, it would not be a surprise to see some of our Olympians taking a gap year from the international stage and opting to race domestically. Post Tokyo 2021, the likes of Aoife Casey, Margaret Cremin, Emily Hegarty and Fiona Murtagh all competed for their respective clubs at the Irish Rowing Championships the following year. Outside of the Olympic athletes, Aisling Hayes of Skibbereen will be a senior sculler to keep track of as the season unfolds. Having had successful campaigns both at home and in the UK at Henley Women’s Regatta and Henley Royal Regatta, she concluded with a fine win in the Intermediate single at the Irish Rowing Championships and will be looking to claim the senior title next time, having finished second in the 2024 event. The Intermediate double sees Fermoy RC, who have produced several good scullers over recent years, including Olympian Alison Bergin, as key contenders with Aine O’Mahoney and Julie Moran despite being beaten by Shannon RC last year. The Intermediate single sculls will be highly competitive with Trinity’s Grace Healy, who opted to withdraw from the single last year and prioritise the win in the club coxed four, no doubt eyeing up a win in the single this time round either in Intermediate or even Senior. Neptune’s Niamh Kilgallon could give Healy a dogfight as she finished second last year to Aisling Hayes of Skibbereen.
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