corrib rowing & yachting club

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THE CORRIB ROWING AND YACHTING CLUB

by Tom Kenny

This club, originally established in 1864, must be one of the oldest in Galway, if not one of the oldest amateur sporting clubs in the country. Unfortunately, the minutes of the club meetings for 1864 and 1865 cannot be found, but we are fortunate that Maurice Semple had access to the minutes for most other years and published them in a book entitled A Century of Minutes, the Story of the Corrib Club, 1864 – 1966.

The inauguration of the club took the form of ‘a rowing match’ between W. and P. Daly in one boat and a Mr. Hasler and Robert Evans in the other. ‘A respectable assemblage thronged the banks on either side and all present seemed very much interested in the contest’. The clubhouse was already in existence and on that inaugural day, a large number of young gentlemen of Galway gathered there for the occasion. Their first meeting was a success and the committee felt confident that the members would find “The manly sport of rowing to be both pleasurable and profitable”.

Until 1875, when the Commercial Club opened, competitive rowing on the river was confined to club members. Thereafter, ‘badge races’ were held regularly between the clubs which helped generate a lot of interest in the sport. The course for those races was from the black buoy opposite Steamer’s Quay to the ‘Iodine Works’ and back, three buoys moored at the upper end. The racing boats were classified as pair-oared, four-oared, sculls, gigs and skiffs.

The development of steam navigation on the Corrib required a navigation channel on the river and on the lake and this enabled members to row and sail freely. Sailing was becoming an increasingly important sport and source of leisure in the club. Membership was growing and this necessitated a search for another site. In 1903, Mr. Persse presented them with the present site and the new clubhouse was formally opened in July 23, 1904. The following year, they spent £6-6-0 on the purchase of two guns from the Renmore Battery for the ornamentation of the grounds. The concrete base for the guns cost £6-15-0.

In 1912, ladies were admitted as members. In 1916, there was no audit of account as the secretary, John Faller was interned by the British. During the War of Independence, some British Army units occupied the clubhouse.

By 1931, the club had a ladies rowing crew who were very successful for a number of years, in fact, for four years they were unbeaten. The crew members were Misses L. Horan (bow), S. Pringle (2), M. Delaney (3) and M. Caulfield (cox) and May Kenny (stroke). In 1936 the club had a senior eight, two senior fours, a junior four, a ladies four, schoolboy’s four and three scullers in regular training. It was a very auspicious year for the men’s senior eight crew who won the Leander trophy in Cork, the first crew from west of the Shannon to do so.  Our photograph shows that crew, they are Michael Gallagher (captain), R.J. O’Connell, Enda Emerson, B.J. Kavanagh, Roly Cooke, Enda Glynn, T.F. Morris, Amby Roche and B.J. O’Connell.

In 1956, it was ruled that a male club member could take a lady friend into a club boat, but a lady member could not take a male friend into a club boat. In the 1950s and 1960s, they held regular fund-raising dances. In the 1990s, the clubhouse which we see in our photograph (which was taken c.1900) was demolished and the present structure erected on the site.

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Corrib Rowing & Yachting Club

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Earls Island

Republic of Ireland

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Rowing on the Corrib

TOM kenny  Galway Advertiser, Thu, Mar 01, 2012

Rowing ‘matches’ or ‘badge races’ have been taking place on the river for at least 150 years. Initially, they were confined to members of Corrib Rowing and Yachting Club, as it was the only boating club in existence here. When the Commercial Club was formed in 1875, a meeting was held to promote a regatta on the stretch of river under Menlo Castle. It was well attended, and there was general agreement that the regatta should be independent of both clubs, and open to everybody.

The attitude of the 1875 regatta committee was a great boost to the sport. It encouraged friendly rivalry and competition, and the regatta quickly became an eagerly awaited event each year. Soon, other clubs sprang up; St Patrick’s Club, better known as the Temperance Club, was set up by Father Lydon, and was soon to win many outstanding victories over its rivals. In the early 1880s there was a membership of 300 active oarsmen from the three city clubs.

In 1882 the Royal Galway Yacht Club was set up, and while its main emphasis was on yachting, members also provided further competition in rowing. In April 1910 the Ancient Order of Hibernians formed a boat club starting with 40 members. This club still thrives and today is known as Galway Rowing Club, though you will still find some old-timers who refer to it as ‘Hibs’. Other clubs which existed briefly were the Galway Athletic Rowing Club and the Citie of the Tribes Rowing Club. In or about 1920, Emmett’s Rowing Club was formed, made up mostly of oarsmen from Menlo. They made history by winning the blue riband of Irish Rowing in 1929 and 1931.

Boys’ races on the river were becoming more and more popular and schools began to affiliate with the IARU. Among those which registered briefly were St Mary’s College, St Patrick’s Monastery, and the Technical School, but it was the founding of rowing clubs in the Bish and the Jes in the late twenties that really gave a tremendous boost to the sport in Galway. The intense rivalry and competition between these two schools continues to this day, and both of them have brought many honours to Corribside.

In the mid thirties UCG founded a rowing club which has produced many fine sportsmen and women since, and in 1976, Galway’s newest club, Tribesmen RC was formed, providing even more competition on the river.

The Head of the River is an event which has been run in Galway since 1949, where crews race against time as opposed to racing each other. It gives them a good idea of how their training is going early in the season. In 1977 Tribesmen took over the running of the Galway Head. It was the first computerised rowing event in Ireland and therefore very attractive to the competitors. It has since become one of the major sporting events in the city. This year it will be organised by NUIG Boat Club and Tribesmen, and it takes place from the mouth of the lake to a little downstream from the Quincentennial Bridge, on March 10. The small boats race for fours and double sculls starts at 10.30am, the race for single sculls and pairs starts at 1.30pm, and the race for eights and quad sculls starts at 4pm. Several hundred competitors will be involved, and the best viewing points are Dangan slip, the college grounds near the bridge, or the Quincentennial Bridge.

So to mark the event, we have today a photograph of the UCG Senior VIII of 1971, the first year the Head went open. This crew, coached by Mike Kavanagh, broke the course record in winning the Grand Challenge Cup in Trinity and were runners up in the Senior Eights pot. They are, from the left: Noel Leader, Frank Mulligan, Mike Cullinane, Peadar McNena, Martin Fahy, Tom McDonagh, Chris O’Dea, and Gerry Small. The cox was Eamonn Lawless.

Our thanks to Mike McCrohan for much of the above information.

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• Cong Galway Sailing Race

A number of long term Day boats members such as RIB’s, Fishing Boats are based at CRYC.

Due to space constraints, CRYC cannot offer storage to new members for any Day boats.

A lovely piece in the The Galway Advertiser today remembering a longstanding member of the CRYC, Maurice Semple.

Full list of results can be found in the link below.

The CRYC was delighted to once again host the Cong - Galway Sailing Race in our Club this weekend! Well done to all the Clubs involved in organising another successful day of racing!

The Cong to Galway Sailing Race has been postponed until Sunday, 3rd September 2023 due to light winds forecast for the Saturday. The boats will be arriving down the river from 4:30 p.m. onwards so you can view along the river banks. To finish up, there is always fun watching the dinghy’s capsizing to get their masts under the Quincentennial Bridge and the Hookers having to drop their masts before arriving at the Corrib Rowing & Yachting Club for the prize giving. ... See more

The Cong - Galway Sailing Race will take place on Saturday the 2nd September 2023. Departing from Lisloughrey Pier the race will finish on the River Corrib where spectators can see the boats sail down the river into Galway city. ... See more

Unfortunately we have had to postpone the Cong - Galway Sailing Race race to the 2nd of September 2023 due to ongoing works to Lisloughry Pier. @Cumann Seoltóireacht Spidéal Galway City Sailing Club Galway Hooker Sailing Club Galway Bay Sailing Club Lough Corrib Navigation Trust ... See more

What a great evening we had on Friday for our Summer BBQ! A great evening was had by all!

They are due in Woodquay at approx 1pm today!

Earls Island, Distillery Road, Newcastle, Galway

Email: [email protected]

Tel: 091 – 564560

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