Rowing in Ireland continues to stretch the boundary of the possible, a fact that is never better summed up than by looking at this men’s senior eight race at the 2025 Irish Rowing Championships. For the first time since I have been involved in the sport, I am witnessing the men’s senior eight championship event require a semifinal, with ten crews entered. Not only is this exciting for the number of athletes involved, but the calibre of the athletes participating. There will be five Olympians racing across three of the crews, and countless other athletes who have represented the country at junior, under-23 and senior levels.
Semifinal one will be a battle to the line, with four crews good enough to make the final if the draw were seeded rather than randomly drawn. Only three of Commercial Rowing Club, Skibbereen/UCC composite, Enniskillen/Portora composite and Cork Boat Club A will survive semifinal one. Semifinal two will be more straightforward for UCD A and the University of Galway, and one of Dublin University Boat Club (Trinity), Neptune Rowing Club, and Cork Boat Club B will be glad of the favourable draw and join the best of the best in the final.
Enniskillen/Portora
Portora is the alumni club of Enniskillen Royal Boat Club, which takes its name from what ERBC was called before 2017. Some readers will remember their black and yellow strip, which is now worn by masters crews from Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, and also by Olympians Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney. This is a fascinating crew; the junior rowers of Enniskillen have shown this season that they are more than capable of battling with the senior crews, with A-final placements at the Skibbereen and Cork Grand League Regattas. This impressive junior eight is bolstered with the aforementioned Olympic A-finalists in the men’s pair. This crew has a nothing-to-lose feeling, but I believe they are more than good enough to hold their own with the established senior crews in this event; they should make the final and could well be right up with the pack in the last stretch.
Commercial Rowing Club
Commercial Rowing Club are returning from a disappointing campaign at Henley Royal Regatta to contest the Irish Rowing Championships. This eight-man crew comprises their Wyfold four and half of the Britannia crew, with a new bow pair in Tom McKeon and the very experienced Colm Dowling. The performance of this crew will depend on how they cope with the return from Henley. Much like last season, they showed some early speed at the Head of the River Race and Erne Head of the River but haven’t been able to translate that speed to the 2k course in the eight. This crew finished second at Skibbereen Regatta and second in the C-final at London Metropolitan Regatta, the fourth fastest Irish crew. Should the Dubliners be able to transition well from the trip to Henley Royal Regatta, they should be able to make the final, but it is difficult to call how they will fare at this stage. Also worth considering is that Liam Junkermann and Christopher Dehaene will have just finished two tough races in the intermediate coxed four the morning of the race, which isn’t ideal preparation for performing in the senior eight.
Cork Boat Club A
The reigning champions in this event, Cork Boat Club, had a disappointing Cork Regatta, losing their grip on the Leander Trophy to their long-time rivals UCD. Before this, Cork had positive performances at Skibbereen Regatta, winning the event, and finishing best of the Irish at London Metropolitan Regatta. This crew is brimming with experience. Between the nine athletes in the crew, there are 14 senior eight championship pots, one each from last year, an extra one for Peter Grogan and Fionnan Tolan, and a total of four senior eight wins for Thomas Earley. The enormous level of experience this crew boasts has to count for something in the two weeks between the loss at Cork Regatta and the Championship final.
UCC/Skibbereen
This County Cork-based composite boasts eight athletes who have represented Ireland at either a junior, U23 or senior level at some stage in the past few years, including two Olympians, one of whom is the double gold-winning Fintan McCarthy. Other current Irish representatives at the senior level include Andrew Sheehan, Adam Murphy, and Ronan Byrne. The intrigue of this crew is whether the predominantly sculling-focused individuals can row the eight to a standard able to compete with crews who spend all year together in the eight. Recent history tells us that these cobbled-together national team composites have not been able to overturn the domestic crews. In 2017, a Skibbereen eight containing Rio 2016 silver medallists Paul and Gary O’Donovan couldn’t beat the incumbent Commercial senior eight. In 2019, Shandon and Castleconnell failed to beat a rising UCD. In 2021, a crew representing UCC and Shandon only managed to place third behind Cork Boat Club and UCD. As recently as last year, UCC formed a composite with NUIG and never looked to be anywhere close to Cork Boat Club and UCD again. The historical form of crews like this clearly doesn’t show that they would be stand-out favourites. I would even go as far as to say that, depending on how Commercial handles the return from Henley Royal Regatta, they would be under immense pressure to make the final.
University College Dublin A
When writing the Crews to Watch in 2025 article back in December, I had said that UCD would be back this year after transitioning to a new coaching team and a sizable turnover of athletes last year. At the 2024 championships, they were without anyone who won the 2019 senior eight, whilst also being the first year without the late Martin Feeley coaching them. They now have had a second season to bed in their new training programme, along with some new coaches and new athletes. One athlete who joined their ranks this year worth mentioning is Olympic bronze medallist Daire Lynch. Lynch was rowing with UCD up to the university championships, after which he returned to the national rowing centre to prepare for the European Rowing Championships and the Lucerne World Rowing Cup. After UCD’s well-taken win at Cork Regatta, in a blistering time of 5:31, it seemed that the crew didn’t need to beef up the crew anymore, but UCD seems not to be taking any chances in their bid to retake the Big Pot. That being said, Lynch will only be returning from his Henley Royal Regatta campaign with a week to prepare with the crew, so the coaching team must be confident that the Yale man will slot back in seamlessly, having been out of the crew since April.
University of Galway
This crew has been gaining momentum as the season has progressed. After being totally wiped by UCD at the university championships, they finished second fastest of the Irish crews at London Metropolitan Regatta, and were extremely impressive at Cork Regatta, finishing only a length behind UCD and ahead of Leander Trophy holders Cork Boat Club. One would have wondered whether UG would go for broke and attempt to bring the Big Pot Corribside for the first time in a decade, but it seems that UG aims to sweep the intermediate events before lining up for the senior eight final. This is a gamble, of course, with strokeman Cormac Benson and threeman James Murphy racing six 2ks before the heat of senior eights, assuming they compete in all the events they are entered in (the intermediate pair, four and eight, and the senior pair). They are fortunate that they are in the easier heat, but having completed seven 2ks by the time they reach the final has to have a detrimental effect on their performance. Had they only entered an additional event or two, I would have truly believed that UG would have had something to say about this championship race.
Prediction
As I mentioned above, the final composition will depend on either Commercial’s successful return from Henley Royal Regatta or how well the UCC/Skibbereen crew gel together. I believe Cork A and Enniskillen/Portora have both the boatmanship and the superior preparation to make the final, leaving Commercial and UCC/Skibbereen to fight for the last spot. Heat one will be an excellent spectacle for the supporters on the bank. In the final, I believe the UG crew will have raced too many events before this final to contest for the win, leaving holders Cork A and UCD A to be out in front. After supplementing the crew with an Olympic bronze medallist and producing a 5:31 time without him at Cork Regatta, it’s extremely difficult to find a reason not to say UCD A will bring the Big Pot back to Belfield. Cork Boat Club won’t want to relinquish their hold on this championship easily, though, and will require UCD to pull out the perfect performance to strip them of their title.
