The women’s senior quad event at the Irish Rowing Championships sees a healthy number of five crews, three of whom are composite entries, line up on Saturday afternoon. The winner of this straight final will be honoured to add their names to the Heather & Mike Thomas Memorial Trophy. Let’s look at the contenders for what looks to be a strong field.
Skibbereen RC
The dominant force in Irish sculling, Skibbereen, are calling on their Irish squad athletes to do the business on Saturday. The standout names of Emily Hegarty and Aoife Casey in the stern pair will create that powerful, aggressive racing style so familiar with crews from the Cork club. In the bows, Aisling Hayes will look to bring her experience of quad racing to the table, having raced at the European Rowing Championships in Ireland’s first-ever senior women’s quad. Behind her is the rising talent of Moya Knowles, who knows what it takes to win quad titles, having won the junior quad last year alongside the junior single and two silver medals in the double and coxless four. Internationally, Knowles has raced at the U19 World Rowing Championships in 2022 and 2024. 2022 saw her finish third in the B-final of the junior quad, whilst 2024 saw a win in the B-final of the junior double.
University College Cork
Another club that produced several Irish scullers, UCC, will be pleased to have their Olympian Margaret Cremen at their disposal this year, and she is set to stroke their quad and set a punchy rhythm for the women behind her. In the three-seat, former U23 lightweight international Cliodhna Nolan will look to go one place better than last year’s race, finishing second to the UL/Shannon composite alongside Kate Reidy and Lauren O’Brien, who take up their seats in the bows again for this year’s renewal.
Queens Belfast/University of Limerick
An interesting composite from either end of the country, Queens joins forces with UL athlete Amy Barrett, who holds the title from last year. Barrett is no stranger to rowing with Queens athletes, having raced Henley Women’s regatta with Sam McCormick, who will sit in the bow of the quad. Stroking will be former Irish junior and now GB U23 athlete Molly Curry. She finished fifth at the U19 World Rowing Championships in the double for Ireland before transitioning to GB, where she raced in the U23 quad in 2022 and 2023, finishing fifth and eighth, respectively.
Tralee/New Ross
Another composite entry sees Anna Brennan of New Ross join forces with three of Tralee’s best scullers. Brennan represented Ireland at last year’s U19 World Rowing Championships, finishing with a win in the B-final of the double. Rosie Giles in the bow of this composite has just completed her first year with Oxford Brookes University, finishing just shy of the medals at BUCS in the intermediate eights and making it to Thursday of Henley Royal Regatta in Brookes’ Island Challenge Cup ‘B’ crew.
St Michael’s/Commercial RC
The final composite entry sees the Limerick club of St Michael’s join forces with Commercial RC of Dublin. In the two-seat, Sophie Connolly returns from competing at Henley Royal Regatta in a composite double with Nottingham RC, going down to a strong New Zealand crew in the second round. Connolly will be joined by clubmate Laoise Molumby, who returns from her fresher year at Princeton University and recently took part in the final U23 selection trials. Completing the crew are two St Michael’s athletes, Shelia Clavin and Vanessa Lawernson, both of whom are seasoned rowers competing mostly in Masters whilst Clavin has also had success in Offshore rowing.
Prediction
Based on the pedigree of both crews, I very much hope for a thrilling battle between Skibbereen and UCC. I think Skibb has the extra horsepower to get their bow in front, but do not underestimate the sprint of the UCC crew.
