The UK has the Men’s and Women’s Eights Head of the River Race in London; the Irish have the Erne Eights Head of the River Race. Both are run over similar distances, six kilometres for Erne and 6.8 kilometres for the London equivalent. The Erne Eights Head of the River Race, however, requires far more navigational skill on the narrow course with two crucial bends that could be the difference in winning or losing. Coxes will play a pivotal role in ensuring their crew gets the ideal racing line down the course on Saturday. In the women’s Intermediate eights, three crews will contest for top honours.
University of Limerick (UL)
UL make the journey to Enniskillen with a crew making a step up in category from last year’s club event, where they finished eleventh overall and second in club eights. Of that 2025 crew, Claire Tanner, Eva Hanley, Lucy Mulcahy and Emma Thomas make their return and are joined by the experienced Orla Gaffney in the five-seat and Caoimhe O’Sullivan in the seven-seat. Several of these women finished third in this category at the Irish Rowing Championships, so it is likely that UL is testing what could be their 2026 line-up to try to claim the Intermediate title in a few months’ time.
Neptune Rowing Club
The Dublin clubs are regular travellers to the Erne Head races, and this year sees the addition of a women’s eight from Neptune, competing after being absent last year. Half of this crew competed in the club eight at last year’s Irish Rowing Championships, whilst in the five-seat, Orla O’Loughlin was part of the intermediate coxed four that just fell short of a championship. The Neptune sweep group will be bolstered this season with the addition of both Sarah Butler from University College Dublin and Shauna Murtagh of the University of Galway. Both women bring vast experience in eights racing, with Butler winning the intermediate eight at the University Championships and Murtagh winning both the club and senior eights at the 2022 Irish Rowing Championships.
University of Galway (UG)
UG is no stranger to eights racing, and their second eight will be given the task of trying to secure an Intermediate pennant on Saturday. Miriam Fuller, Rebecca Dunleavy and Lucy Callaly are the only members of this boat to have raced this course, so their experience will prove vital to their crewmates and coxswain Ella Clarke in ensuring the best performance.
Prediction
All three crews hail from clubs with experience in eights racing, but I am inclined to predict the Neptune crew will come out on top in the intermediate eights category, given the experience they have on board. UL is likely to put up a strong challenge, having raced this event last year, but will be hunting down the UG crew, also, who are due to start ahead of UL on Saturday.
