Cover image by Mark Kelly (thewateredge)
A blue riband event for rowing, there’s serious prestige attached to a triumph in any regatta for the senior eight – let alone the Irish University Rowing Championships. While it’s very early in the racing season to evaluate crews for potential National Championship-winning speed, it’s an excellent indicator of how effective the hard winter miles and initial sprint training have been for the intervarsity clubs. Regardless, the racing in this category will set the standard for women’s eights across the season to come, and all should be extremely excited to watch these crews go head-to-head at the National Rowing Centre on 11 April.
A further element that has to be considered when it comes to the eights is the unique trophies available – the most successful women’s club across novice, club, intermediate, and senior eights will receive the Bank of Ireland Trophy at the University Championships for women’s eights. The winning club of each category will receive one point – in the eventuality of a tie, the club which wins the senior eight will receive the trophy.
University of Galway
The women of UG will likely impress in this category, their entry featuring five members of their National Championship-winning intermediate eight from July 2024. Of those five, Isabel O’Byrne also won the women’s intermediate pair, and Maddie Donnelly and Emma Fagan also won the women’s senior coxless four at the 2024 Championships, and they’re all trialling for the U23 Irish team this summer. They also came a close second to the University of Limerick in the senior eight at the Irish Rowing Championships – they’re skilful racers with their technical proficiency best demonstrated by their ability to easily switch between boat classes. They will have been disappointed with their recent performance at Erne Eights Head of the River, where they placed fourth despite carrying a former Enniskillen Royal BC coxswain Katelyn Fee. This crew has ability in abundance, and now it’s just a question of whether they are ready to show it off with months to go until the season peaks in July.
University of Limerick (UL)
Back-to-back senior eight champions of Ireland in 2023 and 2024, UL are rightfully feared in the eights these days. Their lineup for the University Championships is stacked, beginning with Alyssa Mannix and Amy Barrett leading the crew out in stern pair. Both represented Ireland at the 2024 Home International Regatta, and Barrett is back in the Irish setup this year, trialling as a lightweight sculler. Middle four’s Christine Kirwin and Caoimhe O’Sullivan were both in last year’s senior eight, which won the Irish Rowing Championships, while Tara Long and Sybil Perkins recently placed second and third in the women’s open and U23 categories, respectively, at the Irish Indoor Rowing Championships. In bow pair, Róisín Byrne is a new face, having rowed as a junior at Offaly RC, while Sadhbh Scully won intermediate and senior eight with the club in 2023 at the Irish Rowing Championships.
However, the same crew recently laid down a relatively lacklustre performance at Erne Eights Head of the River, finishing a somewhat dismal sixth overall – second to last of the women’s senior eights and behind a J18A crew from Enniskillen Royal BC, who were admittedly on their home turf. Having been 50 seconds slower than winners Dublin University Ladies BC, it could be a stretch to see them hitting sprint form on time to take home the top title at the University Championships.
University College Dublin
Entering the same crew in senior as intermediate, UCD are sending out a very powerful eight with a proven racing mindset. They recuperated well from a 14.4-second loss to DULBC at Erne Eights Head of the River to put open water on them only a fortnight later, over the much shorter two-kilometre Head race that is the Colours Boat Race on the lower Liffey through Dublin city centre. While a majority of this crew began their careers as novices in UCD, they’ve racked up stunning experience ever since – each and every single member has some shining accolade to their name, whether it’s a win at the Irish Rowing Championships, international representation, appearances at Henley Royal Regatta, and more. I am confident this crew will go out aggressively and hope their early-season fitness lays down a big marker on the crews around them.
Prediction
In 2025, it’s alarming to look past UL for a win in a women’s senior eight, but the margin at Erne Eights compared to UG and UCD was simply too much to justify not calling the race to be a toss-up between the latter two. UCD were predicted for the intermediate eight – I’d be hesitant to say any crew would go two for two, given the nature of a jampacked University Championships schedule and a lot of double-and tripling-up in crews that will inevitably lead to fatigue. Having said that, it’s very hard to skip over such a clear demonstration of early-season sprint form as UCD laid down at the Colours Boat Races. Friday’s results will lay down a significant marker for the rest of the season and show the quality we can expect for the rest of this season.
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