On August 29, 2016, the town of Skibbereen woke up. The morning was unusual for many reasons: not only was the weather cooler than usual with a drizzle of rain forming but there were also more people around than previous Augusts gone by, and there was one event that filled the calendars of so many locals.
That mild, late-August afternoon, between ten and fifteen thousand people from across the country populated the narrow streets of a small rural town that was home to, at the time, three thousand people. The roads were closed, and the media had arrived to capture a moment that would go down in rowing history as the kickstart for Irish Rowing success at the Olympic Games. The two heroes returning, Paul and Gary O’Donovan, had just won a silver medal in the men’s lightweight double sculls category at the Rio De Janeiro Olympic Games, making it Ireland’s first Olympic medal in rowing. Skibbereen town was welcoming home two national heroes.
Both men hailed from a powerhouse club in west Cork surrounded by the River Ilen. The club is Skibbereen Rowing Club, and it is the most successful rowing club in Ireland.
History
The club began in 1970 with founding members promoting the sport in the small town. They quickly put their money together and bought a coxless four which began entering into competitions soon after. However, though they had the boat, there was no club house to facilitate it, so it was left on the riverbank beside Deelish Peir. The following year after its founding, the club became affiliated to the Irish Rowing Amateur Union. This change brought the club up to speed with the sport in the country while also allowing them to compete at more regattas and become involved in international representation. By 1973, the club had grown in strength and had purchased new and second-hand boats and oars due to the large number of interest in the sport from the community. This, in time, lead to the club finally securing the large site where the current club house stands today. For a considerately small club, at the time this was a massive achievement, and it meant that members of the club were greeted with suitable facilities which would eventually create Olympians.
National Success
The success this club has acquired since its foundation has been formidable. It is hard to describe how magical this club is. It has been said for years that ‘there’s something in the water’ of the Ilen and that somehow it has magnificently benefitted the rowers that train upon it, and the results and titles can support that theory. As of now, the club holds an impressive ten Irish Championship course records across a multitude of categories.
Along with this, last year the club achieved their 200th Championship title by Jake McCarthy in the men’s senior lightweight scull race. It was the first race final of the weekend, and it was possibly the most exciting, intense and captivating display of the clubs’ impressive talent this year. McCarthy was down for the majority of the 2,000-metre race right until the end, when his bow ball surged across the finish line to mark history for the club. By the end of the weekend, the club came home with more than just that. In total, five Irish Rowing Championship titles were acquired, making the tally stand at 204 Irish Championship wins currently since the club’s inception.
International Success
Over the years, the club has become heavily involved in the Rowing Ireland High Performance selection process with not only rowers being chosen to represent the country, but coaches as well. Skibbereen Rowing Club has long produced some of the most successful rowers not only in Ireland, but in the world.
Since the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games, the lightweight men’s double scull comprising of Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan set a standard for the rowing world. After the Games, where the gold medal was secured and a record time was set, it seemed Skibbereen Rowing Club was impossible to stop. Following on from Tokyo, the pair reunited and took another gold in the Lightweight Men’s Double in Paris 2024, making them seem immortal. That being said, the club has long been represented internationally by a broad range of people. Within five years of the clubs founding, they already had a World Champion rower by the name of Nuala Lupton, who is currently the club’s President.
Last year, the club had representation at the Junior European Championships in Poland, where Mattias Cogan and Aoife Hendydonned the Irish one-piece. In Switzerland, at the World Rowing Cup Two, the club was represented by Fintan McCarthy, Paul O’Donovan and Aisling Hayes.
By the World Championships in September, Skibbereen town had Emily Hegarty, Aoife Casey, Aisling Hayes, Fintan McCarthy and Jake McCarthy all competing over in Shanghai. Both McCarthy brothers won bronze in their respective boats, while Fintan changed out of the men’s double to partner with Mags Cremen to win the first Mixed Double Sculls at the championship. Overall, the clubs’ athletes had stellar performances across the weekend with a very strong representation over the summer events abroad.
Behind The Success
For Skibbereen rowers, there seems to be one man behind it all. His name is Dominic Casey. Dominic was introduced to rowing when he joined Skibbereen RC and achieved Irish Championship success in his favourite boats: the single scull and the double scull. Casey first came to fame in 2016, when the O’Donovan brothers won their silver medal, as the winning coach who devoted his evenings after work to coach them.
That December, he became Rowing Ireland’s Lightweight men’s and women’s coach. Since that appointment, he oversaw World Championships, European Championships and World Cups where his rowers’ performances were spectacular to say the least. In 2018, he was awarded World Rowing’s Coach of the Year to acknowledge his major success as part of Rowing Ireland. He is now currently the High Performance Lead Coach for Rowing Ireland and, in 2025, he won the Olympic Federation of Ireland’s Coach of the Year award, after an immensely successful year yet again. Casey’s passion for the sport along with determination to drive his rowers on has fuelled the athletes of Skibbereen and has made Irish Rowing all the better. He is undoubtedly an asset to Skibbereen.
Funding
Many rowing clubs across the country in recent years have begun a struggle to fund immense amounts of expensive equipment and to keep up to the high standard set by clubs, colleges and private schools around the world. Skibbereen Rowing Club, being a club with an Olympic standard and having no association to a school or college, have been able to receive large grants from the Irish Government. In the summer months of last year Skibbereen Rowing Club secured funding of €52,734 by the Government’s Community Recognition Fund. This money was set to be for enhancing the clubs’ facilities. Furthermore, in 2024, three months before Paul and Fintan returned with Olympic Gold, the club received its largest grant of €200,000 which was to assist the club in the purchase of new boats.
This Year
Being such a lighthouse for rowing in Ireland, Skibbereen Rowing Club looks to have a very promising year ahead. I believe that the club will attain major success this year, as it has done previously, both nationally and internationally. With the summer regattas pivoting into view for the clubs’ athletes, they will be resorting to their valuable training program in hopes that their winning streak continues and that they regain their Championship titles.
It can also be noted that Skibbereen will return to not only participate in the Grand League series but will also re-host their regatta at the start of April at the National Rowing Centre this year.
Skibbereen Rowing Club has been a lightbulb for rowing over many years. Shining a light onto the rowers that pass through the club house and painting a picture of the talent they have attained through the rowing they compete in. For many years now, journalists, locals, coaches and rowers across the world have wondered what it is that makes Skibbereen the most successful rowing club in Ireland and what makes its rowers some of the finest worldwide. There is clearly something in the water of the Ilen.
Image Credit: Skibbereen Rowing Club
