Sport Rowing Affiliation FISA | Founded 1899 (1899) President Con Cronin | |
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Headquarters National Rowing Centre, Cork | ||
Rowing Ireland, formerly the Irish Amateur Rowing Union, is the governing body of rowing for Ireland. It is a cross-border organisation administering the sport in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
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Rowing Ireland is a member of the Olympic Council of Ireland and the Fédération Internationale des Sociétés d’Aviron (FISA).
Membership
80 clubs are affiliated to Rowing Ireland. These are from every part of the island and include schools, third level institutions and open clubs. The Irish Coastal Rowing Federation was affiliated to Rowing Ireland. but in February 2017 Rowing Ireland discontinued the ICRF's affiliation.
Championships
Established in 1899 as the Irish Amateur Rowing Union, the association hosted its first championship in 1912. At the 1912 AGM, which was held in February, it was agreed that a cup be purchased for £100 for the Union to be presented for annual competition amongst senior eights. This would in time become known as "The Big Pot". The inaugural Senior eights championship took place at Metropolitan Regatta in Ringsend on the Lower Liffey in July 1912 and City of Derry Boating Club were the winners. It would be 1934 before the Junior (Intermediate) eights championship was added. Since then many additional championships have been added and 44 are now contested each year at the Championship Regatta.
National Rowing Centre
The National Rowing Centre (NRC) in Farran Wood, Cork is the headquarters of Rowing Ireland and is also the base of the High Performance team. The Centre has an eight lane Albano course and hosts a number of regattas and the Championship Regatta each year. Every four years it hosts the Home International Regatta. In 1999 and 2008 it hosted the Coupe de la Jeunesse and is scheduled to host it again in 2018.
World Championships
Ireland has won 6 gold, 9 silver and 8 bronze medals at the World Championships. The Gold winners were:
Olympics
Ireland first participated at the 1948 Olympics when a men's eight represented Ireland. It participated at 11 subsequent games. The Rio games were its most successful with three crews participating and Ireland's first olympic rowing medal. Gary O'Donovan and Paul O'Donovan won silver in the LM2x. Claire Lambe and Sinead Jennings became the first women's crew to make an Olympic final where they finished sixth. Due to weather conditions Sanita Puspure was unfortunate to only finish thirteenth. Prior to this Ireland's best performances had been fourth place on two occasions. In 1976 Sean Drea came fourth in Montreal and in 1996 the Lightweight four also finished fourth in Atlanta.