Skibbereen Rowing Club

It’s nine years since two young men from Skibbereen won Ireland’s first-ever rowing medal at an Olympic Games. At the 1976 Olympics in Montreal Sean Drea finished fourth in the single sculls. Twenty years later, at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the Irish lightweight four finished fourth as well. Close, but not close enough.
But then Gary and Paul came along in 2016, the silver bullets in Rio who broke through the glass ceiling and showed that Irish rowers are good enough to win Olympic medals. Gary and Paul weren’t two aliens that flew down for an Olympic year and medalled. They have two arms and two legs like every other Irish rower. They believed too, heading to Rio, that they would medal. They believed that they were good enough to win a medal – and they were.

That belief has been infectious.

Skibbereen Rowing Club, nestled in the rolling green hills of the scenic south of Ireland, has been making waves that are being felt at the tallest summits of rowing. Founded in 1970 by Richard Hosford, Donie Fitzgerald and the late Danny Murphy, the crew started with just a single boat, a four-oar rowing gig.
Within five years, Skibbereen birthed their first World Championship rower, Nuala Lupton, now the current Skibbereen Rowing Club president. In 1977, the Club purchased the land that remains their home today, on the banks of the River Ilen, just outside of the idyllic town of Skibbereen in County Cork.
Skibbereen Rowing Club has consciously focused on being a high-performance club. Their facilities are formidable, boasting a 3 600 square-foot boathouse as well as a clubhouse and a fully equipped gym. With over a hundred members and growing, “a new extension will be added this summer, which we are very excited about”, says Sharon Murphy, a key member of the Club.
Their track record speaks for itself, its members having won 188 Irish titles and boasts alums winning Olympic medals, including the silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics by Gary and Paul O’Donovan in the men’s lightweight double scull and a bronze medal for Emily Hegarty in the women’s four in the Tokyo Olympics. A significant milestone was reached for the country when Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy won Ireland’s first-ever rowing Olympic gold medal in Tokyo in the lightweight double scull. Skibbereen’s pedigree is made even more impressive given all eight of the Club’s coaches are volunteers, led by head coach Denise Walsh.

Brothers Gary and Paul O'Donovan, from Lisheen, near Skibbereen, in Cork, took silver in the men's lightweight double sculls and won their country's first medals in the men’s double sculls. After their success at the Rio Olympics, Gary and Paul O'Donovan became overnight stars - but no one was talking about their silver medals. The interview the Irish brothers gave with RTE Sport made them two of the most talked-about stars of Rio 2016.
Perhaps it was because they are the only athletes to talk about pizza, chocolate spread and urine samples on television.
Or maybe it was the Irish accents that won them fans across the world.
It was fun to see their boat club firming during a practice session.Read more