A fascinating history and healthy ambitions

AS someone who is not wellversed on the traditions and history of rowing, to listen to Rob Dunne recount the origins of the sport and the subsequent founding of Wicklow Rowing Club is fascinating. While the club came to be in 1956, rowing has been a part of Irish culture since the latter part of the 1800s. At that time, operations were run by ship captains and local fisherman, according to Rob, who followed his grandfather Sid and father Tommy when he joined the club as a teenager in the 1970s.

As time wore on, rowing became an increasingly competitive practice, by nature moreso than by design. ‘What would happen,’ Dunne explains, ‘is that, when the schooner was visible on the horizon, you would have a certain amount of groups vying to unload the cargo. The first boat that got out to the ship, piloted the ship back into the harbour and their colleagues would get the job of unloading the ship and got paid for it.’

Those could be considered to have been the very first examples of competitive rowing races. It only evolved from there. In 1878, the very first Wicklow Regatta was held. Instead of formalised clubs competing in races, they largely consisted of families and crews of schooners. Of course, the longer this carried on, the more appetite there was for an official organisation in Wicklow. This brings us to 1956, when Fr. Hans brought the founding committee together to break the proverbial champagne bottle and form Wicklow Rowing Club. The first boat was christened the St. Mhantain, which was handed over by James Everett, who remarked at the time: ‘or many years past a skiff was coming to Wicklow for the annual August Regatta, now there was a vibrant new club ready to take on the visitors, and in their own skiff.’

The boat was taken out for a trial by registered members Jimmy and Billy Cleary, Paddy Duggan, and Noel Brennan, and the rest was history. The first Wicklow Regatta was such a success in terms of popularity that, a year later, the club was commissioned its second skiff, to be built locally.

Sixty-four years later, and that inventory of two boats has grown to include nine, including a coastal four, fibreglass boat, as well as two FISA boats, named after the sport’s international governing body. They won their first Junior Cup in 1959, the year in which the Wicklow Regatta Festival was opened by Erskine Childers. By the end of the year, discussions were being had as to the practicality of building a clubhouse which ultimately materialised.

From 1990 to 2005, Wicklow competed in the All-Ireland Rowing Championships, winning three. The club stepped away from the nationals in ’05 and returned in a big, bombastic way 14 years later. In 2019, having picked up 10 sets of domestic championship medals; three gold, five silver, and two bronze. It was the kind of regional glory that was a culmination of work that was amplified by their joining Rowing Ireland: the organisation responsible for the governing of the sport in Ireland.

‘Part of joining Rowing Ireland back in 2016, was to make sure that our youngsters have the opportunities to be the next O’Donovan. They have the network and opportunity to rise through the ranks, which was not afforded to us beforehand,’ Dunne said.

Following on from what they did on the domestic stage, Wicklow made their way to the 2019 national championships for the first time since 2005.

Despite their time away, the crews sent to the nationals did not miss a beat. The senior ladies won their traditional race, as did the under-18 boys and senior men. Meanwhile, in the coastal four category, the junior men won their heats and came second in the final.

Having performed so excellently at the national last August, the rowers moved on to another moment of history when they travelled to their first-ever offshore championships, in Antrim. The four-man team that would prove victorious consisted of Tom Stafford from Wexford, Peter Doyle, Andrew Greene, and former world champion and multiple time Olympian, Niall O’Toole, who had joined the club in order to compete at the competition.

Had I not been for the coronavirus pandemic, 2020 was due to be a big year for Wicklow Rowing Club, although their ambitions for what the club can be remain lofty. Among other ideas, the club is looking to expand their season from the current timeframe of Easter to September, to a much broader 10-month period. Not only that, but they are looking to build on the clubhouse to include an embankment to protect from coastal erosion, as well as expanding on the building itself to accommodate the increasing number of boats in their possession.

Regardless of how long these changes will take to implement, given current circumstances, Wicklow Rowing Club is not sitting still as it looks to go from strength to strength into their 65th year.