Commercial Rowing Club is a sports club located in Dublin, affiliated with

Rowing Ireland 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. Rowing Ireland is a member of ...

. Commercial Rowing Club facilitates competitive rowing for Juniors (under 18 years of age)and Adults (including Novices, Intermediates, Seniors and Veterans). The Club is open to male and female athletes. The club colours are Myrtle Green, White & Azure Blue. The Commercial Rowing Club Boathouse is located at

Islandbridge Island Bridge (), formerly Sarah or Sarah's Bridge, is a road bridge spanning the River Liffey, in Dublin, Ireland which joins the South Circular Road to Conyngham Road at the Phoenix Park. Island Bridge and the surrounding area (often known ...

, where the calm protected waters of the upper Liffey enable rowing year-round. Commercial also has access to the shared boathouse on

Blessington Lake Poulaphouca Reservoir, officially Pollaphuca (), is an active reservoir (for both water supply and electricity generation) and area of wild bird conservation in west County Wicklow, Ireland named after the Poulaphouca waterfall on its south-wes ...

in Wicklow.

History

Commercial Rowing Club was founded in Ringsend in 1856. It is the second oldest rowing club in Ireland. The name dates an era when all non-university clubs were designated ‘commercial’. The original membership was drawn from the Commercial heart of Dublin, tailors, bankers and other shopkeepers of Henry Street and Grafton Street and the boat house was originally located in Ringsend. To avoid the inconvenience and dangers of the Tides and the port traffic, Commercial moved upstream from Ringsend to the peaceful waters of Islandbridge in 1942 to take over the premises of Dublin Rowing Club, which had become insolvent. In the sixties recruitment was predominantly among young working men who rowed mainly in Novice grades. With the boathouse locked up for the 1969 season the club decided to go in an entirely different direction and bring in juniors in Big Numbers in the seventies. Oarswomen had to be secretly introduced and trained to a standard where they would win at their first regatta. The site of a Commercial “ladies” crew in front on the winning straight was too much for even the most hardened misogynist and the girls were finally accepted in the club. In no time at all the membership went from 3 to 50 or 60 of all ages and both sexes.

Fleet

In 2015, Commercial Boathouse contained the following fleet of boats for members' use: - *46 single sculls *6 double sculls *4 pairs *3 coxless quads *5 coxed quads *2 coxed fours *8 eights *21 Concept II ergometers

Achievements

The development of Commercial coincided with a new policy of the IARU to encourage small boat rowing. By the year 2000, Commercial Rowing Club had won nearly 100 Irish National Championship medals. This placed the club in second place in Ireland. At the 1991

World Rowing Championships The World Rowing Championships is an international rowing regatta organized by FISA (the International Rowing Federation). It is a week-long event held at the end of the northern hemisphere summer and in non-Olympic years is the highlight of the ...

in Vienna, a sculler from Commercial RC named Niall O'Toole won a Gold Medal in the Men's Lightweight Single Scull, breaking the world record in a time of 6m:49.49s in the process. This was Ireland's first Gold medal in any Rowing World Championship event. O'Toole went on to compete in three Olympic Games. In 1991 and 1994, O'Toole was presented with the Texaco All Star award. The 1990s brought in a total of five World Championship medals and several u/23 medals.

Regattas

Commercial Rowing Club has been strongly represented on the organizing committee for the Dublin Metropolitan Regatta (aka "Metro") since 1869. Outside of Metro, Commercial also regularly hosts its own regatta and, by 2008, Commercial had hosted its 26th regatta. Initially the regatta was for women's events only, but men's events were added in 1986."Commercial Regatta". (May 1st, 1986). Regatta Magazine, pp. 18.

References

{{reflist Rowing clubs in Ireland Sports clubs and teams in Dublin (city) 1856 establishments in Ireland Sports clubs and teams established in 1856