The project:
Captain, Elaine Winters:
I started rowing in 2002 with Schull rowing Club – and little did I know then I would be captain of a twelve women rowing crew taking on the Celtic Challenge in 2019!
I remember being in Schull in the summer of 2001 -having just moved down from Dublin - and the All Ireland Coastal championships were on. I took no notice – except for the festivities on the street that night. The following summer I joined Schull Rowing Club and dedicated all my summers for the next seven years to training and racing for the championship regattas and All Ireland finals. While medals, plaques and trophies accumulated in the drawer – it was the love of the sea and connection through pushing off through the feet and pulling on the oar, giving it my all for myself, my team and club – that created an ever-deepening passion for rowing and what it stood for: camaraderie, shared love and passion, making friendships that last a lifetime.
I took up Currach rowing in Cork city in 2012 and this introduced me to another crew of passionate rowers who rowed for adventure, sport, and appreciation of our heritage, reminding me of the spirit of great navigators and raiding pirates gone before like St Brendan and Gráinne Mhaol, - all for the fun of it like! Saints, Scholars and Scoundrels!
Martin O’Donoghue is one of those keen sc – I mean rowers - planning rebel raids around the coast of Ireland every summer. Of many abiding memories - coming ashore on the crest of breaking waves to the sound of waves crashing on Sherkin Island - is something I will never forget!
In between times I kept in touch with the coastal racing clubs – racing with Blackrock Rowing club and East Ferry Rowing Club, meeting and connecting with fabulous people dedicated to rowing and racing – creating great communities around the rowing.
I was and still am very privileged to have partook in once in a life time experiences with Naomhóga Chorcaí– rowing currachs up the grand canal and out into the lagoon in Venice (thanks to Ed O’Leary, another curach adventurer), rowing to Scotland and around the Mull of Kintyre (Paddy Hegarty – the bigger the challenge the better for Paddy), the Great River Race in London, rowing to Rathlin Island, Aran Islands, Cape Clear, and when the weather window (Martin Schweddes ever ready) opened we circumnavigated the Skellig’s and Fastnet rocks – on different days of course!
And yet, every single week a row in a curach up or down the Lee brings its own delights and camaraderie. We absolutely need to protect the heritage of our city! The life and love people develop for Cork and its citizens through curach rowing on the Lee is something very special – a connection to place and making it home.
I digress – but there you are – it isn’t just about rowing – rowing is about life and how we live it every single day!
Onto the Celtic Challenge!
How did this come about?
I must give credit here to Martin Schweddes. Bridget Meagher, a fellow rower from Schull, would have talked about the Celtic Challenge race when we entered the first Ocean to City race in 2005, it seemed like a far away dream to me at that time. It came up again when I met Shane from Dun Laoighre rowing club (who I knew from Dublin many moons ago at that stage) rowing the Barrow river race. They had completed the challenge and poised the question as to when we were going to row it. Again, the idea floated by me.
The Ocean to City race is a great place to meet rowers from all over – and one morning Maria Kelly, Martin Schweddes and I were on the bus down to the start and chatting to fellow rowers and a team who had done the challenge. This was something that really peeked Martin Schweddes’ attention – a German living in Ireland – who took to rowing a currach like he was born to do it, a great navigator, Martin decided he was going to take on the Celtic challenge in a currach next time round.
However, despite training and a lot of work done by a currach crew this did not become a reality. But it succeeded in making the Celtic challenge a reality for me. I saw Martin’s passion and will to make it happen, but technically there was no category in the Celtic Challenge for a currach.
In November 2018 my sister Carmel’s film “Float like a Butterfly” was opening the Cork Film Festival. This was a hugely exciting time as the film was shot entirely on location in West Cork and created an opportunity for friends from wide and far to come together and meet each other the first time: the curach rowers and the coastal rowers. The coastal boats are four oar so are allowed enter the Celtic Challenge! I floated the idea to Bridget of having enough rowers to take on the Celtic challenge – and when all these women were sitting around with pre film cocktails in the Montenotte hotel Bridget started sizing up the curach rowers!!!! They knew what the undertaking was when part of the crew Martin had put together for the Challenge previously!
A Celtic Challenge WhatsApp group was set up by Bridget the next day and the voyage was underway!
The call went out for crew! Credentials? Ability to row coastal boat, the love of rowing (naturally), mental tenacity, Discipline to train, creativity, a little bit of madness and the self-belief to go for it!
The call went out for a host club!
East Ferry came up Trumps!
Providing us with club support, boats, training coxes, and rough enough water to train safely in. Benny quietly tipping us off that the coastal one design might not be the best boat for the Irish Sea crossing, Maria Kelly put the call in to Jimmy Austin to contact George O’Brien from Vartry Rowing Club in Co Wicklow whom they met at the Ocean to City award ceremony the previous year. George had done the Celtic Challenge many times and so the search for a Celtic Longboat began!
With a phone call at 1:30AM Maria was told by George there was a Celtic Longboat belonging to Michael McGroarty from Donegal in Wexford – heading back to Donegal the following morning. Maria was to ring Michael that minute to ensure the boat came to Cork instead of Donegal!
And so it did!
The rest of the story is here on the website – unfolding day by day!
Beours with Oars! For the love of rowing! Join us on our voyage!
I started rowing in 2002 with Schull rowing Club – and little did I know then I would be captain of a twelve women rowing crew taking on the Celtic Challenge in 2019!
I remember being in Schull in the summer of 2001 -having just moved down from Dublin - and the All Ireland Coastal championships were on. I took no notice – except for the festivities on the street that night. The following summer I joined Schull Rowing Club and dedicated all my summers for the next seven years to training and racing for the championship regattas and All Ireland finals. While medals, plaques and trophies accumulated in the drawer – it was the love of the sea and connection through pushing off through the feet and pulling on the oar, giving it my all for myself, my team and club – that created an ever-deepening passion for rowing and what it stood for: camaraderie, shared love and passion, making friendships that last a lifetime.
I took up Currach rowing in Cork city in 2012 and this introduced me to another crew of passionate rowers who rowed for adventure, sport, and appreciation of our heritage, reminding me of the spirit of great navigators and raiding pirates gone before like St Brendan and Gráinne Mhaol, - all for the fun of it like! Saints, Scholars and Scoundrels!
Martin O’Donoghue is one of those keen sc – I mean rowers - planning rebel raids around the coast of Ireland every summer. Of many abiding memories - coming ashore on the crest of breaking waves to the sound of waves crashing on Sherkin Island - is something I will never forget!
In between times I kept in touch with the coastal racing clubs – racing with Blackrock Rowing club and East Ferry Rowing Club, meeting and connecting with fabulous people dedicated to rowing and racing – creating great communities around the rowing.
I was and still am very privileged to have partook in once in a life time experiences with Naomhóga Chorcaí– rowing currachs up the grand canal and out into the lagoon in Venice (thanks to Ed O’Leary, another curach adventurer), rowing to Scotland and around the Mull of Kintyre (Paddy Hegarty – the bigger the challenge the better for Paddy), the Great River Race in London, rowing to Rathlin Island, Aran Islands, Cape Clear, and when the weather window (Martin Schweddes ever ready) opened we circumnavigated the Skellig’s and Fastnet rocks – on different days of course!
And yet, every single week a row in a curach up or down the Lee brings its own delights and camaraderie. We absolutely need to protect the heritage of our city! The life and love people develop for Cork and its citizens through curach rowing on the Lee is something very special – a connection to place and making it home.
I digress – but there you are – it isn’t just about rowing – rowing is about life and how we live it every single day!
Onto the Celtic Challenge!
How did this come about?
I must give credit here to Martin Schweddes. Bridget Meagher, a fellow rower from Schull, would have talked about the Celtic Challenge race when we entered the first Ocean to City race in 2005, it seemed like a far away dream to me at that time. It came up again when I met Shane from Dun Laoighre rowing club (who I knew from Dublin many moons ago at that stage) rowing the Barrow river race. They had completed the challenge and poised the question as to when we were going to row it. Again, the idea floated by me.
The Ocean to City race is a great place to meet rowers from all over – and one morning Maria Kelly, Martin Schweddes and I were on the bus down to the start and chatting to fellow rowers and a team who had done the challenge. This was something that really peeked Martin Schweddes’ attention – a German living in Ireland – who took to rowing a currach like he was born to do it, a great navigator, Martin decided he was going to take on the Celtic challenge in a currach next time round.
However, despite training and a lot of work done by a currach crew this did not become a reality. But it succeeded in making the Celtic challenge a reality for me. I saw Martin’s passion and will to make it happen, but technically there was no category in the Celtic Challenge for a currach.
In November 2018 my sister Carmel’s film “Float like a Butterfly” was opening the Cork Film Festival. This was a hugely exciting time as the film was shot entirely on location in West Cork and created an opportunity for friends from wide and far to come together and meet each other the first time: the curach rowers and the coastal rowers. The coastal boats are four oar so are allowed enter the Celtic Challenge! I floated the idea to Bridget of having enough rowers to take on the Celtic challenge – and when all these women were sitting around with pre film cocktails in the Montenotte hotel Bridget started sizing up the curach rowers!!!! They knew what the undertaking was when part of the crew Martin had put together for the Challenge previously!
A Celtic Challenge WhatsApp group was set up by Bridget the next day and the voyage was underway!
The call went out for crew! Credentials? Ability to row coastal boat, the love of rowing (naturally), mental tenacity, Discipline to train, creativity, a little bit of madness and the self-belief to go for it!
The call went out for a host club!
East Ferry came up Trumps!
Providing us with club support, boats, training coxes, and rough enough water to train safely in. Benny quietly tipping us off that the coastal one design might not be the best boat for the Irish Sea crossing, Maria Kelly put the call in to Jimmy Austin to contact George O’Brien from Vartry Rowing Club in Co Wicklow whom they met at the Ocean to City award ceremony the previous year. George had done the Celtic Challenge many times and so the search for a Celtic Longboat began!
With a phone call at 1:30AM Maria was told by George there was a Celtic Longboat belonging to Michael McGroarty from Donegal in Wexford – heading back to Donegal the following morning. Maria was to ring Michael that minute to ensure the boat came to Cork instead of Donegal!
And so it did!
The rest of the story is here on the website – unfolding day by day!
Beours with Oars! For the love of rowing! Join us on our voyage!