All persons working with or coming into regular contact with Junior members of Rowing Ireland should be vetted by Rowing Ireland through either Garda Vetting (Republic of Ireland) or AccessNI in Northern Ireland.

Sport NI have worked with iCoachKids to create an e-learning course to support coaches and coach developers working with children and young people.  These e-learning courses will be free of charge to all learners, and will provide in-depth learning opportunities across the following three themes:

1 – Developing Effective Environments for Children in Sport

2 – Child and Youth-Centred Coaching

3 – Coaching Children: Planning, Doing and Reviewing

The three online courses can now be accessed via: www.sportnicoachkids.net

Safeguarding Training
Sport Ireland offers three workshops in the area of Safeguarding and child protection. The details of the three stages of training are outlined here as follows

Safeguarding 1 – Child Welfare & Protection Basic Awareness Workshop

Safeguarding 2 – Club Children’s Officer

Safeguarding 3 – Designated Liaison Person

Club Children’s Officers (CCO)
Club Children’s Officers should be child centred in focus. Their primary aim is to establish a child centred ethos within the club. The CCO is the link between the children and the adults in the club.  They also have responsibility for monitoring and reporting to the Club Management Committee on how club policy impacts on young people and Sports Leaders.

Designated Liaison Person (DLP)
Every club/organisation should designate a person to be responsible for dealing with any concerns about the protection of children. The Designated Liaison Person is responsible for reporting allegations or suspicions of child abuse to TULSA Child and Family Agency or Social Services (NI) and/or An Garda Siochana / PSNI. It is recommended that this person is a senior club person. However, if there is difficulty identifying a separate individual to take this role, the Club Children’s Officer can be appointed as Designated Liaison Person once the club/organisation is clear about the responsibilities of each role.  The organisation’s child protection policy and procedures should include the name and contact details of the Designated Liaison Person, and the responsibilities attached to the role.

They may not suit every club but they may give a few clubs some ideas on how to raise extra funds.

Before fund raising can be discussed it is important for every club to have a working sub-committee to look at fundraising. Its a good idea to share the workload and our clubs to look outside of their coaching group for volunteers to help with fundraising. Often the athlete’s parents are the best group to call on and some parents have great corporate skillset that they are delighted to bring to clubs. A core group of 4 to 5 parents with a committee member works best when considering fundraising opportunities.

Fundraising ideas:

• The Regatta/Head shop: Many clubs around the country run regattas or heads once a year, this is an ideal opportunity to raise some extra income for the club. A BBQ in the shop offering hot food, hot soup and hot pastas is often a great source of fundraising for the club. Call on the greater group of volunteers to run the shop and volunteer baked goods to be sold on the day. A good shop ran right could easily earn a club a profit of €2000 plus on a given day.

• Table Quiz: Table quizzes are very easy to organise and are also a very easy way of earning money for the club.  Look for a local Bar/Hotel to host the event, look for a quiz master within the club who is “a bit of fun” charge €10 per head for a table of 4 and off you go.

 A local club ran a table quiz recently with 80+ tables filled. Clubs could be looking at running a table quiz at least once a year. Also look at doing a raffle at the table quiz with spot prizes as an extra little earner. If ran right a table quiz could earn a club a €3000 profit in one night.

• Rowathan/flag days: Flag days were hugely popular many years ago but nowadays they are not so popular (Covid being one of the main reasons here). Clubs can organise a Rowathon instead of a flag day in local supermarkets aimed towards specific events e.g. A rowathon to fund our athletes travelling abroad for Ghent Regatta. A suggestion would be that athlete’s do 1 million metres between them in shifts on a couple of rowing machines in a supermarket.

• Cash for clobber: This is a very easy source of some quick cash for a club. Every athlete/parent/brother/sister/granny/grandad has old clothes they are not using. Gather the clothes at the club over the space of a few weeks and arrange with your local Cash for Clobber organisation to collect and weigh the clothes on a certain date. In addition a big push on social media maximises the amount of clothes dropped to the club. This is an easy way of earning in excess of €1000 for the club

• Club Lotto: Every GAA club around the country runs its own Lotto draw earning a few hundred euro weekly. For example St Michaels Rowing Club in Limerick city runs a lotto which they started well over 20 years ago and which is still running strong even now. This is an easy source of generating some weekly income.

• Easter/Summer camps: This is one event that would probably need club coaches involved these camps will not only provide excellent income for a club but they can also provide a feeder system of young athletes into a club yearly to help the club grow. Contact RI Get Going….Get Rowing programme to see if you can partner them also on this initiative. All that is needed for summer camps are 2 strong capable coaches (1 male/1 female), a few older boats, adequate safety launches and a group of club athletes willing to volunteer a few hours weekly to their club. What is the key for good camps? Make them FUN!

 For further information on the best way to run your Easter/Summer camps contact Derek Bowen at Getrowing@rowingireland.ie

There are many other ways for clubs to be more self sufficient especially when expanding and trying to grow.

The key to a good club is a strong committee AND a strong parents committee. Volunteers are the lifeblood of our sport, the more parents that volunteer their time to your club, be it on committees, coaching, organising fundraising events etc etc the more our sport will grow.

If clubs would like to share their innovative self-sufficient ideas or their fundraising ideas with other clubs please send an email to Derek Bowen at Getrowing@rowingireland.ie and we would be delighted to share club ideas in our weekly newsletter.

Large entries in the J16 will show 49 male scullers and 33 female scullers. Having well over the 18 crew limit, all of the scullers will race their heats as time trials with the top six crews making it into the final. This will be the same for all events that have more than 18 entries.

Athletes will compete against the best in the country with a number of Senior HP athletes, that competed at the Olympics and World Championships, entered in the senior events. The Senior Men’s 2x on Friday includes the doubles from UCC with Paul O’Donovan and Ronan Byrne, and Skibbereen with Fintan McCarthy and Gary O’Donovan. The Olympic LW2x, Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey will race head to head in the Women’s Senior 1x on Sunday morning. Other notable races include the Men’s and Women’s Senior 8+. Always a highlight of the championships, the Senior eights bring out tough competition, with everyone eager to come home with the highly sought after pot. This year there is a host of National team athletes racing in this event for their clubs, and they are definitely races that shouldn’t be missed.

This year the Championship and Green Blades shop is back and will be located up in the area by the finish hut. Make sure to stop by to pick up your Rowing Ireland merch, and you’ll also be in with a chance to win a €100 Green Blades voucher if you post a photo with it and tag @rowingireland. Also located in this area is the food village. A number of food vendors including burgers, sandwiches, Asian cuisine, pizza, ice cream, cakes, and tea and coffees will be available.

Cork County Council have kindly partially sponsored the water van that will be located down by the beach, and you’ll be able to fill up your water bottles here. There will also be recycling bins located around the NRC so please try your best to recycle your rubbish whenever you can!

A huge thank you to all umpires, volunteers, launch drivers, the regatta committee and all those that have helped in the organisation and set up for the event. The weather is to be good so make sure to pack the sun cream, and best of luck to all those racing!

Crews from 37 clubs around the country will race across the four categories of J13, J14, J15 and Masters. With 1000m straight finals it’s looking to be an extremely exciting day of racing. The start tower is being moved to the 1000m mark to allow for the best possible view of all the action. The day is split into two sessions, with racing from each category taking place in both the morning and afternoon sessions. The sequence of events can be seen below.

Some of the events to watch out for are the Mens and Womens J15 1x, with 63 scullers entered for the men, and 59 scullers entered for the women. The 1K Classic also has the highest entry of octuplets racing. Only as an option for the junior events, over 40 octs will race throughout the day. There’s a large entry across the masters events too, with 22 mens scullers and 12 womens scullers. The Masters eights will definitely be races to keep an eye out for and one of the many highlights of the day.
Up by the Finishing tower, there will be a ‘Food Village’ with different caterers to keep all coaches, athletes and spectators well fed! There will also be a merchandise tent located in the same area, so make sure to stop by to pick up your 1K Classic merch as well as other Rowing Ireland kit. The regatta office is located on the ground floor of the NRC beside the podium.  It will be open until 18:00 on Friday and from 7:00 on Saturday.

With good weather and good racing on the forecast, it’s an event that can’t be missed. There will be live results posted on the link below, and be sure to have a look at the Rowing Ireland social medias to get updates throughout the day.

Live results: https://tinyurl.com/1K-Classic

Anti-doping programmes are founded upon the spirit of sport and seek to protect the health of Athletes and to provide the opportunity for Athletes to pursue human excellence without the Use of Prohibited Substances or Prohibited Methods. Anti-doping programmes seek to maintain the integrity of sport in terms of respect for rules, other competitors, fair competition, a level playing field, and the value of clean sport to the world. 

All Rowing Ireland members are subject to the Anti-Doping Rules and everyone has a responsibility to ensure that they are aware of them. We advise all members to read and understand the Anti-Doping Rules and to understand their responsibilities. The consequences of not adhering to Anti-Doping Rules can be severe, therefore, it is critical that any questions or concerns be clarified with either Rowing Ireland or Sport Ireland. These rules can be found below. 

The most important thing for athletes to remember is that in the world of Anti-doping, strict liability is followed. This means, your body is your responsibility and all athletes must be aware of what they put in their bodies. There are 11 Anti-doping rule violations. These violations are: 

The minimum sanction for intentional cheating is 4 years for the first offence. To get any reduction in the sanction, athletes must have substantial proof that they were not at fault or intending to cheat. If an athlete/coach is sanctioned they will not be allowed to train with a club, participate, coach or administer the sport, or any other sport that is signed up to the WADA Code, while under sanction. 

The guidelines for supplement taking in Sport can be found here. It is important that all athletes are aware of the potential risks involved in taking supplements. It is recommended that all athletes assess the need, risk and consequences of taking supplements while competing. It is also essential that all athletes research all medications they are taking before doing so as certain doses of these medications could be prohibited in or out of competition. These medications can be researched on www.eirpharm.com while in the ROI or www.globaldro.com in NI or elsewhere. For athletes where use of these medications are essential can apply for therapeutic use exemptions. The information about the exemptions and where to apply can be found HERE. 

Athletes are also subject to potential testing. It is important for all athletes to know their rights and responsibilities involved in drug testing and the procedure involved in a drug test. Sport Ireland provides excellent resources and videos to explain the rights and responsibilities of all athletes and a step by step guide of how the testing takes place. This information can be found HERE and we recommend all clubs to run through this with their athletes so they are prepared in the event they are chosen for testing. 

For more information or any questions about anti-doping, please contact Lucy Hanrahan at lucy.hanrahan@rowingireland.ie. 

If we look at the careers of our Olympic medalist, or our multiple World Champions, you will get an idea of how many volunteers have had an impact on their rowing lifespan.

From the time they started rowing they would have been a member of a club that had many volunteers coaching and running the club. Giving lifts, fundraising for equipment, coaching, safety launch driving, cleaning, repairing, each year clubs would call on 40 to 50 volunteers giving hundreds of volunteer hours. Then those same athletes start to compete at local and domestic regattas, these regattas involve hundreds of volunteers and thousands of volunteer hours to ensure these events are run in a safe, fair and competitive manner. Food, commentators, race committee, umpires, stakeboat holders, time keepers, parking attendants, slip marshals, launch drivers, all giving of their time for the safe enjoyment of the participants and helping to prepare our world best athletes for future victory. When you then take into consideration the preparation and organising of junior representative teams and competitions and then senior competitions, even world and Olympic championships, you are moving into millions of volunteer hours to create an Olympic and World champion.

The Irish Rowing Championships will be held in the NRC this July and it will involve well over a hundred volunteers over the two weekends and the many thousands of volunteer hours put into organising and delivering a world class event. Our sport and our rowing champions could not and would not reach the amazing success it has without you, our volunteers.

As an organisation we have many functioning committees, Offshore, Coastal, Safety Advisory, Domestic events, Umpires, Championships, Universities and many others with a large number of volunteers giving freely of their time and expertise to ensure the smooth and consistent running of our sport. Indeed, the Board of Rowing Ireland is made up of volunteers operating at a strategic level to guarantee we have a future vision for the sport of rowing.

Rowing Ireland acknowledges the tremendous effort and the wonderful support our volunteers give to our sport. Rowing Ireland works behind the scenes to ensure our volunteers are protected and are given the opportunity to participate, enjoy and excel in the sport of rowing. Rowing Ireland’s extensive coach education program, safety webinars, events support, women on the water programs, child safeguarding policies and vetting, get going get rowing programs are all there to support our volunteers. 

Rowing Ireland thanks our many volunteers whom without them, we could not achieve the level of success domestically and internationally that we have. Rowing currently receives a tremendous amount of funding from Sport Ireland because of our continued success on the world and Olympic stage, we would not have obtained these successes without you our proud and appreciated legion of volunteers.

So, the next time you see our world class rowers such as Sanita, Paul and Fintan among many others receiving their medals and the symbolic handshake remember, that handshake is also for you, as a volunteer you played an important part in the development of that athlete and contributed hugely to the success of our athletes and our proud organisation.

It takes thousands of volunteers to create a single Olympic or World Champion.

Thank you for being involved.

Rowing Ireland have decided to make changes to the ROI Garda Vetting procedure to make it easier and more efficient for our members to complete the Garda Vetting process. As of today (10/06/2022) we will no longer be vetting applicants that are not registered in the membership system from affiliated clubs of Rowing Ireland. They can be registered as associate members on the Tracker system and must provide their membership number on the form in order for the vetting process to be approved. 

The second change for the Garda Vetting Process is that the Club Children’s Officer must check the identity of the applicant against an original valid form of identification as specified on the eVetting & ID Validation form. The Children’s Officer must tick the appropriate box for the form of ID that was used to verify the identity of the applicant. The 100 point rule for ID validation must be observed – for example, a driver’s licence (credit card type) carries 80 points and therefore must be accompanied by an additional form of ID totalling 100 points. 

Sports leaders under 18 may also be required to complete the vetting process. To apply for vetting there must be a completed parental consent. Vetting cannot be conducted for a person under the age of 16. Children under 18 may not have appropriate ID; therefore the 100 point rule is allocated differently. This can be seen in the download below. The Children’s Officer completes the ID validation form and signs it confirming that they have verified the identity of the applicant. 

Vetting with RI must be refreshed every three years by submitting a new eVetting application form to the Liaison Person.

For any more information or any queries please contact – lucy.hanrahan@rowingireland.ie 

*Please Note – All vetting applications sent to any other address will no longer be processed* 

1) Rowing eVetting steps

Step 1

The vetting subject completes a Rowing Ireland (RI) eVetting Invitation & ID Validation form. 

Step 2 

They then present their original IDs with photocopies that meet the 100 point check, including date of birth and proof of address within the last 6 months to their Club Children’s Officer for validation. 

The individual looking to be vetted must have their Rowing Ireland registration number on the application form. 

The vetting subject then mail their eVetting Invitation form (hardcopy) along with photocopies of the ID used to the Liaison Person at Rowing Ireland, Irish Sport HQ, Sport Ireland Campus, Snugborough Road, Blanchardstown D15 DY62

Step 3

RI staff will start the process and then the vetting subject will get an email from the Garda Vetting unit inviting him/her to complete the online eVetting Application Form.

Step 4

The vetting subject completes an eVetting Application Form online and submits it.

Step 5

The RI Liaison Person will be asked to review the Vetting Application Form by the NVB and submits it to the National Vetting Bureau for processing.

Step 6

The National Vetting Bureau processes the application and forwards a vetting disclosure to the RI Liaison Person.

Step 7

RI then reviews the vetting disclosure and as soon as is practicable and  provides a response to the vetting subject.

The Rowing Ireland social media platforms are the most accessible way of getting up to date information, with approximately five posts a week going up on each platform. At present there are 9k followers on Instagram, 13.5k followers on Facebook, 9.5k followers on Twitter and 1.8k followers on LinkedIn. Rowing Irelands “Get Going Get Rowing” program for teenagers also has a combined 5k followers on the 3 platforms.  Rowing Ireland also has social platforms set up for numerous groups around the country to allow communication within these groups, including the Masters and Recreational rowing groups.

Aside from social media, the best places to go for information are the Rowing Ireland website and the weekly newsletter which are updated on a regular basis. To sign up for the weekly newsletter, click HERE.

A number of initiatives were undertaken to boost club communications, including this “Focus on Series”. Every Friday a different program or initiative is highlighted to inform the Rowing Ireland membership on what’s being done to support and improve our sport. Recent issues of the series delved into the topics of Women in Sport, the Get Going Get Rowing program, coaching courses, Tracker and the upcoming regatta season. Pictured above is the Sport for Business conference that was held in the NRC last April.

The Coach Education Pathway is currently offering four coaching courses, Introduction to Coaching, Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3. Supporting coach development is critical to Irish rowing’s future and overall performance at all levels. Recent webinars on nutrition and safety have been hugely popular and information from them can still be found on the website.

Rowing Ireland is still aiming to strengthen communications with clubs and members. Linked below are the social media platforms and if anyone has any information or photos about your upcoming events or regattas that you would like to have promoted on the Rowing Ireland platforms, make sure to contact Clara at communications@rowingireland.ie or 0863986563.

Instagram – @rowingireland

Facebook – Rowing Ireland

Twitter – @RowingIreland

LinkedIn – Rowing Ireland

Rowing Ireland the organisation

The main characteristics of a type C organisation are that the people who sit on the board focus solely on their governance/oversight role, delegating management and operational duties to staff. There is a clear division between the governance role of the board and the management role of staff.

The board of Rowing Ireland is currently engaged in reviewing, updating, and drafting governance documents to ensure our policy, procedures and guidance documents all meet the required standards to continue to effectively steer our very successful organisation in the right direction. To achieve this, the board are guided by the five principles of the governance code for sport:

Principle 1 – Leading the organisation 

Principle 2 – Exercising control over the organisation 

Principle 3 – Being transparent and accountable 

Principle 4 – Working effectively 

Principle 5 – Behaving with integrity

The findings and recommendations of the review undertaken by the Board of Rowing Ireland will be presented to all clubs in the coming weeks.

Rowing Ireland our Clubs

Rowing Ireland clubs fall under Type A and Type B organisation within the governance code for sport. 

Type A – being clubs that are mainly run by volunteers with no paid staff, 

Type B – clubs are clubs that are limited companies and may have 1 or a small number of staff members. 

Rowing Ireland staff members engage daily with our clubs supporting them to ensure the highest level of safeguarding and governance is maintained. On the Rowing Ireland website, you can download templates of governance policies prepared by our staff to ensure your club can safely and effectively operate within the code.

For clubs to be a safe place for your members, a place where children and adults can train, compete and be successful, our clubs must continue to strive to have an environment that has the highest standards of safeguarding and governance. The recent Child Safeguarding Audit was completed by over 96% of Rowing Ireland clubs with an exceptional level of compliance within the safeguarding governance by our clubs. Rowing Ireland staff continue to work with and support clubs to maintain and grow this level of compliance.

To continuously develop a successful race plan you must evolve, review, implement required changes and be open to new ideas. To continue to grow and to be a sustainable and successful sport we must evolve, review, implement required changes and drive and support each other on to achieve higher standards.

The staff of Rowing Ireland are here to support and to help our organisation and our clubs to enjoy a sustainable and successful future.

Please use the link below for further information on the Sport Ireland Governance code www.sportireland.ie/GovernanceCode.

Pat Kiely

Club Support Officer 

Club Secretaries

Each club has their own tracker account. Once the club’s affiliation to Rowing Ireland has been confirmed appropriately, an account will be created and a password can be issued once confirmation of payment has been received. There are a number of functions which a Club Secretary can carry out on Tracker, namely:  

• Register New or Re-registering existing rowers with Rowing Ireland.  
• Enter Regattas  
• Enter Heads of the River (HOR) races  
• Review Transactions for club financial record purposes

For new registrations, status sheets need to be sent to lucy.hanrahan@rowingireland.ie. Once the status of this rower has been confirmed, points will be adjusted on the rowers account accordingly with the help of the Domestic Events Committee. All queries relating to points and changes within Tracker will also be discussed with the Domestic Events Committee to ensure fairness within the sport and will be upheld as per the rules agreed by all the clubs. 

Regatta Secretaries 

The process for the regatta secretary is the same as the club secretary. Once the club’s event has been confirmed and the event licence fee paid, an account will be created and a password can be issued.

There are a number of functions which a Regatta Secretary can carry out on Tracker, namely: 

• Edit Regatta Details – basic contact info, start date, declaration on/off, etc  
• Add, Edit or View Regatta Events – setting up and managing individual events within the Regatta  
• Add Information about the regatta for Club Secretaries (directions, draws, prospectus, safety information, etc)  
• View and manage entries – including overseas entries
• Update, view and submit Regatta results. 

The closing date for entries to all regattas or heads of the river shall be the Wednesday week prior to the regatta or head of the river at 19.00 hrs. Entries shall not be accepted after the official closing of entries. This is as per the rules agreed by all clubs.

Overseas events 

Clubs planning on attending an Overseas Event must submit, at least ten days prior to the event, the relevant information to the Rowing Ireland office for each crew representing that club at that event. All regatta victories must be notified to the office within 14 days of the event. Should it subsequently be discovered that a win was not notified within this period, the Club may be subject to a fine by the Disciplinary Officer. This process is as per the rules agreed by the clubs. 

The overseas event permission form can be downloaded from the international events section of the website HERE

It is the responsibility of each club member and each athlete to ensure that their points are correct and up to date. It is advisable that Rowing Ireland are contacted should there be a points error. The Tracker system was specifically designed for Rowing Ireland and at present we are working with a number of companies regarding its upgrade.

For more information on how to use tracker please view the tracker manual from the link found HERE or contact lucy.hanrahan@rowingireland.ie