Carrick on Shannon Rowing Club - Carrick-on-Shannon | Irish Rowing Clubs | Row HQ

Carrick on Shannon Rowing Club is a mixed river club in Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim. The club now rows from the Leitrim side of the town, having originally been based on the Roscommon side.

Founded in 1836, Carrick is described by local and council sources as Ireland's oldest rowing club. The club survived the Famine, the Civil War and the burning of its boathouse by the Black and Tans in the 1920s.

Carrick also has a long record of women's rowing, including a women's eight documented in 1944. Frances Cryan joined the club as a schoolgirl, won the Irish Women's Single Sculls Championship 11 times from 1976 to 1986, and became Ireland's first female Olympic rower.

Cryan finished seventh in the single sculls at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. An official RTÉ profile from 1983 records that she began rowing with three school friends under Carrick coach Aidan Nangle.

The club opened an extension to its clubhouse in 2012. Members have also helped develop rowing at Lough Rinn, where club president Gabriel Cox served as a leading volunteer and committee member.

Carrick runs a sprint regatta beside the town boardwalk and quays, with junior, senior and masters racing. It also organises the Head of the Shannon at Lough Rinn, where the 2024 programme offered two races for eights, fours, quads, pairs, doubles and single scullers.