Galley Flash Rowing Club - Ardfield | Irish Rowing Clubs | Row HQ

Galley Flash Rowing Club is a coastal rowing club serving the Ardfield and Rathbarry community in County Cork. Rowing Ireland lists it in the Munster branch for coastal sculling and sweep rowing, while its home regatta is held at Kilkern Lake.

The club was formed in 1985. Its history records founders Dinny Hayes, PatJoe Harrington and Barry McSweeney collecting its first boat, The Rising Sun, from Baltimore, and the junior crew winning the South West Coastal Yawl Rowing championship in the club's first year.

Galley Flash's published records cover beginners and crews from under-12 through under-21, adult and masters categories. At its 30th anniversary in 2015, the club reported 71 sets of All-Ireland medals won during the preceding 15 years.

The club's under-12 crew was named the outstanding junior crew at the 2010 All-Ireland championships after winning the under-12 ladies title and taking silver in the open under-12 race. In 2011 its women's crews collected three All-Ireland titles, and in 2012 it won national titles across underage, women's and men's categories.

Galley Flash won the senior men's title at the 2016 All-Ireland Coastal Rowing Championships in Ballyshannon. Mark O'Brien, Paul Deasy, John Harrington and Barry Hooper, coxed by Julie Harrington, led at the turn and held off Courtmacsherry and Vartry.

The club also stages its own traditional racing. Rowing Ireland's 2024 calendar listed the Galley Flash Timber Yawl Regatta at Kilkern Lake, continuing an event that the club's history describes as its annual regatta.