Galway Rowing Club - Galway | Irish Rowing Clubs | Row HQ

Galway Rowing Club is a river club on the Corrib at Waterside, Woodquay, in Galway city. Rowing Ireland lists it as a current Connacht affiliate, and the club's venue page places its premises directly on the river bank.

The club was founded in Woodquay in 1910 from the Hibernian Rowing Club and was briefly intended to carry the Celtic Club name. Members adopted Galway Rowing Club to avoid political associations, although the club remains known locally as The Hibs.

Its first premises were nicknamed the Blackening Box because they were tarred each year for preservation. The club still occupies the Waterside site; members replaced the original building through a major redevelopment completed largely by voluntary labour in 1969.

Galway won its first Irish Amateur Rowing Union championship in 1948, taking the men's Maiden Eight at Athlone by two feet from Trinity College. With one crew change, the same group won the men's Junior Eight championship in Cork in 1949.

A revived Galway crew won the 1974 men's Junior Eight championship after victories at Trinity, Cork, Limerick, Athlone, Carlow, Waterford and Galway. In 1976 the club's senior women's coxed four also won an international event at Nottingham Regatta.

The club continues to combine competitive rowing with entry programmes. In 2026 Rowing Ireland ran women's and mixed beginner Rise and Row courses at Galway Rowing Club, requiring no previous rowing experience and teaching indoor technique, fitness and confidence over six weeks.