Colours Boat Race | Dublin

Head-to-Head on the Liffey The 75th edition of the Colours Boat Races sees Trinity and UCD go head-to-head again on the Liffey, racing from O’Connell Bridge to St. James’s Gate. Watch the high-tempo start at O'Connell Bridge, the mid-course battle at Four Courts or the sprint for the line at the dedicated viewing area at St. James's Gate on Victoria Quay - with live commentary! 2025 Race Schedule Colours Boat Races: River Liffey, Dublin, Saturday, March 22. Sally Moorhead Trophy (Novice Women’s Eights) - 3.30pm Dan Quinn Shield (Novice Men’s Eights) - 4pm Corcoran Cup (Women’s Senior Eights) - 4.30pm Gannon Cup (Men’s Senior Eights) - 5pm Official names of the clubs involved in the Colours Boat races: University College Dublin Boat Club (UCDBC) Dublin University Boat Club (DUBC - the men’s rowing club of Trinity College Dublin) University College Dublin Ladies Boat Club (UCDLBC) Dublin University Ladies Boat Club (DULBC) The races will include the 75th edition of the Gannon Cup, which has been raced by Senior Men’s Eights from UCD and Trinity since 1947 with the exception of four years, two in the 1950s (1957 and 1958) and two more recently due to Covid restrictions (2020 and 2021). This year, UCD is seeking to make it four wins in a row in both the Gannon Cup and also in the Senior Women’s Eights race the Corcoran Cup. If successful in the Gannon Cup, UCD will level the men’s overall series at 37 wins each. To date, Trinity have secured 37 Gannon Cup wins and UCD have 36. There has been one dead heat in 1950. The Corcoran Cup was originally a Senior Women’s Coxed Four event, but evolved into an Eights race in 1993, due to increased participation by women in rowing throughout the country at this time. UCD has recorded 26 wins in total while Trinity has 17. Grace Healy, who was named as the country’s Up and Coming Rower of the Year in 2024, is set to row in the Trinity Women’s Eight and the UCD Senior Men’s crew will feature Daire Lynch, the Olympic bronze medallist, in the 7 seat. Lynch, 26 and from Clonmel in Co Tipperary, won bronze for Ireland in the Men’s Double Sculls with Philip Doyle at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The two also won bronze in the same event at the 2023 World Rowing Championships in Belgrade. Lynch, who remains part of the Irish rowing squad, studied economics at Yale University in Connecticut in the US, but is now studying medicine in UCD. The Colours Boat Races began in 1947 when the Gannon Cup was presented in memory of UCD Boat Club Captain Ciaran Gannon who was killed while on active service with the Royal Army Medical Corps in Burma in 1944. Since then, the list of races has expanded to include the Corcoran Cup in 1980, the Dan Quinn Shield for Novice Men’s Eights in 2004 and the Sally Moorhead Trophy for Novice Women’s Eights in 2005.