The Fermoy Rowing Club was founded in the latter part of the last century; in fact, it will soon be approaching its ninetieth year in existence. Like every other rowing club it has had its years of glory and its years of gloom. Periods of inactivity occured in which it seemed that the club had died, but the spirit lived on to be revived again.
An example of this spirit is shown in the period from 1956 to 1962. Following some particularly lean years, the club began to build up a young crew. In a couple of years this crew was to become one of the best ever to represent the club, under the captaincy of Dr WJ Maguire. The club represented Munster in the now-defunct inter-provincial championships, at Carlow in 1959. Members of the crew were: P Kirwan, P Harty, J Fenton, M Byrne, M Greehy, K Higgins, RJ O'Leary, M O'Sullivan and S Hackett (cox). Again in 1960, the club represented Munster in Drogheda and members of the crew were: D Byme, M O'Dwyer, J Lysaght, K Harty, PB O'Connor, M Greehy, P Aheme, J Murphy and P Daly (cox). These crews also won many "pots" throughout the country. This was the most successful period the club ever experienced and in the following years, it has had a fair measure of success.
The majority of members of the Fermoy Rowing Club has always been made up of pupils, or past pupils, of Fermoy CBS. The school is well-known for its encouragement of all types of sporting activity and was not slow to see the possibilities of rowing as a sport. For the most part, CBS crews have rowed as members of the Fermoy Rowing Club.
It is interesting to note that in the 1939 and 1940 seasons, the CBS had schoolboy crews rowing as "Christian Brothers, Fermoy". They rowed at some local regattas, including Fer¬moy and Cork. A 1940 programme of Fermoy Regatta lists a Christian Brothers, Fermoy crew which was beaten by Presentation Brothers College, Cork in the schoolboys' fours event. The crew was as follows: J Burke, J Stritch, A Hardy, G Hogan and J Donovan (cox). Also rowing for CBS at the time was a young man called Eddie O'Callaghan, who was later killed in the RAF. It appears that the CBS had to abandon its policy of rowing independently because of lack of funds and rejoin the Fermoy Rowing Club.
At present, the rowing club is involved in building up new crews. Four CBS pupils, Paul Kavanagh, Richard Hogan, John Gubbins and Charles McCarthy, form the backbone of a combined CBS/St Colman's cadet crew, who will row in the colours of Fermoy Rowing Club. This crew is showing great promise and it is hoped that they will win several trophies in the coming season. Captain Johnny Murphy has also formed a maiden crew and is in the process of forming a ladies' crew.
A week before the Christmas break, a race was rowed between the CBS four and a cadet crew from St Colman's College. After a hard-fought duel, St Colman's won the race and with it the McCarthy Cup, a trophy presented by Fermoy Rowing Club for the event. This becoming an annual event and with a little more encouragement, it could become an attrac¬tive event on the Blackwater. Naturally the CBS are all out to avenge this defeat the next time.
That a connection, however loose, exists between Fermoy Rowing Club and the CBS is to the advantage of both. The CBS has another sporting activity to add to its list, while the rowing club can train its oarsmen at an early age and so improve its performance; how¬ever, we should look forward to the day that is in the not-too-distant future when Fermoy CBS will have crews rowing in Irish regattas under its own name and will, we hope, fare better than the luckless CBS crew at Fermoy Regatta away back in 1940.
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