• Trinity Vs UCD event to include 75th edition of the historic Gannon Cup for Senior Men’s Eights and the 44th edition of the Corcoran Cup for Senior Women’s Eights 
  • UCD’s Senior Men’s Eight seek to make it four Gannon Cup wins in a row and match Trinity’s total of 37 wins  
  • Trinity seeking to stop UCD’s Senior Women’s Eight from securing fourth Corcoran Cup win in a row
  • Olympic bronze medallist Daire Lynch to row in 7 seat for UCD Senior Men’s crew and Grace Healy, the country’s Up and Coming Rower of the Year for 2024, to feature in the Trinity Women’s Eight 

The 2025 Colours Boat Races will take place on the River Liffey through Dublin City Centre on Saturday, March 22nd. The annual event, which includes four races in total, sees crews from Trinity College Dublin and UCD race head-to-head over 2 km upstream and under eight bridges from the starting line at O’Connell Bridge to the finish at Victoria Quay. 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 except for four years, two in the 1950s (1957 and 1958) and two more recently due to Covid restrictions (2020 and 2021).

The coin toss event was conducted by Charlie McConalogue TD, Minister of State for Sport. UCD Ladies Boat Club won the coin toss for the women’s’ races and chose the North Station. Trinity won the coin toss for the men’s races and chose the North Station. This year, UCD is seeking to make it four wins in a row in both the Gannon Cup and 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. 

Dach Murray, Captain of UCDBC (University College Dublin Boat Club) commented, “It’s every first years dream to participate in the colours boat race for UCD, I feel privileged being part of the crew. It’s the 75th edition of the Gannon Cup and this year we get a chance to level the series with Trinity. A lot of my friends would have raced the Gannon Cup, so it’s great to look up to them and chase their legacy.”

Ben Reid, Captain of DUBC (Dublin University Boat Club) said, “We train eleven or twelve times a week around studies, hopefully it pays off on the day. UCDBC have been one of the best clubs in the country for the last number of years, so it’d mean a lot to beat them. It’s going to be a very special race indeed.”

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. Trinity has won the last four Novice Men’s Eight races and UCD has won two of the last three Novice Women’s Eight races. DULBC are confident, following fantastic recent results at the Erne Head of the River 2025 as novice 8+ crew won their category by a substantial margin and the senior 8+ crew also won their category, alongside DUBC who won the novice 8+ category, Trinity Rowing won the best overall senior club award.

Jane Prendergast, Captain of DULBC (Dublin University Ladies Boat Club) commented, “Captaining DULBC in the run up to the colours boat race has been such a privilege, I joined DULBC as a novice in my first year of college so being in this position now is a real testament to how far you can go in the sport even if you’ve just picked it up in college. As we move towards racing season, training is shorter, sharper, harder, faster, we’re focusing on how efficient we can get and how quickly we can move the boat.”

Dervila O’ Brien, Captain of UCDLBC (University College Dublin Ladies Boat Club) said, “The UCDLBC squad are committed to the training programme, we’ve got great depth of squad, and we’ve managed to maintain that over the last four years. I think the key is to stay internal and focus on your own race, we know what we’re capable of doing and we just have to pull it off on the day.”

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. 

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. 

Colours Boat 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