The 2025 Colours Boat Races will take place on Saturday, 22nd March, constituting a Trinity-UCD face-off on the Liffey. The annual four-race competition includes the historic 75th Gannon Cup (Senior Men’s Eights) and the 44th Corcoran Cup (Senior Women’s Eights). Trinity will be defending its reputation in the novice races, and seeking to reclaim senior titles from UCD.
The Gannon Cup was first contested in 1947 in memory of Ciaran Gannon, a former UCD Boat Club captain who died in World War II. The Corcoran cup was introduced in 1980 in Islandbridge, until women’s participation in rowing skyrocketed in the 90s and officially joined the Gannon Cup downstream as an Eights event in 1993.
Trinity’s men hold 37 Gannon Cup wins, while UCD has 36 (with one draw in 1950). If UCD wins this year, the series will be even, and they will secure a fourth consecutive win. In the Corcoran Cup, UCD leads the all-time tally 26-17, and Trinity needs to prevent a fourth consecutive UCD victory. The Dan Quinn Shield (Novice Men’s Eights, introduced in 2004) and the Sally Moorhead Trophy (Novice Women’s Eights, introduced in 2005) complete the lineup. Trinity has dominated the Novice Men’s Eight, winning the past four races (eyeing a fifth), while UCD has won two of the last three Novice Women’s Eights (2022, 2024).
Grace Healy, named the country’s Up and Coming Rower of the Year (2024) will compete for Trinity in the Corcoran Cup, joined by Izzy Howley, Jen Forde, María Mezquita García-Poggio, Addy Telzrow, Imogen Cooney, Caoimhe Keller, Sarah Tavey, and Ashla Copeland (cox). They will face off against Alison Daly, Eimear Muldoon, Sarah Butler, Dervila O’Brien, Tara Phelan, Aoife Feely, Niamh Campbell, Lauryn Roche, and Nessa Farrell (cox) of UCD.
UCD’s Senior Men’s Eight will feature Olympic bronze medalist Daire Lynch in the seventh seat. The 26-year-old from Tipperary won bronze in the Men’s Double Sculls at the 2024 Paris Olympics and the 2023 World Rowing Championships. He will be joined by Paul Flood, Dach Murray, Ross Mason, Eoin McGrath, David Ross-Chu, Andrew O’Leary, Ciaran Conway, and Rhian Nelson (cox). Taking them on will be Trinity’s Pearce Mooney, Cormac Feely, Benjamin Hendricks, Ben Reid, Henry Beer, Ethan Coplan, Michael Cusick, George Roberts, and James O’Brien (cox).
The course will run two kilometers upstream from O’Connell Bridge to Victoria Quay, passing under a total of eight bridges. The Sally Moorhead Trophy (Novice Women’s Eights) will be contested at 15:30, with the Dann Quinn Shield (Novice Men’s Eights) at 16:00, followed by the Corcoran Cup (Senior Women’s Eights) at 16:30, culminating in the Gannon Cup (Senior Men’s Eights) at 17:00.
Both O’Connell Bridge and Victoria Quay will make for prime viewing locations. With long-standing rivalries at stake, this year’s races are set to be a thrilling battle through Dublin City Centre.
