Coláiste Iognáid Rowing Club will hold a series of events in October to celebrate 80 years of rowing at the Jes.
Coláiste Iognáid Rowing Club was founded in October 1934 and has enjoyed success at home and abroad in the last eight decades, winning 18 national championships. The club’s most recent international success was at the Ghent regatta in May of this year when it won the junior coxed four event.
The club has also produced a remarkable 63 rowers who have represented Ireland at junior level, with several of these going on to later row internationally at senior level.
The club will hold a day of events on Saturday October 18 to celebrate this significant anniversary and the proud Jes rowing tradition.
The highlight of the commemorations will be a dinner in The Ardilaun hotel on the evening of October 18.
The club is also preparing a history of rowing at Coláiste Iognáid through the generations. This history will be launched at the dinner by journalist, broadcaster, and former Jes rower Sean O’Rourke.
Earlier in the day there will be a naming ceremony for the Jes clubhouse, which is being named in honour of Fr Eddie Diffely SJ, who was the driving force behind rowing at the Jes for 50 years, beginning when he was a student at the school in the early 1930s.
To mark Fr Diffely’s enormous contribution to the club, the clubhouse will be re-dedicated as the Fr Eddie Diffely clubhouse. The naming ceremony will also take place on October 18 at 4pm, at the Coláiste Iognáid clubhouse at NUI Galway.
The club is inviting all Jes past pupils, particularly former rowers, to these events.
Further information on the dinner and the other commemoration activities is available from Maeve McManus at 087 1206524, or Evan Molloy, club chairman, at 087 2257121, and on the club website www.circ.ie
