Search Results for 'Commercial Club'

The Corrib Club was founded in July 1864, 150 years ago this month. Unfortunately the minutes of the club for that year and 1865 are nowhere to be found, but the late Maurice Semple, having access to minutes for most other years, produced a book entitled A Century of Minutes, the Story of the Corrib Club 1864-1966, from which we publish extracts today.

Now that the Leaving Certificate exams are about to start and the rowing season is in full swing, we thought to share the following story.

The first rowing club to be set up on the river was Corrib Rowing and Yachting Club, and shortly afterwards the Commercial Club was founded. The inauguration of yet another club in 1882, The Royal Galway Yacht Club, provided further competition in rowing and yachting. It contributed to regattas locally by fielding crews, being included on committees, and other rowing activities, and it seems to have had a very strong yachting section.

Last week we showed you a reproduction of a painting of Woodquay which was painted by an English artist, William JC Bond, in 1850. Today, we show you two details from that painting, each one showing a side of Woodquay.

William Joseph JC Bond (1833-1926) was a landscape and marine painter of the Liverpool School who was much influenced by Turner, and in the 1850s and 1860s, by the Pre-Raphaelites. His work features in a number of museums and galleries. He came to the west of Ireland on a number of occasions, we know one of his paintings was titled “Near Oranmore” and he also painted “The Galway Coast” in 1872. Our main image today is of an oil painting he did of Woodquay in 1850, and the second is a detail from that painting. He may have taken some artistic licence, but his picture underlines the importance of early artworks as historical documents in an era before photography reached Galway.

Rowing ‘matches’ or ‘badge races’ have been taking place on the river for at least 150 years. Initially, they were confined to members of Corrib Rowing and Yachting Club, as it was the only boating club in existence here. When the Commercial Club was formed in 1875, a meeting was held to promote a regatta on the stretch of river under Menlo Castle. It was well attended, and there was general agreement that the regatta should be independent of both clubs, and open to everybody.