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The first documented reference to the Galway Fishery is found in the Pipe Rolls, a collection of financial records maintained by the British Treasury. The Rolls of 1283 AD refer to the fishery at the time being part of the property of Walter De Burgo. The fishery passed through several ownerships until 1521 when Henry VIII granted a licence to Janet and Anthony Lynch to have three nets upon the river of Galway between the bridge and the sea and to build one water mill upon the river wherever they thought proper. In 1570 Elizabeth I granted the mayor, bailiffs, and commonality of the town and their successors “The customs of one salmon every Wednesday out of the Great Weir, a salmon every Saturday out of the High Weir, a salmon every Friday out of the ‘hale’ (haul) net and as many eels as shall be taken in one day out of twenty eel weirs.”

Rowing is a sport of endurance, strength, and finesse, a sport naturally suited to Galway where the river connects Lough Corrib with the sea. The earliest reference we have to competitive rowing on the Galway river is 1839. The first rowing club established here was the Corrib Rowing and Yachting Club in 1864 (149 years ago!) and as other clubs formed, rowing matches became more competitive. In 1868, Commercial Rowing Club was formed and the inter-club rivalry generated a lot of interest in the sport.

Competitive rowing had been taking place on the Corrib for many years when the Ancient Order of Hibernians decided to form a new club in 1910. They got local contractor Walter Flaherty (who had already built the Corrib Club) to build a wooden clubhouse on the site of the present Galway Rowing Club. It was tarred each year up to 1970 in order to preserve the wood, and so it became known as ‘the Blackening Box’. In that year also there was a dispute in Saint Patrick’s Rowing Club and a number of oarsmen left and joined the new club.