Take a bow, Richard Hosford, your legacy in Skibbereen rowing, like the River Ilen, will never wane

KIERAN McCARTHY reflects on Skibbereen’s Olympic homecoming and the importance of one man in this remarkable story. Step forward, Richard Hosford

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RICHARD Hosford sat at a round table in the ballroom of the West Cork Hotel on Sunday evening, taking it all in. It’s the same room that hosted the reception of his wedding to his wife Susan in 1987. He has great memories here. More were made last weekend. 

With his daughter Gillian by his side – his chauffeur, he quipped – Richard, as always, was dressed impeccably for the occasion. 

Brilliant white shirt, navy suit jacket with a bright red pocket square adding a splash of colour and, of course, his familiar red and white Skibbereen Rowing Club tie that was a badge of honour on a day like Sunday.

Hours earlier, thousands of fans packed the streets of his hometown and then flowed into the Fairfield in the centre of Skibbereen to celebrate the continued brilliance of the local rowers who have put this town on the world map. 

Skibbereen: the town of rowers. Home to Olympic gods, and gold, silver and bronze medallists from the last three Games, spanning Rio in 2016 to Paris this summer. Home to world champions. Home to Ireland’s greatest sportsperson, Paul O’Donovan. Home to Ireland’s greatest rowing club, Skibbereen Rowing Club; its HQ is just a short drive from the town – or a short row on the River Ilen, whichever you prefer. 

Supporters from near and far thronged Skibbereen on Sunday to catch a glimpse of Ireland’s greatest Olympian Paul O’Donovan, also a freshly-crowned seven-time world champion, and to get an autograph from two-time Olympic gold medal winner Fintan McCarthy, and to get their photo taken with Tokyo bronze medallist Emily Hegarty and two-time Olympian Aoife Casey. 

Founding member Richard Hosford with his wife Susan, daughter Gillian and three-time Olympic medallist Paul O'Donovan.

The hometown heroes, paraded through their town on an open-top bus that crawled through North Street, inched onto Main Street, before turning towards Bridge Street, standing-room only on both sides of the streets. Magnificent scenes, reminiscent of the magical Monday night party post-Rio eight years earlier. Skibbereen: the town of rowers is also the town that has a knack for throwing the mother-of-all homecomings. They did it again on Sunday, a festival atmosphere flowing through the West Cork hotspot, and Richard Hosford is a central character in all of this, a crucial figure in the greatest success story in Irish sport.

Just after 4pm, and as the rain gods smiled kindly on Skibb by staying away, Paul, Fintan, Emily, Aoife, Jake McCarthy (back-up for Paul and Fintan in the ruthlessly dominant Irish men’s lightweight double) and coach Dominic Casey were introduced to the crowd, one by one, by RTÉ’s Jacqui Hurley. As the stars of the show made their way onto the stage, the cheers of a heaving Fairfield a fitting soundtrack, the eyes of the man sitting seven seats in from the right on the front row followed them all. It was fitting that Richard Hosford was front and centre on Sunday, given he is one of the men who made all this possible. 

Richard Hosford with his daughter Gillian at the homecoming.
(Photo: Anne Minihane)

It’s why Skibbereen Rowing Club’s first Olympian, Eugene Coakley, who raced in the men’s lightweight four A final at the Athens Games in 2004, made sure he shared five powerful words with Richard on Sunday: ‘It all started with you’. Because it did – Richard is one of the three founding members of Skibbereen Rowing Club. 

Fifty-four years ago in the summer of 1970, three young men, unbeknownst to them all, changed the landscape of Skibbereen, and like a ripple effect, Irish rowing and Irish sport and the lives of so many people. There was Richard, a trained butcher then working in Hosford’s store run by his brother John on Bridge Street. Danny Murphy, a fisherman from Heir Island. Donie Fitzgerald, a local carpenter. Together, they founded Skibbereen Rowing Club, and were the driving forces in those challenging early years. 

They are the reason there are now Olympic medals of all colours in houses dotted around Aughadown parish outside of town. They are the reason Paul, Fintan, Emily and Gary O’Donovan are Olympic medalists. They are the reason Dominic Casey found his calling as a rower, then a coach. They are the reason Skibbereen Rowing Club has transformed into Ireland’s most successful rowing club. They are the reason every local kid in the Skibbereen environs has the chance to row for Ireland.

There were several times on Sunday that Richard Hosford was overcome with emotion, and understandably so. He’s 78 years old now, and has seen his club rise from its humble beginnings to soar high like an eagle, Skibbereen-style.

‘I break down at times,’ Richard told us on Sunday.

‘The people that were in it from the start, a few are gone now, and I always think of them on days like this.’

Men like fellow founding member Danny Murphy, who passed away in late 2021. The fairest of all chairmen Donal O’Sullivan, the rock that steadied this club. Another islander like Danny who couldn’t swim, Denis McCarthy from Ringarogy Island near Baltimore. All important figures in Skibbereen Rowing Club, just like Richard.

Nuala Lupton, President Skibbereen Rowing Club, with Olympians Emily Hegarty, Aoife Casey, Fintan McCarthy and Paul O'Donovan.
(Photo: Anne Minihane)

‘We do have a founding member here that all of us in Skibbereen Rowing Club owe a great debt of gratitude to, and that is Richard Hosford,’ Nuala Lupton, herself a club legend, told the packed Fairfield on Sunday. The club president’s words struck the right tone.

‘As the first captain and head coach, Richard was instrumental in affiliating the club to the IARU, now Rowing Ireland. He had secured a new racing shell long before we had a clubhouse.

‘It was Richard’s vision and passion that enabled members to compete in Olympic class rowing, nationally and internationally, within a few years of the club’s inception in 1970 to this day.’

With this, thousands stopped to salute Richard with a round of applause that could be heard on the River Ilen, carrying on the current to sweep down past the clubhouse where Olympians are developed and dreams are encouraged and then realised. Again, it’s thanks to Richard, the late Danny, and Donie who was unable to make it back from the UK last weekend.

‘I have huge pride,’ Richard said later on Sunday, as the after-party moved to the West Cork Hotel.

When his emotions rose, his daughter Gillian was quick to gently pat his leg, there for him now as Richard has been for so many in Skibbereen over the years.

‘I couldn’t have done it on my own,’ he continued, ‘I had to have support from the town and the country.

‘I did say at one stage that if people joined the rowing club and backed it – town and country – that we could have Olympic rowers here.

‘It’s a community effort, and that’s why this club has kept going.’

That community effort that Richard fostered in those early years is still there now, the fire lit by his spark in the 1970s. In those days he did it all. He encouraged, coached and coxed, and a lot more, too. That effort is contagious. It still is. Rowing seeds were set in families all around West Cork, and they’re still growing now. Take Eugene Coakley, Skibb’s Athens Olympian, it was his kids Erin and Jackson that insisted their dad drive all the way down to Skibbereen from Belfast on Sunday so they could have their Skibbereen Rowing Club flag signed by Paul, Fintan, Emily and Aoife and, of course, Coach Casey. Both Erin and Jackson were kitted out from head to toe in Skibbereen rowing gear; that’s the Skibb effect. The seeds have been set.

Olympian Aoife Casey with fan Erin Coakley, daughter of Skibbereen Olympic rower Eugene Coakley

Take Kenneth McCarthy, back involved with the club now too; he was a volunteer on Sunday, helping out in the Fairfield. Kenneth was one of the senior rowers when a young Gary and Paul learned to row and race – and not in that order – on the River Ilen. Kenneth’s eldest, Micheál (11), is now joining Skibbereen Rowing Club, the tradition being passed on. Again, the seeds have been set.

One of the little stars of Sunday was oblivious to it all, four-month-old Síomha, daughter of Rio Olympic silver medallist Gary and another former Skibbereen rower Aine Harnedy, whose brother Timmy went to the Athens Olympics as a back-up. The rowing genes are strong here, as is their connection to the water, with Gary’s dad Teddy a former rower and coach, too. 

The oar, like a baton, is being passed from generation to generation, all within a community that realises the importance of Skibbereen Rowing Club. It was there for all to see on Sunday, the club creating this incredible occasion for the town that has also supported it, right back to those early days, like those dances in The Eldon Hotel in the 1970s where funds were raised to keep this club on the water. Now it’s the club drawing people to Skibbereen to discover where the Olympic greats live, train and row.

And in the West Cork Hotel on Sunday evening, the great and the good in the ballroom were all drawn to one man, sitting down at a round table covered in a white tablecloth. Richard was the man of the moment. Paul O’Donovan, the greatest rower we’ve ever seen, stood in for a photo with Richard, his wife Susan and daughter Gillian. Paul knows Richard’s role in his own story. Later that evening, Richard was surrounded by stalwarts of the club, from different generations, including Olympians Fintan, Emily and Aoife for an incredible photo that tells the story of an incredible club that has conquered the world. 

Take a bow, King Richard, your legacy, like the River Ilen, will never wane.