Caroline O'Mahony

Caroline O’Mahony never lost her love of rowing.

On walks around Cork Marina each weekend, she would watch passing crews elegantly slice through the water and think, ‘what would I give to be back out there again?’

She is the mother of Munster and Ireland rugby star Peter and one of a famous Cork family of oars people (the Conroys), rowing at elite level in her teens.

But then life got in the way, initially emigration, and then having family, three sons in 11 years.

“Team sport would not have worked for me when my boys were younger because they were all involved with different sides. Weekends were all about their matches,” said Caroline (59).

“The only thing I could do was go to the gym, as I could pick my own time.”

When Peter, her eldest, turned 10, she began taking fitness classes and has kept in very good physical shape ever since.

Caroline, from Douglas, feels strongly that staying fit and active greatly helps women through menopause.

But she admits she unwittingly fell for “the perception that, as women get older, they cannot be actively involved with sport.”

Her friend Siobhan Rice, with whom she rowed back in the 1980s, finally persuaded her back in 2018, after years of trying.

Caroline had only popped in to Cork Boat Club to drop off a jersey signed by Peter when Siobhan and friends cornered and finally convinced her.

It was over 35 years since she had last sat in a boat. Now she is hooked more than ever.

“We are lucky here to have enough women to make up a crew of eight. The youngest is 40, I am one of the oldest, and we compete at masters rowing, which I do not think even existed when I rowed before.”

Most sports have ‘masters’ categories for the over-40s. But masters rowing is for anyone aged over 27.

When a crew includes a range of different age-groups above that age, they are given a time handicap based on average age.

Over the past two years, Caroline has not only re-discovered the joy of rowing, but also her competitive streak.

“I was only back a few months when the girls decided to enter the Cork Head of the River race, just aiming to do our best.

“I went home early afterwards and they rang me later to say we had won. I couldn’t believe it. I was in the house, saying ‘your mother is a granny and she’s just won a medal!’”

In 2020, when Boston’s famous ‘Head of the Charles’ race became a virtual event open to entries from across the globe, Cork Boat Club’s female masters eight not only entered, they won their category.

On the strength of that win they have already booked flights for next October, hoping to again compete in the event.

“It’s a 6.7K race, over three times longer than rowing’s regular 2K, which is televised live through the centre of Boston.

“People up to their 80s come from all over the world to compete. My brother has done it twice. Fingers crossed that we can travel by then.”

The crew train on the water each Saturday and Sunday morning, with at least two evenings in Summer, and work separately on fitness.

Caroline favours three classes a-week of ‘Lean with Leslie.’ Leslie Giltinan’s classes at Cork Constitution Rugby Club continued online, via an app, during the pandemic.

“It is a full body workout, with weights, which I really like. I also use ergometers (indoor rowing machines) at Cork Boat Club.”

Lockdowns may have repeatedly thwarted outdoor activity, but it has not dimmed Caroline’s enthusiasm.

“Rowing as a team-sport is incredible. On the day when you go out and are perfectly in sync and the water is like glass, the buzz is fantastic.

“For fitness, it is one of the best sports there is because you are using your whole body.

“And then there are the friends I have made again in the past two years. We keep sending each other photos of the river at the moment because we are so eager to get out again.”

Caroline reflects on young mothers and competitive sport in the past.

“It just wasn’t done back then. When I competed in the 1980s there were very few women involved.

“A lot of clubs did not accept women. The number of girls in our club now is fantastic and Karen McCarthy has just become its first woman president.

“A while ago, two girls turned up and came out with us for a spin. They were in their 30s and one of them said ‘I’m in-between baby feeds.’ I was delighted to hear that, it was brilliant.”