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Displaying items by tag: Jack Dorney

#Rowing: The Afloat Rowers of the Month for May are the Ireland men’s junior coxed four which took silver at the European Junior Regatta in Essen, Germany. The crew of Matthew Gallagher (St Joseph’s), James O’Donovan (Castleconnell), Jack Dorney (Shandon), John Kearney (Cork) and cox Leah O’Regan (Shandon) gave gold medallists Germany a real battle, and were just three tenths of a second behind at the finish.

 It was a good month for Irish crews in overseas regattas. Molly Curry of Coleraine GS – who won the Afloat Rower of the Month for February – had a remarkable win in the Championships Single Sculls at the National Schools Regatta on Dorney Lake. St Michael’s and Enniskillen also shone in a strong Irish contingent.

At home Commercial and UCD engaged in two fierce contests in the men’s eight at both Skibbereen and Metro Grand League Regatta. Commercial came out on top by small margins in both races.

Rower of the Month awards: The judging panel is made up of Liam Gorman, rowing correspondent of The Irish Times and David O'Brien, Editor of Afloat magazine. Monthly awards for achievements during the year will appear on afloat.ie. Keep a monthly eye on progress and watch our 2019 champions list grow.

Published in Rower of Month

#Rowing: Jack Dorney of Shandon and Margaret Cremen of Lee were the overall winners of the Cork Sculling Ladder. The presentations will take place this Thursday (January 31st) at Cork Boat Club. The Ladder is sponsored by Argos Fire.

Cork Sculling Ladder - Overall Winner :  (1) Jack Dorney  -  Shandon Boat Club.

 Women’s Overall Winner: (13) Margaret Cremen  -  Lee Rowing Club  (retained)

Section Winners

 

Men

 

Jack Dorney  -  Shandon Boat Club, Open, Intermediate, Club 1, Club 2, Junior 18 and Junior 16 

Jack Kiely  -  Lee Rowing Club, Novice

Peter Leonard  -  Cork Boat Club, Junior 15 and Junior 14

David Ross – Chu  -  Shandon Boat Club, Junior 13

Cian Dunlop  -  Lee Rowing Club, Junior 12

Donal Smith  -  Shandon Boat Club, Masters A & B

Henrik Merz  -  Shandon Boat Club, Masters C

John O’Neill  -  Shandon Boat Club, Masters D

Tony Corcoran  -  Lee Valley Rowing Club, Masters E, F, G & H

 

Women

 

Margaret Cremen  -  Lee Rowing Club, Open, Intermediate and Junior 18

Aoife Lynch  -  Lee Rowing Club, Club 1, Junior 16 and Junior 15

Claragh O’Sullivan  -  Cork Boat Club, Club 2

Maeve Coakley  -  Lee Rowing Club, Novice

Jennifer Forde  -  Shandon Boat Club, Junior 14

Isobel McElwain  -  Lee Rowing Club, Junior 13

Emer Hannon  -  Lee Rowing Club, Junior 12

Jessica Legresly  -  Shandon Boat Club, Masters A & B

Vivian Kelleher  -  Lee Rowing Club, Masters C

Liz Buckley  -  Lee Rowing Club, Masters D

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: Ireland just missed out on a place in the A/B semi-finals of the junior men’s quadruple at the World Junior Championships in Racice, Czech Republic. The crew of Luke Hayes Nally, Alex Byrne, Jack Dorney and Jack Keating finished third to Denmark and Chile, with just two boats going on; the race was fast, setting a new record for this event at a World Junior Championships.

 Chile had led through most of the race, with Denmark never far away. Ireland moved into a clear third place. In the final 300 metres Denmark charged into the lead and flew away from Chile. Ireland did their best to catch Chile, but the South Americans kept their nerve well and held on to the crucial second spot by a length.  

 Ireland go to the C/D Semi-Finals. Earlier the women's junior pair of Eliza O'Reilly and Gill McGirr had qualified for the A/B Semi-Finals.

World Junior Rowing Championships, Racice, Czech Republic (Selected Results)

Men

Quadruple – Repechage Two (First Two to A/B Semi-Finals; rest to C/D Semi-Finals): 1 Denmark 5:52.45, 2 Chile 5:56.25; 3 Ireland (L Hayes Nally, A Byrne, J Dorney, J Keating) 5:58.73.

Women

Pair – Repechage (First Three to A/B Semi-Final; rest to C Final): 1 France 7:25.97, 2 Hungary 7:29.32, 3 Ireland (E O’Reilly, G McGirr) 7:31.49.

Published in Rowing

#Rowing: The under-23 lightweight pair of David O’Malley and Shane Mulvaney were the most emphatic of winners on the first day of the Ireland trial at the National Rowing Centre in Cork, while Philip Doyle won the men’s single sculls – in the absence of Queen’s University clubmate Sam McKeown, who has gone to the British system.

Emily Hegarty and Aifric Keogh teamed up well in a women’s pair and Monika Dukarska was untroubled in a fine win in the women’s single sculls. Sanita Puspure is overcoming a back injury and Aileen Crowley, who has partnered Keogh in a pair, has tendonitis. Denise Walsh has tonsilitis.

Andrew Goff was the best of a talented, ambitious, group of lightweight single single scullers.

The junior ranks were vibrant and drew praise from Ireland high performance director Antonio Maurogiovanni. Fermoy’s Eliza O’Reilly and Gill McGirr confirmed their preeminence in the women’s pair, while Enniskillen’s Odhran Donaghy and Nathan Timoney were the best junior men’s pair. Aoibhinn Keating of Skibbereen was the top junior women’s sculler and Jack Dorney looked strong as he raced away to win the junior men’s single.

Ireland Assessment, National Rowing Centre (Selected Results; senior results not published)

Men – Junior

Pair – A Final: 1 O Donaghy, N Timoney (Enniskillen) 7:30.94, 2 S O’Neill, W Ronayne (Shandon) 7:36.03, 3 O’Donovan, Mulready (Castleconnell) 7:48.19. B Final: P Murphy, J Kennedy (Enniskillen) 7:48.76. Single – A Final: 1 J Dorney (Shandon) 7:45.34, 2 J Keating (Carlow) 7:53.06, 3 A Byrne (Shandon) 7:54.13. B Final: T Murphy (Lee) 8:00.55.

Women - Junior

Pair – A Final: 1 E O’Reill, G McGill. Single – A Final: 1 A Keating (Skibbereen) 8:46.75, 2 R Carson (Bann) 8:50.84, 3 C Moynihan (Workmen’s) 8:54.71. B Final: C O’Brien (Castleconnell) 8:46.50.

Published in Rowing

Sharks in Irish waters

Irish waters are home to 71 species of shark, skates and rays, 58 of which have been studied in detail and listed on the Ireland Red List of Cartilaginous fish. Irish sharks range from small Sleeper sharks, Dogfish and Catsharks, to larger species like Frilled, Mackerel and Cow sharks, all the way to the second largest shark in the world, the Basking shark. 

Irish waters provide a refuge for an array of shark species. Tralee Bay, Co. Kerry provides a habitat for several rare and endangered sharks and their relatives, including the migratory tope shark, angel shark and undulate ray. This area is also the last European refuge for the extremely rare white skate. Through a European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) project, Marine Institute scientists have been working with fishermen to assess the distribution, diversity, and monthly relative abundance of skates and rays in Tralee, Brandon and Dingle Bays.

“These areas off the southwest coast of Ireland are important internationally as they hold some of the last remaining refuges for angel shark and white skate,” said Dr Maurice Clarke of the Marine Institute. “This EMFF project has provided data confirming the critically endangered status of some species and provides up-to-date information for the development of fishery measures to eliminate by-catch.” 

Irish waters are also home to the Black Mouthed Catshark, Galeus melastomus, one of Ireland’s smallest shark species which can be found in the deep sea along the continental shelf. In 2018, Irish scientists discovered a very rare shark-nursery 200 nautical miles off the west coast by the Marine Institute’s ROV Holland 1 on a shelf sloping to 750 metres deep. 

There are two ways that sharks are born, either as live young or from egg casings. In the ‘case’ of Black Mouthed Catsharks, the nursery discovered in 2018, was notable by the abundance of egg casings or ‘mermaid’s purses’. Many sharks, rays and skate lay eggs, the cases of which often wash ashore. If you find an egg casing along the seashore, take a photo for Purse Search Ireland, a citizen science project focusing on monitoring the shark, ray and skate species around Ireland.

Another species also found by Irish scientists using the ROV Holland 1 in 2018 was a very rare type of dogfish, the Sail Fin Rough Shark, Oxynotus paradoxus. These sharks are named after their long fins which resemble the trailing sails of a boat, and live in the deep sea in waters up to 750m deep. Like all sharks, skates and rays, they have no bones. Their skeleton is composed of cartilage, much like what our noses and ears are made from! This material is much more flexible and lighter than bone which is perfect for these animals living without the weight of gravity.

Throughout history sharks have been portrayed as the monsters of the sea, a concept that science is continuously debunking. Basking sharks were named in 1765 as Cetorhinus maximus, roughly translated to the ‘big-nosed sea monster’. Basking sharks are filter feeders, often swimming with their mouths agape, they filter plankton from the water.

They are very slow moving and like to bask in the sun in shallow water and are often seen in Irish waters around Spring and early Summer. To help understand the migration of these animals to be better able to understand and conserve these species, the Irish Basking Shark Group have tagged and mapped their travels.

Remarkably, many sharks like the Angel Shark, Squatina squatina have the ability to sense electricity. They do this via small pores in their skin called the ‘Ampullae of Lorenzini’ which are able to detect the tiny electrical impulses of a fish breathing, moving or even its heartbeat from distances of over a kilometre! Angel sharks, often referred to as Monkfish have a distinctively angelic shape, with flattened, large fins appearing like the wings of an angel. They live on the seafloor in the coastal waters of Ireland and much like a cat are nocturnal, primarily active at night.

The intricate complexity of shark adaptations is particularly noticeable in the texture of their skin. Composed of miniscule, perfectly shaped overlapping scales, the skin of shark provides them with protection. Often shark scales have been compared to teeth due to their hard enamel structure. They are strong, but also due to their intricate shape, these scales reduce drag and allow water to glide past them so that the shark can swim more effortlessly and silently. This natural flawless design has been used as inspiration for new neoprene fabric designs to help swimmers glide through the water. Although all sharks have this feature, the Leafscale Gulper Shark, Centrophorus squamosus, found in Ireland are specifically named due to the ornate leaf-shape of their scales.