An Cosantóir

www.military.ie THE DEFENCE FORCES MAGAZINE | 29 regardless of whether you are male or female it can be tough. The Defence Forces are fantastic in supporting your family if needs be whilst overseas. It must be said that overseas service can at times be surrounded by obstacles and more times than not it is the partner/wife/husband/ parent at home who has to embrace the real day to day struggle, dealing with Parent Teacher meetings, school runs, sports days, training nights for football, Rowing or Taekwondo etc whilst working themselves. You're involved in the DF rowing, how did you get into that? The Defence Forces Rowing Club actually came about during the 2013/2015 NBG deployment to Sweden when one of my best friends Pte Rob Diffley and I were chatting about training; we were both involved with civilian clubs at that stage, and Rob had a brief interaction with the Previous DFRA "Defence Forces Rowing Association". However, the time wasn't right to start a new club, the old one was slowly fading into the background, and we both knew we wanted a new fresh approach and identity for Rowing within the Defence Forces, one that hadn't been seen before. It wasn't until 3 years later (2018) whilst undergoing a college course, myself and Rob started chatting to then CQMS Martyn Underhill of 1 Bde Engineers who told us he had recently started rowing, and from there the club and ideas started to grow. What stage is the Defence Forces Rowing Club at currently? The Defence Forces Rowing Club has gone through a complete overhaul in the last eighteen months. If it's one thing the Defence Forces teaches you over a period of almost 30 years, it is to call out when things are not right, or stagnant and as head coach I discussed this with Rob Diffley and Martyn Underhill – we needed a fresh approach. We had won a nice few Rowing Ireland regattas and won the Ocean to City race in Cork but we knew we needed to go in a different direction if we wanted national honours. We decided we needed new or better coaching ideas and expertise. The DF has taught us many things and one was we shouldn't accept lower standards; with this in mind we went straight for the best available person in 3 time Olympian and two tie World Champion Ms Sanita Purspora as a new High Performance Coach. This step alone had a significant improvement in training on the water. This also led to us improving the Defence Forces public image at Rowing Ireland events where on a typical National Championship regatta you can have crowds at the National Rowing Centre in excess of 5000, with at the very least 2000 junior athletes at the age for joining the Defence Forces. Our club members are always stopped and asked questions about careers in the Defence Forces. Another significant step in the clubs planning for future development was the construction of a new boathouse and training facility at Collins Bks Cork Campfield in August 2025. This was followed in Sept 2025 by the induction of Recruit Ronan Byrne, 26, who is a former 2020 Olympian and current Irish International. With more of Ronan's calibre to follow, the future looks bright for our club and indeed sport in general within the Defence Forces. What are in the plans for the future for the rowing club? Very simple, to continue to grow and develop the Sport across the Defence Forces. To identify athletes within our organisation who have the potential to enter into a HP (High Performance) programme and represent the Defence Forces in Rowing for Ireland. What do you enjoy the most about it? How brutal and physically hard it can be, but also Rowing is unlike any sport you can compete in, simply because regardless of age there is a category for you. Most memorable experience in DF Rowing? From Day one to present day, it's just been one long enjoyable experience, but I think capturing the services of Ms Sanita Purpsora as High Performance coach was unthinkable when we first started out, to have Sintia in the Safety Launch coaching you is unbelievable at times. What advice would you give anyone thinking of joining? Very simply, there is NO other club in the Defence Forces who can offer you the type of 1:1 training by a former 3 time Olympian and 2 time World Champion, if you want to be challenged physically, technically, psychologically and pushed to your limits at times, then simply reach out. We're not messing around!! What is your favourite quote? Let's Go!!

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