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Flower ceremony 2025

Our annual flower ceremony takes place each year in October, Breast Cancer Awareness month. The ceremony is an opportunity to celebrate survivorship and living after a breast cancer diagnosis and an occasion where we show our support to our members living with cancer. We take time to remember and honour our Plurabelles who have passed away. This year’s ceremony took place on Saturday 11 October and was led by Maria Fleming, who read some beautiful poetry with accompanying music supplied by her sister Eileen on harp and her brother-in-law Frank on fiddle. Pink gerbera were released on to the water in remembrance at the end of the ceremony.

Following the ceremony members and guests went back to the clubhouse to chat and enjoy the legendary Plurabelle hospitality.

 

Fiona Slevin appointed as IBCPC Irish rep

Marion Egan has resigned as national representative on the International Breast Cancer Paddlers’ Commission after holding the position for three years. Fiona Slevin has now been appointed as the new national IBCPC rep. Fiona, a Plurabelle since 2010,  is very well known in the Irish dragon boat community and overseas and is a fantastic candidate to take over the role. It is great news for our club to have another Plurabelle representing us, especially with the festival taking place in France next year. 

Previous representatives in the role include Deborah Bonner from Donegal Dragons and Plurabelle Susan Rowe, who was the first Irish representative.

A trophy and a special award at Ballina

Forty Plurabelles (two teams) travelled to Ballina Dragons’ first regatta and received a warm welcome, with tea, sandwiches and cakes. Experienced and new paddlers were mixed on the teams. The Plurabelle 1 team qualified for the BCS final, and, after a very closely fought race, won in 54.56 seconds. The race commentator’s voice boomed over the venue and we were renamed as ‘The Powerbelles’ – quite apt, we thought.

At the prize-giving ceremony, Ballina Dragons surprised us by presenting a special recognition award. They thanked us for setting up the first dragon boat club in Ireland and said they felt they were ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’. It was a very proud moment for our club.

After the ceremony we went back to the Quay West pub, where the Ballina Dragons had arranged live music. We mingled with the other dragon boat teams and enjoyed a terrific evening, with plenty of singing and dancing.

The Ballina Dragons have to be heartily congratulated on the outstanding success of their inaugural regatta, which was incredibly enjoyable.

       

Warmup Plurabelle style

Three new helms

Sunday 10 August was a great day for our club, with three of our members – Katie, Nola and Helen – going through helm training with Julie Doyle of the Irish Dragon Boat Association. Beyza Yaman, from the Dublin Viking Dragon Boat Club, also qualified as a helm. Thanks to the volunteers who crewed the boats and special thanks to Margaret for all the time she has given to help prepare our helm trainees. Part of the training was a capsize in the afternoon, which seems to have been thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.

Many thanks to Julie Doyle for doing such a terrific job training our new helms.

 

Spirit of the Plurabelles 2025

This year’s recipient of the Spirit of the Plurabelles is Eithne Cullinane. The award, which is voted on by members, was presented to Eithne by our founder Fiona Tiernan’s son Oscar. Eithne joined our club at its inception and was present for our first tryout session in Killaloe in 2010. Some of the reasons our members voted for Eithne include her willingness to do anything required: our warm-ups and cool-downs, drumming, equipment maintenance, her advocacy on the health benefits of our sport – there’s nothing Eithne won’t do. Not forgetting her sense of fun and enthusiasm. Congratulations, Eithne, a very worthy recipient.

                                   

 

Our new small boat

On 12 February 2025, a chilly and overcast day, the Club was delighted to take delivery of its new high-performance small boat. It is a little sister to our standard dragon boats, which take 20 paddlers. The new boat is smaller, lighter and takes 10 paddlers. The long-planned and much-anticipated arrival was unloaded with the help of family and friends and taken on its maiden voyage around the dock. A bespoke lifting and storage system is in place to allow the boat to be stored alongside our two standard boats.

Helms and members are getting used to paddling in her and we are now planning an eye-dotting ceremony, when we will ‘waken the dragon’ and reveal the name of our beautiful new boat.