The 2026 Colours Boat Races will take place on the River Liffey through Dublin City Centre on Saturday, March 21st, 2026.

The annual event, which includes four races in total, will see crews from Trinity College Dublin and UCD race head-to-head over 2 kms upstream and under eight bridges from the starting line at O’Connell Bridge to the finish at Victoria Quay.

The races will include the 76th edition of the Gannon Cup, which has been raced by Senior Men’s Eights since 1947, and the 45th edition of the Corcoran Cup for Senior Women’s Eights.

UCD is seeking to make it five wins in a row in both Senior races. Both Trinity and UCD have 37 wins each in The Gannon Cup and Trinity will be seeking to stop UCD taking the lead in the overall series for the first time.

The Corcoran Cup was originally a Senior Women’s Coxed Four event, but evolved into an Eights race in 1993, due to increased participation by women in rowing throughout the country. Trinity has recorded 17 wins and UCD has 27.

The Colours Boat Races began in 1947 when the Gannon Cup was presented in memory of UCD Boat Club Captain Ciaran Gannon who was killed while on active service with the Royal Army Medical Corps in Burma in 1944.

Since then the list of races has expanded to include the Corcoran Cup in 1980, the Dan Quinn Shield for Novice Men’s Eights in 2004 and the Sally Moorhead Trophy for Novice Women’s Eights in 2005.

Trinity has won the last five Novice Men’s Eight races while Trinity won the Novice Women’s Eights race last March with a spectacular late push that put them half a length ahead at the finishing line.