Cork oarsman to feature in new RTÉ documentary

Sat, 31 May, 2025 - 15:07

Donal O’Keeffe

A Cork oarsman is in a new RTÉ documentary about members of Ireland’s dragon boat-racing community who were brought together not just by sport, but by cancer.

The programme, Dragon Hearts, which will air at 6.30pm on Monday, June 2, on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player, was meant to run last month, but was rescheduled due to the death of Pope Francis.

The documentary meets people from Dublin to Donegal, Sligo to Cork, men and women, who have turned adversity in to strength, paddling not just for victory, but for survival.

What sets them apart is that every paddler has been touched, directly or indirectly, by cancer. Mark O’Connor is one of the founding members of the Cork Dragon Boat Club, and his own experiences inspired him.

“People can tell you many things about living and dying, but when you are faced with it, the majority of people will say, ‘Let me live’. And I choose to live,” he said.

Mr O’Connor’s words are echoed by hundreds of dragon boat club members all over Ireland. These are the men and women who, week in week out, take to the lakes, rivers, and sea to participate in a unique sport.

Dragon boat racing is an ancient Chinese sport with 2,000 years of history, but it is now also one of the fastest-growing water sports worldwide. The sport was trialled by researchers in Canada in the 1990s as a treatment for breast-cancer survivors to boost their upper-body strength and, as a result, to improve their psychological wellbeing and overall medical outcomes.

In Ireland, the first dragon boat club was set up in 2010 in Dublin.

Dragon Hearts introduces viewers to members of the Plurabelle Paddlers, who first brought the sport to Ireland.

The documentary also features members of some of the clubs the Plurabelle Paddlers have supported nationally over the past decade, and men and women from each of these clubs offer an insight in to a season of training and racing during the documentary.