The future of the Liffey Swim and Dún Laoghaire Harbour Race, both run by Leinster Open sea group, is uncertain due to a dispute between rival swimming organisations.
The Dún Laoghaire Harbour race in Dublin this weekend, organised for the first time by Swim Ireland rather than Leinster Open sea, which organised the previous 93 harbour swims.
Leinster Open Sea is not affiliated to Swim Ireland, formerly the IASA, which is the controlling body for swimming in Ireland, and has applied to run its own Dún Laoghaire Harbour Race in October.
Brian Nolan, Head of Operations at Leinster Open Sea, describes the Dún Laoghaire race as a favourite among swimmers, being one of the biggest events on the Leinster Open Sea swim calendar.
It also organises the Liffey swim in October takes place over a 1,700 metre course from the Three Arena into Custom House Quay.
A post on the Leinster Open Sea Facebook page says: Leinster Open Sea is a not-for-profit swimming club, run by unpaid volunteers, drawn from the wider sea swimming community. Leinster Open Sea has an ethos of volunteering to ensure that the cost of sea swimming is kept as low as possible. Any surplus made by Leinster Open Sea is put back into the sport of sea swimming by buying equipment, essential training and subsidising the running of races.
Cost should never be a barrier to entry into a sea swimming race and the sport of sea swimming should be accessible to all members of the community.
Leinster Open Sea encourages swimmers in its races to join their local swimming club so that there is a strong club structure to support the sport of swimming in Leinster. The Leinster Open Sea races are an opportunity for swimming clubs to raise funds and attract new members. Sea swimming should never be a solo sport. Novices to the sport need a club structure, that enables novice sea swimmers to hook up with other swimmers and swim safely in the sea.
As is public knowledge, Leinster Open Sea is in mediation with Swim Ireland.
Leinster Open Sea are upset by Swim Ireland’s attempts to push out a voluntary not-for-profit club from running one of the most prestigious sea swimming races in Ireland. One cannot help but ask why Swim Ireland is now so interested in Sea Swimming, when Swim Ireland never funded sea swims in Leinster in the past? Swim Ireland is well funded with membership fees from all the swimmers and clubs in Ireland along with government grants.
Swim Ireland put their application into the Dún Laoghaire Harbour Authorities to run their swimming race in Dún Laoghaire without discussing it with Leinster Open Sea and while in mediation with Leinster Open Sea. Swim Ireland are well aware of the long history Leinster Open Sea and its predecessor the Open Sea Committee have in running the Dún Laoghaire Harbour Race over many years.
The Harbour Authorities reserve one day a year for a swimming race in Dún Laoghaire Harbour. Leinster Open Sea has excellent working relations with the Harbour Authorities and felt that Swim Ireland put the Harbour Authorities in an unfair situation. Therefore, Leinster Open Sea withdrew its’ application.
Leinster Open Sea were further disappointed that Swim Ireland did not withdraw their application, despite over twenty-one Swim Ireland swimming clubs writing to Swim Ireland asking them to withdraw their application. The petition from the twenty-one clubs gave Swim Ireland an opportunity to withdraw with dignity.
It appears that Swim Ireland is using its resources, paid for by government grants and your membership fees to undermine a voluntary not-for-profit swimming club, Leinster Open Sea. Swim Ireland, which claims to be a national governing body, has demonstrated a democratic deficit by refusing to listen to its member clubs. The twenty-one clubs that petitioned Swim Ireland make up the majority of the swimmers in the Leinster Open Sea Races and are a substantial part of the adult membership of Swim Ireland in Leinster.
Most registered swimmers leave the sport of swimming in their teenage years or in their early twenties. Why are Swim Ireland trying to undermine Leinster Open Sea who encourages adults to join or rejoin the sport of swimming?
The race Swim Ireland is running this August is not the traditional annual Dún Laoghaire Harbour Race going back to 1931. The winners of the Swim Ireland race in Dún Laoghaire Harbour will not win the prestigious Dún Laoghaire Harbour Cups.
The Dún Laoghaire Harbour Race has unique traditions and history passed on through generations of Leinster Sea Swimmers; having to qualify by completing at least six other races from the Leinster Open Sea Calendar, having to swim in accordance with the 100-year-old tradition of togs, cap and goggles, swimming without wetsuits, and collecting the numbered hats before the race. The traditional race includes the banter and speculation about who is a favourite with a good handicap, joking among swimmers about who was ‘roping’ and ‘sandbagging’ and who was doing secret training.
The race itself around the ancient granite walls of Dún Laoghaire Harbour built over two hundred years ago is steeped in history. Swimmers remember tales of the drowning of Captain Boyd and five of his men trying to rescue others in 1861, the Sherwood Foresters landing during the 1916 Easter Rising, the last voyage of the RMS Leinster 1918, and the British Army leaving in 1922. The history and traditions of the race itself are imprinted on the swimmers and the clubs that support them.
The Dún Laoghaire Harbour Race is one of the few sea swimming races where the swimmers can hear the crowd and spectators can see the swimmers. Friends, family and even tourists, enjoy a unique opportunity to see what sea swimming is all about.
The unique handicap system developed by Leinster Open Sea gives a senior citizen the same chance of winning against an elite swimmer just back from the Olympics! Former Irish Olympic swimmers who have swum in the Dún Laoghaire Harbour Race include Donnacha O’Dea, Kevin Williamson, David Cummins and Brenda McGrory.
Swimmers compete in a series of Leinster Open Sea races during the summer to earn the privilege of swimming out past the Carlisle Pier to the East Pier Lighthouse, along the East pier by the anemometer, the Boyd monument, the band stand and Berth No 1.
The winners of the historic Leinster Open Sea Dún Laoghaire Harbour Race rejoice in having their names engraved on the prestigious Dún Laoghaire Harbour Race Cups and achieving a small piece of sea swimming immortality. Part of the pleasure of the race is meeting old friends with whom you have spent your life swimming, training and competing with, and remembering friends long gone who used to swim in the Dún Laoghaire Harbour Race and who are looking down on us from on high; swimming beside the Valhalla of sea swimming in Ireland, the Forty Foot. Part of the occasion is a great evening afterwards in Dún Laoghaire, catching up with friends and reminiscing about the Harbour Race and Harbour Races past.
The Dún Laoghaire Harbour Race and the Jones Engineering Dublin City Liffey Swim are the All-Ireland finals of the sea swimming community in Ireland.
Swim Ireland enjoys none of the tradition associated with the Dún Laoghaire Harbour Race, other than to exploit it as a source of revenue, and harness its proven popularity as a project report for Sports Ireland.
Leinster Open Sea hopes to ask the respective Harbour Authorities for special permission to run the traditional Dún Laoghaire Harbour Race later this summer. The Harbour Authorities have other considerations and may not be able to grant this request even though they may look favourably on Leinster Open Sea’s request.
Leinster Open Sea and the wider sea swimming community wish the best of luck and an enjoyable swim to all the swimmers competing in the Swim Ireland swim in Dún Laoghaire Harbour.
We wish for a safe and an enjoyable day for all swimmers taking part.
Hopefully, those swimmers who do compete will come and join us in the Leinster Open Sea Races later this year or in future years and support a long and unique tradition of sea swimming in Ireland.
They might even qualify for the real Dún Laoghaire Harbour Race or Jones Engineering Dublin City Liffey Swim next year.
They will be made very welcome if they do join the Leinster Open Sea Races. All sea swimmers are always welcome.
