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A ROW BETWEEN two swim groups over which is the rightful host of two long-running swim events for the second consecutive year has led a Leinster-based swim group to initiate legal proceedings against Swim Ireland.
Leinster Open Sea (LOS) filed legal proceedings against Swim Ireland, the national governing body for Irish swimming, on Monday.
A statement from Leinster Open Sea’s board of directors confirmed that it had initiated the proceedings, which include an application for an injunction to prevent Swim Ireland from organising “duplicate” Liffey Swim and Dún Laoghaire Harbour races. The statement described the two events as “historic” and “long established as part of the Leinster Open Sea calendar”.
There was confusion last year as both LOS and Swim Ireland ran competing Liffey Swims after a row broke out over who should host the landmark swim. Leinster Open Swim had been the organiser of the event for a number of years, but had done so recognised by Swim Ireland.
A rift between the two, which included Swim Ireland stating that it had “governance concerns” over the operations of Leinster Open Sea, resulted in the separate bodies ploughing ahead and holding their separate swims at the same location.
This year, Leinster Open Sea’s Dún Laoghaire Harbour swim is scheduled to take place on 3 August, and its Liffey swim is scheduled to take place on 30 August.
Swim Ireland, however, has scheduled for its Dún Laoghaire Harbour swim to take place on 3 August, and its Liffey swim on 13 September.
Leinster Open Sea CLG has this year set out that it wishes to retain the right to organise and run the annual events.
“In 2024, the running of two competing Liffey Swims caused considerable confusion among swimmers, volunteers, and the public — resulting in reputational damage and unnecessary division within the open water community,” a statement said.
“We are determined to avoid the same situation in 2025.”
It further said that it has made repeated efforts to resolve the matter and has offered to undergo mediation with Swim Ireland. It alleged that Swim Ireland publicly stated that it is willing to take part in mediation but privately laid down “a series of preconditions before it would take part in mediation which are totally unacceptable”.
It added that it regretted having to initiate such proceedings but that the move was taken “as a last resort”.
In a statement to The Journal, Swim Ireland said that it has refrained from taking legal action itself to avoid spending “valuable resource on legal fees which could otherwise be spent on our members and ground the Swim Ireland open water schedule”.
“As Swim Ireland has not initiated this recent action, it continues to consider the contents of the legal proceedings issued and will attend court on Friday, as required,” the organisation said. It added that it was assured of its position in relation to the two contested swims.
Leinster Open Sea said that it hoped the Leinster swimming community would continue to support it as it proceeds with legal action, and said that it fully intends for its race calendar to proceed as planned.
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