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Displaying items by tag: Liffey Swim

The annual Liffey Swim was held in Dublin city centre on Saturday (24 September) with nearly 500 people taking part, as RTÉ News reports.

Dublin Swimming Club’s Ken Dent took the men’s honours, leading from the outset and setting a time of 38 minutes from the Guinness Brewery to Custom House Quay — the swim’s traditional route.

Meanwhile, Melissa Corbally from Dublin’s NAC Masters Swimming Club was first among the women with a time of 47 min 51 sec, and described her win as “a very big surprise”. RTÉ News has more HERE.

This was the 102nd edition of the Liffey Swim, an annual event since 1920 save for a break in 2020 in the first months of the COVID pandemic.

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The 100th edition of the Liffey Swim saw one of its youngest ever winners, as 15-year-old Mark Hanley from Meath clinched the men’s title yesterday afternoon (Saturday 3 August).

“Never in a million years did we think he’d win it,” his father Barry told Independent.ie of the schoolboy who has to juggle training with studies for his recently completed Junior Cert.

Fellow Meath swimmer Sinead Delaney was victorious in the women’s division of the race from St James’ Gate to Custom House Quay.

This year’s centenary event went ahead amid concerns over the river’s water quality following heavy rains earlier in the week that once again overwhelmed the city’s wastewater treatment infrastructure.

Dublin City Council warned that the most recent test results were “exceptionally poor”.

But race winner Mark commented: “It was grand, I actually think it was cleaner this year than last year. Less gunk on the top.”

Independent.ie has more on the story HERE.

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#LiffeySwim - RTÉ journalist Paul O’Flynn fulfilled his “lifelong dream” of winning the Liffey Swim men’s race in the event’s 99th running yesterday afternoon (Saturday 1 September).

The Half Moon Swimming Club member finished with a time of around 43 minutes with an eight-minute handicap, as RTÉ News reports.

Trina Muldoon of Clontarf Swimming Club won the women’s race on the course that ran from St James’ Gate to the Custom House.

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#LiffeySwim - Some 500 swimmers are expected to take a dip in Dublin city centre this afternoon (Saturday 1 September) in the 99th running of the Liffey Swim.

Now sponsored by Jones Engineering and organised by Leinster Open Sea, the Liffey Swim was first run in 1920 and was soon after immortalised by Jack B Yeats’ Olympic medal-winning painting.

However, the tradition is very much alive and well, and the Liffey Swim today is the oldest continually run annual swimming race in Europe.

Spectators for this year’s event should plan to take their spots before the men’s race from 3pm and the women’s race from 4pm, both from the Rory O’Moore Bridge at St James’ Gate to the Custom House.

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#LiffeySwim - The 98th Liffey Swim on Saturday (9 September) was a double for Dublin Swimming Club, according to BreakingNews.ie.

Colin Monaghan and Anne Marie Bourke won the men’s and women’s races respectively over the 2.2km course from the Rory O’Moore Bridge at Croppies Acre to the Loop Line Bridge.

Nearly 500 swimmers took part in the near-century-old institution, now run annually by Leinster Open Sea Swimming and the only swimming race through a European capital, says TheJournal.ie.

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#LiffeySwim - "Perfect" conditions greeted the 430 swimmers who took a dip in the capital's river for the 97th Liffey Swim last weekend, as TheJournal.ie reports.

Brian Murray and Jennifer Gilbert were the respective men's and women's winners in the 2.2km race from the Rory O'Moore Bridge near Croppies Acre to the Loop Line Bridge at the Custom House on Saturday 6 August.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the annual Liffey Swim run by Leinster Open Sea Swimming is one of the most renowned and unique races of its kind in the world.

And photographer Donal Moloney was on hand to capture some stunning images of the day, which he's made available as a Facebook gallery HERE.

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#LiffeySwim - The 97th Dublin City Liffey Swim will take place on Saturday 6 August.

The men's race will kick off from 1.30pm at Croppies Acre heading downstream beneath 12 of the city's bridges as far as the Loop Line Bridge, with the women's race from 2.30pm.

Run annually by Leinster Open Sea Swimming, the 2.2km Liffey Swim is one of the most renowned open sea races throughout the world – its excitement captured in Jack B Yeats' famed painting from 1923.

It is also unique in that Dublin is the only capital in Europe to have a swimming race through the middle of the city.

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#LiffeySwim - Dublin celebrated its 95th Liffey Swim yesterday as more than 360 people took to the river's waters yesterday (13 September) for the annual race through the heart of the capital.

As The Irish Times reports, 257 men and 111 women set off from the quays at the Guinness brewery on the more than 2km downstream course towards the Loopline Bridge, swimming beneath the majority of the city's landmark spans.

And almost all of the swimmers completed the race, with Ger Wilkes of the North Dublin Winter Swimming Club coming first among the men, while paramedic Rachel Lee was the first woman to reach the Custom House

The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.

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#liffeyswim – The Lord Mayor Oisín Quinn will officially start the 94th Liffey Swim, supported by Dublin City Council, this Saturday 24th August as hundreds of brave swimmers take the plunge. This year's race will start at the Loop Line Bridge beside Butt Bridge and finish at the pontoon on the North side of the river beside the East Link Toll Bridge in front of the O2.

The 94th Dublin City Liffey Swim, supported by Dublin City Councilwill start at the Loop Line Bridge beside Butt Bridge and finish at the pontoon on the North side of the river beside the East Link Toll Bridge in front of the O2.

The 1,600-metre race, organised by Leinster Open Sea Swimming Club and supported by Dublin City Council will commence at 12.30pm with over 300 entrants taking to the water for the historic swim.

The inaugural Liffey LivingFestival will take the infectious atmosphere of the swim on in to the Grand Canal Dock post race for free, family friendly activities such as giant sized street games, a live band, ambient DJ and a specially erected floating open-air cinema, showing water themed movies! Dublin City Council's Liffey Living Festival will run from 3pm -10.00pm

WHEN:
SATURDAY 24th AUGUST 2013
MENS LIFFEY SWIM COMMENCES AT 12.30PM
WOMENS LIFFEY SWIM COMMENCES AT 1.30PM

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This Saturday, 11th September, the Dublin City Council sponsored Liffey Swim celebrates its 90th anniversary as 237 men and 114 women take the plunge, having completed 4 qualifying races on the 2010 Leinster Open Sea Swim Calendar. Dublin's Lord Mayor, Gerry Breen will fire the starting gun for the men's race at 13.30hrs and the women's race at 14.15hrs. The 2.2 kilometre swim begins at Rory O'More Bridge, Watling Street and finishes at the Custom House.

The Swim is open to competitors of all ages, abilities and nationalities, with teenagers pitting their strengths against 70 year olds and club swimmers from all over the country competing against their international counterparts. Don Barry is the oldest competitor at age 70 while Charlie McCarthy is the youngest at age 12.

According to the Lord Mayor, "the City Council is proud to sponsor the Liffey Swim which is a one of our landmark events in Dublin this year, to mark our designation as European Capital of Sport. I applaud the efforts of Swim Ireland, Leinster Region Open Sea Committee, who do an excellent job working closely with the City Council in successfully delivering this uniquely Dublin event, year after year. Attracting as it does a growing number of competitors from home and abroad, the Swim is highly regarded. I would also like to like to wish my colleague on the Joint Policing Commission, Assistant Gárda Commissioner, Mick Feehan the very best of luck in the race – I think he'll need all the luck he can get up against such stiff competition".

"There is something for people of all ages to enjoy at the event, with face-painters, performing clowns and live music from the Artane Boys Band on offer at Custom House Quay during the race. I encourage everybody in Dublin on Saturday afternoon to follow the race along the quays and cheer on the swimmers, from the many great vantage points along the Liffey walls, bridges and boardwalks", said the Lord Mayor. "It's a physically demanding race but a great day out for both competitors and spectators".

The race will feature 3 generations of 1 family swimming: John, Sharon and Hayley Pickering. The winner of last year's men's race, Pat O'Driscoll, will be again joined in the race by his son Daire who recorded the fastest time in last year's men's race. John McCarthy will be battling it out with his 12 year old son Charlie, who will be the youngest competitor in the race.

This year's race also includes a number of Irish swimmers who have completed the gruelling English Channel swim: Julie-Ann Galloway, Lisa Howley, Ann McAdam and Eoin Gaffney.

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How to sail, sailing clubs and sailing boats plus news on the wide range of sailing events on Irish waters forms the backbone of Afloat's sailing coverage.

We aim to encompass the widest range of activities undertaken on Irish lakes, rivers and coastal waters. This page describes those sailing activites in more detail and provides links and breakdowns of what you can expect from our sailing pages. We aim to bring jargon free reports separated in to popular categories to promote the sport of sailing in Ireland.

The packed 2013 sailing season sees the usual regular summer leagues and there are regular weekly race reports from Dublin Bay Sailing Club, Howth and Cork Harbour on Afloat.ie. This season and last also featured an array of top class events coming to these shores. Each year there is ICRA's Cruiser Nationals starts and every other year the Round Ireland Yacht Race starts and ends in Wicklow and all this action before July. Crosshaven's Cork Week kicks off on in early July every other year. in 2012 Ireland hosted some big international events too,  the ISAF Youth Worlds in Dun Laoghaire and in August the Tall Ships Race sailed into Dublin on its final leg. In that year the Dragon Gold Cup set sail in Kinsale in too.

2013 is also packed with Kinsale hosting the IFDS diabled world sailing championships in Kinsale and the same port is also hosting the Sovereign's Cup. The action moves to the east coast in July with the staging of the country's biggest regatta, the Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta from July 11.

Our coverage though is not restricted to the Republic of Ireland but encompasses Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Irish Sea area too. In this section you'll find information on the Irish Sailing Association and Irish sailors. There's sailing reports on regattas, racing, training, cruising, dinghies and keelboat classes, windsurfers, disabled sailing, sailing cruisers, Olympic sailing and Tall Ships sections plus youth sailing, match racing and team racing coverage too.

Sailing Club News

There is a network of over 70 sailing clubs in Ireland and we invite all clubs to submit details of their activities for inclusion in our daily website updates. There are dedicated sections given over to the big Irish clubs such as  the waterfront clubs in Dun Laoghaire; Dublin Bay Sailing Club, the Royal Saint George Yacht Club,  the Royal Irish Yacht Club and the National Yacht Club. In Munster we regularly feature the work of Kinsale Yacht Club and Royal Cork Yacht Club in Crosshaven.  Abroad Irish sailors compete in Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) racing in the UK and this club is covered too. Click here for Afloat's full list of sailing club information. We are keen to increase our coverage on the network of clubs from around the coast so if you would like to send us news and views of a local interest please let us have it by sending an email to [email protected]

Sailing Boats and Classes

Over 20 active dinghy and one design classes race in Irish waters and fleet sizes range from just a dozen or so right up to over 100 boats in the case of some of the biggest classes such as the Laser or Optimist dinghies for national and regional championships. Afloat has dedicated pages for each class: Dragons, Etchells, Fireball, Flying Fifteen, GP14, J24's, J80's, Laser, Sigma 33, RS Sailing, Star, Squibs, TopperMirror, Mermaids, National 18, Optimist, Puppeteers, SB3's, and Wayfarers. For more resources on Irish classes go to our dedicated sailing classes page.

The big boat scene represents up to 60% of the sail boat racing in these waters and Afloat carries updates from the Irish Cruiser Racer Association (ICRA), the body responsible for administering cruiser racing in Ireland and the popular annual ICRA National Championships. In 2010 an Irish team won the RORC Commodore's Cup putting Irish cruiser racing at an all time high. Popular cruiser fleets in Ireland are raced right around the coast but naturally the biggest fleets are in the biggest sailing centres in Cork Harbour and Dublin Bay. Cruisers race from a modest 20 feet or so right up to 50'. Racing is typically divided in to Cruisers Zero, Cruisers One, Cruisers Two, Cruisers Three and Cruisers Four. A current trend over the past few seasons has been the introduction of a White Sail division that is attracting big fleets.

Traditionally sailing in northern Europe and Ireland used to occur only in some months but now thanks to the advent of a network of marinas around the coast (and some would say milder winters) there are a number of popular winter leagues running right over the Christmas and winter periods.

Sailing Events

Punching well above its weight Irish sailing has staged some of the world's top events including the Volvo Ocean Race Galway Stopover, Tall Ships visits as well as dozens of class world and European Championships including the Laser Worlds, the Fireball Worlds in both Dun Laoghaire and Sligo.

Some of these events are no longer pure sailing regattas and have become major public maritime festivals some are the biggest of all public staged events. In the past few seasons Ireland has hosted events such as La Solitaire du Figaro and the ISAF Dublin Bay 2012 Youth Worlds.

There is a lively domestic racing scene for both inshore and offshore sailing. A national sailing calendar of summer fixtures is published annually and it includes old favorites such as Sovereign's Cup, Calves Week, Dun Laoghaire to Dingle, All Ireland Sailing Championships as well as new events with international appeal such as the Round Britain and Ireland Race and the Clipper Round the World Race, both of which have visited Ireland.

The bulk of the work on running events though is carried out by the network of sailing clubs around the coast and this is mostly a voluntary effort by people committed to the sport of sailing. For example Wicklow Sailing Club's Round Ireland yacht race run in association with the Royal Ocean Racing Club has been operating for over 30 years. Similarly the international Cork Week regatta has attracted over 500 boats in past editions and has also been running for over 30 years.  In recent years Dublin Bay has revived its own regatta called Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta and can claim to be the country's biggest event with over 550 boats entered in 2009.

On the international stage Afloat carries news of Irish and UK interest on Olympics 2012, Sydney to Hobart, Volvo Ocean Race, Cowes Week and the Fastnet Race.

We're always aiming to build on our sailing content. We're keen to build on areas such as online guides on learning to sail in Irish sailing schools, navigation and sailing holidays. If you have ideas for our pages we'd love to hear from you. Please email us at [email protected]