Dispute over who has right to run Liffey Swim and Dún Laoghaire Swim

High Court reporters

A dispute over who has the right to run the Dublin Liffey Swim and the Dun Laoghaire Harbour Swim has reached the High Court.

Leinster Open Sea (LOS) CLG, a volunteer sponsorship-funded body which organises around 30 sea races every year in partnership with local clubs, is seeking injunctions against the Irish Amateur Swimming Association CLG, trading as the State-funded national governing body for swimming Swim Ireland.

LOS, which has around 1,000 registered swimmers, wants the court to restrain the defendant from holding this year’s August 3rd Dún Laoghaire event and the September 13th Liffey event.

The court heard that last year, as a result of the dispute, two separate Liffey swims were held and Dublin City Council does not want the same thing happening this year.

On Tuesday, Mr Justice Brian Cregan granted LOS permission to serve proceedings on the defendant following a one side only represented application. The judge said he wanted to hear from Swim Ireland on Friday before he decides whether to grant the injunctions sought.

In an affidavit, Brian Nolan, a member of the LOS board of directors, said Swim Ireland was divided into four regions with the Leinster Region having as one of its sub-committees the LOS.

In 2014, the Leinster Region egm agreed to fully subsume into Swim Ireland but with a provision that the decision did not affect LOS, Mr Nolan said.

LOS continued to run and manage the Liffey and Dun Laoghaire swims in which participants are required to complete a number of qualifying races in the LOS calendar before being eligible for the two events, he said. "Liffey Swim" was also registered as a trade mark in 2015 by an LOS member.

A memorandum of understanding was agreed between LOS and Swim Ireland in 2017 to develop initiatives within open water swimming and with €15,000 per year in support from Swim Ireland, he said.

However, Mr Nolan said, in 2020 the defendant breached that agreement and there followed various unsuccessful attempts to mediate the dispute between them.

It culminated in Swim Ireland organising the Dun Laoghaire swim in 2024 with the number of participants down by around 50 per cent on the LOS-organised event in 2023, he said.

The dispute led to two Liffey Swims being held in 2024 with the September 7th Swim Ireland-organised event attracting 200 entries and the LOS-organised event attracting double that number, Mr Nolan said.

In the absence of being allowed to run these two major events, which also provide funding for its other races, LOS will “in simple terms go out of business”, he said.

Seeking permission from the court to bring proceedings, Michael O'Doherty BL, for LOS, said while publicly claiming they are open to mediation Swim Ireland has set down pre-conditions which ask his client to abandon their claims and give up any rights over the events. "I say that is bad faith on their (defendant's) part", he said.

A more recent development was that Dublin City Council, which grants permission for the Liffey Swim, had invited the parties to mediation as the local authority wanted to avoid the two swims situation of last year, he said.

However, Swim Ireland again set down a pre-condition that his client abandon any proprietary rights to the event, he said.

Mr Justice Cregan said it was appropriate to only grant short service of the proceedings given there was a long history to this dispute and he would be very reluctant to grant ex parte injunctions in the absence of the defendant.