The Liffey Swim, known for sponsorship purposes as the Dublin City Council Dublin City Liffey Swim, is an annual swimming race which takes place on Dublin's main river, the Liffey. The race has been run under the auspices of Swim Ireland (IASA) since its inception. The 100th Liffey Swim over a 2.2 km course took place on Saturday, 3 August 2019, starting at the Rory O'More Bridge (Watling Street Bridge) beside the Guinness Brewery and finishing at North Wall Quay in front of the Customs House.
The race is one of the last swims in a season of 30 open sea races held during the summer months, organised by Swim Ireland, and takes place usually on a Saturday in either late August or early September. Entrants to the Liffey Swim must complete a number of qualifying open sea races from the annual Swim Ireland National Open Water Calendar (up from four pre-2015). Many levels and ages of swimmers compete in the race, but entrants must be members of a swimming club. International competitors are common. The race is handicapped with the slowest swimmers starting first and the fastest last. For five years between 1934 and 1938, the Liffey Swim was run as a scratch race.
In 2020, the Liffey Swim was not held because of the COVID-19 pandemic. For the first time in its 102-year history, the 101st Liffey Swim in 2021 was swum upstream from the 3 Arena to the Custom House over an approx 1-mile course and took place on 23 October, the latest date ever, with the easing of Covid restrictions. In addition, swimmers could elect to wear wetsuits or swimming togs and did not have to swim qualifying races to enter. Winners were declared in both the wetsuit and swimming togs categories, but the official winners of the annual trophies were those in the swimming togs category.
The 105th Liffey Swim was held on 13 September 2024 from Rory O'More Bridge to the Custom House Quay; 116 Women and 168 men completed the course. The finishers' medals featured the river goddess Anna Livia, the only one of the riverine heads (designed by Edward Smyth) represented as a woman of the fourteen carved into the keystones of the Custom House. Anna Livia's head overlooks the River Liffey from above the building's front doors.
Course The race traditionally starts at Rory O'More Bridge near the Guinness Brewery and takes competitors past landmarks such as the Four Courts. The competitors swim under James Joyce Bridge, Mellows Bridge, Father Mathew Bridge, O'Donovan Rossa Bridge, Grattan Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Liffey Bridge, O'Connell Bridge, Rosie Hackett Bridge, Butt Bridge and Loopline Bridge near The Custom House. Average entry is 200 males and 80 females. Wetsuits are not allowed. The race is held in the tidal section of the river, meaning it is flushed twice daily. Due to the tidal nature of the Liffey, race times vary from year to year.
For four years 1936–39, the Liffey Swim took place from Bull Wall to Dollymount Strand (in 1939 to Clontarf Baths) because of the degree of pollution of the course stretch of the River Liffey. For the three years 1977–79, again because of the risks to health caused by pollution, the race was moved to an upstream stretch of the river near Chapelizod, finishing at the slipway of Dublin University Boat House, at Memorial Park, Islandbridge.
Due to the development of the LUAS Bridge, the Rosie Hackett Bridge, from Hawkins Street to Malborough Street, the race diverged from the historic route in 2012 and 2013 starting at the Loopline Bridge beside Butt Bridge and finishing at the pontoon on the North side of the river beside the East Link Bridge in front of the 3Arena. At approx. 1,600 metres, it was somewhat shorter than the more spectator-friendly route down the Liffey and under its numerous bridges.
History The first Liffey Swim took place on 22 July 1920. Bernard Fagan was the first to organise the race. Fagan was a swimmer and became the city analyst for Dublin Corporation in 1923. The race was swum at high tide when there were fewer pollutants. The first Liffey Swim had an entry of 28 male swimmers and was won by J.J. Kennedy, with Bernard Fagan himself coming in third. Fagan's son, Jack Fagan, later won the Liffey Swim in 1951. During the 1930s, 40s and early 50s the Liffey Swim attracted large crowds. The race has not changed length from being a distance of one and , but the start and finish points have changed. The race originally started at Victoria Quay, from a Guinness Barge and finished at Burgh Quay. In 1991 the first women's race was introduced and in the early 1990s the race was moved 400 yards down river to start beside the Civic Offices and to finish opposite the Custom House.Jia H. Jung (2017). 98th Dublin City Liffey Swim: Slainté to the ultimate shapeshifter of open sea swims. USMS Swimmer, January–February 2017, Splashback, https://www.dropbox.com/s/h0g3ioab0xt0p7a/98th%20Dublin%20City%20Liffey%20Swim%20-%20USMS%20SWIMMER%20Jan-Feb%202017.pdf?dl=0, Retrieved August 2017
The 2009 Liffey Swim was the 90th edition of the race and saw electronic timing used for the first time.
One of the earliest Liffey Swims was portrayed in the Jack B. Yeats 1923 painting entitled The Liffey Swim, which won him the silver medal for Painting at the Art competitions at the 1924 Summer Olympics. The painting and the Olympic medal can now be viewed in the National Gallery of Ireland. The 100th Liffey Swim was held in 2019. The 2020 Liffey Swim was to have marked the 100th anniversary of the inaugural race, but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Women's race An annual Ladies race on the Quays course under the Liffey bridges was not introduced until 1991 and has been held since then as a separate race as part of the Liffey Swim programme. However, efforts to allow participation of women date back to the early years of the Liffey Swim. In 1922, a letter was published in the Irish Independent suggesting that interest in the race would be considerably increased if ladies were permitted to compete. Women already swam in races on the River Lagan in Belfast and on the River Thames in London. The correspondent argued that there was no specific rule against female participation. A spokesperson for Leinster I.A.S.A. responded informally that “such a contest was not possible, as very few of our ladies were fit for the ordeal”.Irish Independent. (1922) The Liffey Swim: Should Ladies Be Allowed To Compete. Letter To The Sporting Editor, 27 July 1922, page 7
The views of the Most Reverend John Charles McQuaid, Catholic Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland from December 1940 to February 1972, on women competing in sport, in particular at the same sports meetings as men, would inhibit the possibility of a women's race for many years. In 1934, the National Athletic and Cycling Association of Ireland (N.A.C.A.I.) passed a motion at its annual Congress in favour of women competing at its athletics meetings. This unleashed protests against the Association.Irish Press. (1934). Mixed Athletics Decision: Protests Against N.A.C.A. Attitude, 9 February 1934, page 8; Irish Press. (1934). Protests From Clergy: Boys Forbidden To Compete With Women, 8 February 1934, page 8 McQuaid cited the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, Vol xxii, no. 2, pp 72–75, the Latin text of which was printed in the newspapers alongside his translation of Pope Pius X's encyclical that “the Christian modesty of girls must be, in a special way, safeguarded, for it is supremely unbecoming that they should flaunt themselves and display themselves before the eyes of all’.Irish Times. (1934). Women's Place In Athletics: Father McQuaid's Letter To The N.A.C.A., 24 February 1934, page 7; Irish Press. Mixed Athletics, 24 February 1924, page 6; Sunday Independent. Fr. McQuaid's Letter To N.A.C.A., 25 February 1934, page 2 Thus, the idea of women swimming through the centre of Dublin in full public gaze, even in a separate Ladies Liffey Swim, a display which might undermine the moral thoughts of male onlookers, was unlikely to occur during McQuaid's lifetime. He died on 7 April 1973.
The first Liffey Swims for women were held in 1977 through 1979, when the race was moved to Islandbridge, because the city stretch of the river was so polluted by its tributary, the River Camac, from Heuston Station, Kingsbridge, to the estuary. The Chief Medical Officer of the Eastern Health Board, Dr Barry O’Donnell, advised that swimming in the traditional stretch of the River Liffey should not take place for health and safety reasons. In consequence the President of the Leinster Branch of the I.A.S.A. announced in June 1977 that the Liffey Swim would not take place until the river water met safe quality standards.Irish Independent. (1977). Liffey race knocked out by pollution, 9 June 1977, page 13; Irish Examiner. (1977). Liffey too polluted for swim, 10 June 1977, page 11 To maintain the Liffey Swim, races at Islandbridge were organised by Dublin and Half Moon Swimming Clubs. In 1977 a Liffey Swim for Ladies over 500 yards (handicapped) was inaugurated, the winner receiving the Tommy May trophy donated by the 1956 Liffey Swim winner. In 1980 the Liffey Swim reverted to a men-only event on its return to the Quays. However, what now became the “Upper Liffey Swim” for women on the Islandbridge Memorial Park stretch of the River Liffey continued from 1981 through 1990. To show that women were just as able as men in swimming distances, the race was increased from about 500―600 metres to 1000 yards in 1987 and to one mile from 1988 through 1990. This was the same distance swum by men from 1977 through 1979 on this part of the river. This probably convinced the Leinster Branch of the I.A.S.A. that women could complete the classic course of the Liffey Swim and led to a Women’ race over the same walled Quays course as the men in 1991.
Trophies
The cup presented to the winner of the women's Liffey Swim race is called the Ladies Challenge Cup. It was presented to the Leinster Branch of the Irish Amateur Swimming Association by The Electricity Supply Board in 1991. The inscription on the front of the Cup on a shield bounded on each side by laurel leaves is "Ladies Challenge Cup for Annual Liffey Swim Presented by Electricity Supply Board". The names of all winners since 1991 are inscribed on the base. The trophy was made by Alwright and Marshall, Silversmiths, Dublin (Maker mark A&M in shamrock) and bears the Dublin Assay Office hallmarks and date letter for 1982 (Britannia, Harp with Crown, Letter R).
Between 1977 and 1979, when the women's Liffey Swim was staged at the Islandbridge Memorial Park stretch of the river, a trophy provided by Tommy May, winner of the Liffey Swim in 1956, designated The Tommy May Cup, was presented to the winner of the race. This race continued throughout the 1980s, referred to as the "Upper Liffey Swim". In 1987 the race distance was increased to 1,000 yards and in 1988 through 1990 to 1 mile.
The Cup presented to the winner of the men's Liffey Swim race is called the Irish Independent Cup. It was presented to the Leinster Branch of the Irish Amateur Swimming Association by Independent Newspapers Ltd in 1921. The inscription on the front of the cup is "Challenge Cup for Annual Liffey Race (Inaugurated 1920) Presented to the Leinster Branch Irish Amateur Swimming Association by the Irish Independent". The trophy was made by Hopkins & Hopkins, Silversmiths (Markers mark: H&H), located near O'Connell Street Bridge, Dublin, for 50 guineas [£52-10-0]. The Cup bears the Dublin Assay Office hallmarks and date letter for 1921 (Britannia, Harp with Crown, Letter F). The names of all winners from 1920 J.J. Kennedy through 2004 Robert Clarke are engraved on the Cup. The winners from 2005 onwards are on its base. Although the cup was not presented until 1921, the winner that year, John Cyril Hopkins, insisted that the name of the winner of the inaugural Liffey Swim in 1920 J.J. Kennedy be placed on the trophy before his.