About Us
Leinster Open Sea
The Dublin City Liffey Swim is run each year by Leinster Open Sea (a voluntary not for profit organisation) and supported by Dublin City Council is the final swimming race in the Leinster Open Sea Calendar of over 33 Races.
The primary aim of Leinster Open Sea is to run open sea races so that swimmers of all ages and abilities can swim and race in the sea in a low cost and safe environment.
The Dublin City Liffey swim is one of the most famous open sea races throughout the world. First organized in 1920 and famously captured on canvas in 1923 by Jack B Yeats, it’s the only swimming race run through the middle of a European capital city. It’s a unique event, a real Dublin tradition, and the highlight of the open sea swimming season.
The race, 2.2 Kilometres (one and half miles) in length, originally started at Victoria Quay, from a Guiness barge and finished at Burgh Quay. Since the 1990’s it moved down river to start at the Rory O’Moore Bridge and now finishes at the Custom’s House. From 1920 to 1990, the Dublin City Liffey Swim was for men only but that oversight was rectified in 1991 when the women’s race was first introduced.
2015 celebrates the 25th Anniversary of the Ladies Liffey swim.
The Dublin City Liffey Swim is a handicapped event and is the final swimming race in the Leinster Open Sea Calendar of over 33 Races. Very much a family event, over the years, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, aunties, uncles, cousins and grandparents have all happily competed for the honor of winning the famous Liffey Swim. Nearly everyone presents themselves with a pint of Guinness or a Club Shandy at Mulligans Bar afterwards!
Race Day
Imagine a warm Saturday in September and a crowd is gathering on Watling Street (Rory O’Moore) Bridge. The Liffey Swim, that most Dublin of events is taking place and swimmers of all sizes, ages and abilities form a line along the wall and steps, waiting for the race to begin. The course will take them under bridges that span not just the river, but the passing of time in this great city. The Lord Mayor of Dublin announces the start of the race, the crowd clap their approval and they’re off.
The slight current is with them as they swim under the James Joyce Bridge, the Liam Mellow Bridge, under Father Matthew Bridge, O’Donovan Rossa Bridge, past Wood Quay where their Viking ancestors lived, under Grattan Bridge, Millinium Bridge and on under the arch of the Ha’penny Bridge (Liffey Bridge) where shoppers are clutching their bargains and coffee.
Still the competitors swim on. O’Connell Bridge opens its mouth, swallows the swimmers and traps them in murky black water. The city holds its breath until the first hat and goggles emerges from the jaws of the bridge quickly followed by another, then another. The crowd shouts encouragement, the crowd waves its arm and the city skips a beat. The swimmers join in with the splash of their feet and the pull of their arms as they race under the skirts of Rosie Hackett, Butt Bridge and Loop Line Bridge to the finish at Customs House Quay. It is over. But in that moment the swimmers are Dublin and the crowd is Dublin and the river is Dublin and everything, even the sunshine is Dublin.