Talk:Swim Ireland

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[edit] Removal of decades long history of sexual abuse, rape and murder

User Thunderous503 has made some useful additions to this page but has also removed the following paragraph

Swim Ireland was founded in 1998 to replace the Irish Amateur Swimming Association (IASA). IASA was dissolved following revelations that a number of its senior members had raped and sexually abused underage swimmers. Derry O'Rourke, Olympic coach in 1980 and 1992, was convicted on 27 sexual abuse charges against minors and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment in 1998. He received a further sentence of 10 years in 2005 for repeated rape and indecent assault of a female swimmer between the ages of 14 and 18. Frank McCann, Irish team manager from the 1980s through to the 1990s, was convicted of the murders of his wife and child to prevent them discovering he had a child with an underage swimmer. George Gibney, Irish national coach from 1984-1991, was charged with 27 counts of sexual abuse. A judicial review in 1994 prevented the case from proceeding due to the length of time elapsed since the alleged incidents took place. He has since left the country to live in the US and is wanted by police in Ireland for questioning in relation to further charges of child sex abuse.

and replaced it with this:

Swim Ireland was founded in 1998 to replace the Irish Amateur Swimming Association (IASA). IASA was dissolved following revelations that a number of its senior members had sexually abused a number of swimmers.

I'm not sure that ther new paragraph conveys the notability of Swim Ireland amongst worldwide sports organisations. For a start, the problem went beyond 'sexual abuse', as many children were raped and even, in the case of Frank McCann's family, murdered. Secondly, the phrase 'a number of swimmers' does not convey that for example, Derry O'Rourke alone was indicted on 90 separate abuse and rape charges in 1998, before his additional child rape convictions in 2005. It might be better to replace this paragraph with a summary of the events as follows:

Swim Ireland was founded in 1998 to replace the Irish Amateur Swimming Association (IASA). IASA was dissolved following revelations that three of its most senior members had raped or sexually abused more than x swimmers, many of them children, during a period of y years and that the Irish team manager had murdered his wife and child to hide his abuse record from them.

Also, should ther be a new article on IASA even though it is the same organisation as Swim Ireland with a different name and a few changes of personnel at the top? Any thoughts? Curtains99 11:59, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

thanks for the comment on the changes but i think that all that stuff should be moved to a new article on the IASA as it is the history of the IASA, not Swim Ireland. Its fine if you don't agree but i just felt that there should be very little of that stuff on this page unsigned comment by Thunderous503 17:23, 27 August 2006

Maybe somebody else has an opinion on this? Curtains99 19:59, 27 August 2006 (UTC)