The medal trail for Irish swimming began back in 2003 when the European Short Course Championships (25 metre), held at the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin, witnessed Andrew Bree take a silver in the 200-metre breaststroke on the final day of competition.
Fast forward 22 years and we are now in uncharted territory for Team Ireland who collected a staggering three gold, a silver and three bronze medals to finish fifth on the medal table in the 2025 meet at Lublin in Poland
It's unheard of for Irish swimmers who are, in the main, eyeing the next Olympics in Los Angles in 2028.
Adding to that incredible week was Olympic 100-metre bronze medallist Mona McSharry, also a European short course bronze medallist from 2019, who won a gold medal in the women’s 50m breaststroke at last weekend’s US Open Championships in Austin, Texas.
The Sligo swimmer also took a silver in the 100m and a bronze in the 200m breaststroke.
That meet, unlike the one in Poland, was over the Olympic distance in a 50-metre pool
And while his twin brother Daniel won gold and two bronze medals in Lublin, Nathan Wiffen won gold in the 1,650 yards final at the Minnesota Invite gala.
For Swim Ireland, the governing body and its soon to be departing CEO Sarah Keane, the results in Poland last weekend are just staggering and Ireland are now no longer just scrapping for one off medals
Swimming is split into two seasons, long course, which is a competition held in a 50-metre pool, and short course with times quicker in the latter due to the swimmers springing off the turns more frequently than in the 50-metre pool.
Ireland s first international medal of any hue came in the 1989 European Long Course in Bonn in Germany as Gary O’Toole took silver in the men’s 200 breaststroke, that from the outside lane 8 which houses the slowest qualifier.
But it’s at short course that Ireland have had most success.
Bree (above), now an RTÉ Sport swimming analyst, won Ireland’s first ever short course medal, a silver in Dublin in 2003 at the NAC and since then Ireland have collected six golds, two silvers and 12 bronze.
Four of those six golds have gone the way of Daniel Wiffen (a hat trick of distance wins and an 800 metre freestyle world record to boot in Otopeni in Romania in 2023), golds added to by Ellen Walshe (200 butterfly), Ireland first ever women's winner, and John Shortt (200 backstroke) in Lublin.
Bree’s 2003 silver was matched by Walshe in the 200 metre individual medley final last week.
Ireland’s bronze medal winners at short course Europeans are Grainne Murphy (400 and 800 freestyle at the 2010 finals in Eindhoven in the Netherlands, followed by Melanie Nocher (200m backstroke) in 2011 at Szczecin in Poland.
Sycerika McMahon was third in the 2012 meet at Chartres, France in the 50 metre breaststroke, while Dubliner Barry Murphy won the men’s 50 breaststroke bronze a year later in Herning, in Denmark
After the meet in Denmark, LEN, the European Swimming governing body, decided to make the championships run every two years and in 2025 UCD’s Alex Murphy took a bronze medal in the 2015 event held in Netanya, Israel also in the 50m breaststroke.
Four years later, the 2019 version was held in Glasgow where McSharry (below) and Shane Ryan stood on the third step of the podium.
Ryan, now retired and heading for the drug-fueled Enhanced Games next year, won bronze for Ireland in the men’s 50m backstroke
Two years ago in Romania, Ellen Walshe was a bronze medallist in the 400 metre individual medley, a gruelling event where competitors swim all four strokes, butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and front crawl.
And last week in Poland Daniel Wiffen won two bronzes, while 20-year Evan Bailey, surprised even himself where he was tied third in the men’s 200m freestyle final.
The good news for the Irish swimming community is that most of the 12-strong team that ran riot in Lublin, will be back in action this weekend at the Irish Short Course Championships, which runs from the 12-15 December at the NAC.
