Harrowing voices finally heard from the darkest depths of Irish sporting history

George Gibney is a name that crops up in the media every few years, but he was everywhere in the 1980s, the face behind thesuccesses of Ireland’s young swimmers.

Mark Horgan, one of the Second Captains team and the host and co-producer of 10-part podcast series ‘Where is George Gibney?’ ‘The manipulation of young swimmers and young sportspeople on the cusp of making breakthroughs in their sport is a very real thing,’ says Horgan. ‘And it needs to be acknowledged on a wider scale.’

THERE are a number of moments in the first episode of the Where is George Gibney? podcast that might stop the listener in their tracks or leave them gasping, open-mouthed at what they’re hearing.

A Second Captains production for BBC Sounds, regular listeners of that show might be taken aback to hear a clip of co-hosts Ken Early and Eoin McDevitt, as the former recounts being trained as a youngster by Gibney, who was a director of swimming at the Irish Amateur Swimming Association.