Deep Deception: The relentless investigation to bring George Gibney, Derry O'Rourke, Ger Doyle and other abusers to justice

by Justine McCarthy

In November 2009 former national and Olympic swimming coach Ger Doyle was convicted of thirty-five sexual offences against children. This is just the most recent of an appalling series of child sexual abuse scandals in Irish swimming. Long before Ger Doyle was charged, renowned swimming coaches George Gibney, Derry O'Rourke and Frank McCann had become synonymous with some of the worst crimes against children ever to come before the Irish courts; Fr Ronald Bennett, founder of the Schools Swimming Association, was also charged with sexual assaults against his pupils. All these coaches, the most respected in the sport, preyed on young swimmers. They exploited their dreams of greatness and betrayed the trust of their parents. Between them, they are believed to have left hundreds of victims in their wake. And the failure of the sport's authorities to respond adequately to complaints paved the way for the abuse of many more young victims.

In candid interviews, survivors outline the effects of the abuse - psychiatric illnesses, broken marriages, financial hardship, and alcohol and drug addiction. Deep Deception examines the structures of Irish swimming, looks at the reasons these men escaped justice for so long and assesses the measures that have been taken to protect children in the aftermath of the scandals. This updated edition includes new chapters and previously unpublished material.

277 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 2009

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

A deeply upsetting account into the child abuse scandal that was endemic across Irish swimming in the second half of the 20th century.

Going into this book I knew that as a proud Irish person, it would be difficult to hear these stories but the aspect that really stuck out through out the book and upset me the most was not the near half dozen of abusers who ruined countless lives but how the Irish system both internal and external to the swimming world failed and failed again these victims.

Although I found the path of the book hard to follow in the middle sections with jumping timelines and very long chapters, the overarching sense of how badly the Irish system, including the Irish public,failed to deal with these cases despite the sheer evilness of them comes through strongly. I would like to think we have moved on as a country since the content of this book, maybe evidenced by O’Rourke’s most recent sentence, but it remains important to keep pushing to ensure this cannot happen again.

A heavy read though, think I’ll be on to a lighter topic next.

“Demonstrating the lack of public awareness that child abuse was a crime requiring state intervention. The prevailing mindset was that it was something sorted privately”

[Brian Gilshinan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow what a stunning piece of writing to tell an almost unbelievable true story. Both the story and the sensitive yet truthful way it is told needs to be read by a lot more people.