His investigation took listeners deep inside the closed world of Irish rowing, a world where winning medals mattered more than athlete welfare, and where silence was expected, not questioned. The chief executive of Rowing Ireland did not attend an Oireachtas committee hearing into the safeguarding of high-performance athletes at the organisation in what was described as an “extraordinary meeting before it ever started”. The hearing took place following revelations in the Sunday Independent of a toxic high performance culture in Rowing Ireland across two Olympic cycles, Tokyo 2021 and Paris 2024. Rowing Ireland, which gets €1.4m each year for its high-performance unit, had its funding partly suspended by Sport Ireland two years ago due to concerns around the handling of issues. Today on The Indo Daily, Kevin Doyle is joined by Paul Kimmage whose investigation, Troubled Waters: sparked a Leinster House showdown involving Rowing Ireland, Sport Ireland and some angry politiciansEpisode One of Troubled WatersEpisode Two of Troubled Waters

Source: Irish Independent January 30, 2026 16:48 UTC