TRIATHLON IRELAND HAS spent over half a million euro on “legal and professional fees” as part of the investigation and unpublished report into the tragic Ironman event in Youghal, Co Cork, which claimed the lives of two competitors.
Irishman Brendan Wall (45) and Canadian Ivan Chittenden (64) both died while taking part in the Ironman triathlon event in Youghal on 20 August 2023.
Following the conclusion of the inquest, The Journal Investigates can reveal that a draft of this report was completed as early as September 2024 but has never been publicly released.
It was not until April this year that Triathlon Ireland, which commissioned consultancy firm Grant Thornton to produce the report, confirmed that it had been finished.
And yet, there is no indication that the report will be published in the immediate future, as the families of those who lost their lives continue to wait for answers.
Speaking exclusively to The Journal Investigates, the family of Brendan Wall have called for this report to be published.
It’s understood that only a few people within Triathlon Ireland have seen the document.
The report is seeking to put an end to a dispute between Triathlon Ireland and Ironman over when safety concerns with the Youghal event were raised by officials and whether the race had been sanctioned to go ahead despite challenging weather conditions.
It was also carried out amid ‘political pressure’ to investigate the tragedy, but it has been plagued by shifting deadlines and has put intense financial pressure on the sporting organisation.
Triathlon Ireland is the national governing body for triathlon in Ireland and, as part of that role, provides sanction – in effect, permission – for club and commercial races.
An inquest into both deaths concluded on Friday 29 May with verdicts of accidental death, but the coroner had previously ruled that they would not adjudicate on the dispute between the event organisers.
A statement read by Martin Wall, brother of Brendan Wall, after the inquest said “we as a family are deeply disappointed by [the] verdict,” citing the lack of evidence given by representatives of Ironman and Triathlon Ireland.
They added that they were disappointed “no meaningful recommendations were made on safety measures”, saying that it was a missed opportunity to learn from the tragedy.
This means that with the inquest proceedings finished and the director of public prosecutions deciding in 2025 not to pursue criminal charges, the details as to what happened in Youghal likely lie within the unpublished investigation report.
The half a million euro spent on legal fees, including the report, also doesn’t include further legal costs incurred by Triathlon Ireland, with a further €150,000 spent on ‘regular’ legal and professional services in the last three years.
With more than €675,000 spent on legal fees since 2023, Triathlon Ireland was left desperate for additional funding and sought investment from Sport Ireland and the Department of Sport to “rescue the sport”.
The spending has also led some member clubs to raise questions, though proposed motions calling for greater transparency around legal spending were not permitted for discussion at this year’s annual general meeting.
As part of our investigation we put a series of questions to both Triathlon Ireland and Ironman about the events in Youghal amid the subsequent fallout.
Spokespeople for both Ironman and Triathlon Ireland declined to comment, citing the inquest, though a spokesperson for Triathlon Ireland said that a statement would be forthcoming following its completion.
At the time of publication, this has not been received.
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A bitter public dispute
On 20 August 2023, an Ironman and Ironman 70.3 event took place in the seaside town of Youghal in Co Cork.
An Ironman is a specific type of triathlon that involves swimming, cycling and running over a 140.6-mile course (roughly 226km), while the Ironman 70.3 is half the length.
Footage from the day shows the challenging conditions that athletes encountered following the aftermath of Storm Betty, which just two days prior had caused spot flooding in Cork.
The Journal / YouTube
During the swim section of the course, two competitors, Ivan Chittenden, from Brantford near Toronto in Canada, and Brendan Wall, from Cardrath, Co Meath, lost their lives, having separately got into difficulties.
Both men were said to have been experienced endurance athletes.
Following these tragic events, a public dispute emerged between Ironman and Triathlon Ireland, with conflicting statements providing different accounts of whether the race permits had been granted before the start of the race.
An Ironman statement claimed that following “standard safety protocol checks”, water conditions on the day were deemed safe for the swim to take place.
The statement also added that, due to the challenging weather conditions, the distance of the swim was shortened “as a further precaution”.
Triathlon Ireland, however, claimed that “due to adverse conditions on the day, Triathlon Ireland Technical Officials confirmed to the race organisers that it was not possible to sanction the race.”
Records obtained by The Journal Investigates under Freedom of Information show that Cork County Council wrote to both organisations in the days after the event seeking clarity.
But both responses received by the council and seen by our team offer vastly different versions of events.
Ironman alleges that Triathlon Ireland’s decision to “withdraw its approval following two fatalities during the swim leg of the event appears to have been retrospective.”
“It was not raised with Ironman until after the conclusion of the swim race,” they added in response to the council.
Triathlon Ireland told the council, “the ultimate sanctioning of the Ironman races was subject to the Triathlon Ireland Technical Officials’ approval on race day.”
They added that Ironman “did not procure the signed race permit from Triathlon Ireland and still proceeded with the event”, something they allege was a breach of Ironman’s duties.
The crux of the issue centres on the signing of race permits on the day of the event and when concerns about conditions were raised.
Triathlon Ireland claimed that they raised concerns about the safety of the course with Ironman prior to the race commencing and that, when these concerns were rejected, they informed Ironman that they would not be sanctioning the race.
Ironman, on the other hand, claimed that while Triathlon Ireland made suggestions to alter the swim course route, no safety concerns were raised and that they were only informed that Triathlon Ireland would not sanction the race until an hour after the deaths of the two competitors were announced.
Ironman also told Cork County Council that even though they contest Triathlon Ireland’s version of events, they didn’t require its sanctioning of the race to continue and held their own public liability insurance for the event.
The initial letter sent to Ironman from the council states that “Ironman has sole responsibility for the management and coordination of the event.”
The event management plan also names Ironman as having safety responsibility for the event.
But Triathlon Ireland, in its letter to the council, claimed that “Ironman explicitly agreed to work with the Triathlon Ireland Technical Officials to ensure the event was run safely…that they would adhere to Triathlon Ireland safety directions and that they would procure a signed race permit before the events commenced.”
Triathlon Ireland also alleged in its 2023 annual report that Ironman “threatened defamation proceedings” against the organisation for publicly claiming it had not sanctioned the race.
A spokesperson for Ironman told The Journal Investigates that its letter to Cork County Council “sets out in detail the facts relating to the event and its licensing” and added that they have “nothing further to add at this time”.
A Triathlon Ireland spokesperson declined to comment ahead of the inquest hearing, which was held on Friday.
Political pressure for the report
Following on from the dispute between the two organisations, Triathlon Ireland hired consultancy firm Grant Thornton to carry out an investigation.
Writing in their 2023 annual report, Triathlon Ireland chief executive officer Darren Coombes said, “a failure to investigate the events surrounding the races would have been deemed neglectful.”
But internal emails obtained by The Journal Investigates also cite political pressure to carry out the investigation.
“We came under extreme pressure from within our community and from various TDs and ministers to deliver an independent investigation into this matter,” Coombes wrote in an email to Sport Ireland in December 2023.
These TDs and ministers are not named in the email, though former Minister for Finance Michael McGrath publicly called for an investigation in the days following the tragedy.
And documents seen by our team also show Thomas Byrne, who was Minister of State with responsibility for sport at the time, requested an update on the report’s progress almost a year on from the event, in August 2024.
It’s understood that Byrne, who is now Minister of State for European Affairs, hasn’t seen the Grant Thornton report.
A spokesperson for the Department of Sport told The Journal Investigates the Youghal Ironman event “was organised by Ironman, which is a private commercial organisation and neither the Department nor Sport Ireland have any role in relation to the organisation of such events.”
They added that “Triathlon Ireland independently commissioned Grant Thornton” to carry out the investigation and said that “in this regard, Triathlon Ireland is an independent, autonomous organisation responsible for the organisation and governance of its sport.”
Draft report completed in 2024
Progress on the report has been slow, our investigation has found, with it plagued by shifting deadlines.
The terms of reference of the report, seen by The Journal Investigates, initially suggested that it would take just eight weeks to complete.
Coombes, again writing in the 2023 annual report, said that the report was “due at the end of April [2024] following a forensic and extraordinarily detailed investigation”.
More than two years on from that point, it has yet to be published.
Emails also show that a draft of the report was completed by September 2024, though it may have been ready even earlier.
Records released under Freedom of Information show Coombes requesting additional support from Sport Ireland and the Department of Sport in early July 2024, “having now completed the investigation as the minister requested”.
An earlier email from January of that year suggests there was “promised support from a number of ministers to help [Triathlon Ireland] fully investigate the event”.
It is unclear who these ministers are.
A spokesperson for Sport Ireland told The Journal Investigates “Sport Ireland had no direct involvement in the commissioned report,” adding that it has not provided any financial support towards the report nor has it seen a copy of it.
Triathlon Ireland’s financial accounts from the last few years show the huge costs incurred by the investigation, including the report.
A total of €522,444 is recorded as exceptional legal and professional fees in relation to Youghal from 2023 to 2025.
Triathlon Ireland’s letter to Cork County Council claims that it “invited Ironman to participate, cooperate and to share the costs of [the] independent investigation,” but that this invitation was rejected.
Ultimately, this has meant that the organisation has had to shoulder the cost of the report by itself.
Records also show that Ironman made a substantial submission on the draft report, which required additional time and costs to complete.
Triathlon Ireland’s 2024 annual report described it as “imminent” and said that it would be “made available to the relevant authorities.”
But since then, limited updates were shared until April this year, when Coombes stated in Triathlon Ireland’s 2025 annual report that “the Grant Thornton review has concluded.”
While now confirmed to be completed, it doesn’t appear that it will be published soon, with Coombes writing that the organisation is not in a “position to publish the report at this time,” and adding that the board will “consider the appropriate next steps in this context”.
A spokesperson for Triathlon Ireland declined to comment “out of respect for the coroner’s inquest hearing”.
An Ironman spokesperson said that it “is bound by a strict confidentiality undertaking in respect of the Grant Thornton review commissioned by Triathlon Ireland.”
Clubs question financial spending
The huge financial outlay in relation to the report has left some triathlon clubs questioning the spending.
‘Regular’ legal costs to Triathlon Ireland between 2023 and 2025 amount to €153,291, which brings the total spend, including the report, to €675,735 in just three years.
A motion proposed by Galway Triathlon Club was not permitted for discussion at Triathlon Ireland’s recent annual general meeting (AGM).
It had sought greater transparency around legal expenditure, while also protecting legal privilege and confidential information, but was not allowed to be put to a vote at the AGM, having been deemed ineligible.
Following this, Galway Triathlon Club petitioned other clubs seeking to force an emergency general meeting (EGM) so that this motion, and two others, could be debated and voted on.
A letter seen by our team shows nine other clubs formally requested an EGM, surpassing the required threshold.
However, The Journal Investigates understands that two of these clubs have since withdrawn their request, leaving the prospect of an EGM and vote on the proposed motions unlikely.
“Triathlon Ireland will not provide comment ahead of [the inquest] process being completed,” a spokesperson said. They added that a statement would be issued following its completion.
At the time of publication, this has not been received.
The Journal Investigates
Reporter: Conor O’Carroll • Editor: Noel Baker • Social Media: Cliodhna Travers • Main Image Design: Lorcan O’Reilly