Sport

Bernard Dunne asked to reconsider after leaving IABA role

Former boxer had been on extended leave since the Tokyo Olympics

Bernard Dunne, who was high performance director. Photograph: Tommy Dickson/Inpho

Wed May 4 2022 - 11:49

The Irish Athletic Boxing Association (IABA) has asked Bernard Dunne to reconsider his decision to resign from his post as high performance director of the Irish team. Dunne handed in his resignation to the Irish IABA on Tuesday.

In a statement on Wednesday the IABA confirmed it has received his resignation and that it deeply regretted the decision but added that it “would also like to note that its acceptance of his resignation is provisional as it has asked Bernard to reconsider his decision.”

On social media Olympic lightweight champion Kellie Harrington added her voice in support of Dunne and criticised her own organisation.

“I second that, and would like to see him change his mind, but its hard to when your not allowed to do your job the way it shud (sic) be done…He was a great Director of HP,” said Harrington on Twitter.

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The former professional WBA super bantamweight world champion had been head of boxing’s high performance unit for five years and was in charge of the Irish team that won a gold (Harrington) and bronze (Aidan Walsh) medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games last summer.

Dunne is the third high profile name to have left Irish boxing’s high performance program after Gary Keegan, who originally set it up and Billy Walsh, who departed to the USA after London 2012, Ireland’s most successful Olympic Games for boxing.

Peter Brown (operations manager) and Rachael Mulligan (high performance manager) have also left the association’s elite team in recent months.

Dunne delivered his letter following an unsigned document purporting to be a survey that was disseminated among boxing board members in February 2021.

Described as a swot analysis, which declared itself a strategic planning and management technique used to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in boxing, it was dismissed by former CEO of Sport Ireland John Treacy as “not credible.”

It explicitly undermined Ireland’s participation in the Olympics and particularly sabotaged the role and participation of the high performance director Dunne.

Nobody in boxing has since been sanctioned for writing and distributing the document, which was discussed at IABA board level.

“The IABA has always regarded this document as malicious and an appalling attack on a member of staff and on the high performance unit,” said Wednesday’s statement. “This is the most recent instance of a member of staff being subjected to undesirable behaviour solely because they are employees of the company.

“CEO Fergal Carruth and chair, Ciarán Kirwan, have both commented publicly on the grave nature of this attack on a staff member and have repeatedly stated unequivocal support for Bernard Dunne in his position as HPU Director.”

Dunne, who has been on extended leave, has not been back in the high performance unit since boxing’s participation in the Tokyo Olympics ended on August 10th last year.

A disciplinary action against two individuals within the boxing association was initiated by him on September 24th of last year. That process is ongoing.

It is believed that Dunne contacted all of the coaches within the high performance unit in boxing to inform them of this decision prior to Tuesday’s resignation.

It was Dunne who picked up the pieces after Irish boxing imploded at the Rio Olympics in 2016. At those Games middleweight Michael O’Reilly was sent home following a positive doping result. He was subsequently banned for four years.

Katie Taylor, Michael Conlan and Joe Ward, three medal hopes, then controversially lost their bouts before an independent investigation resulting in the McLaren report found a flourishing match-rigging and manipulation system at play in Rio.

All three boxers, who were Olympic and World Championship medallists, left amateur boxing to turn professional on return to Ireland.

Last month in an interview, Harrington said the boxers had missed Dunne in high performance.

“Look, nothing ever runs smoothly in Irish boxing, does it? I’d be the first to put my hand up and say that,” she said. “But what I will say is, we miss Bernard, we miss him terribly.

“And in those moments when I’m feeling doubtful about myself, Bernard is always there to steer you on the right path. He’s a director. Yeah, we do miss him. We do need someone there. We’re missing him.”

Harrington’s name was not among the list travelling to this year’s world championships in Turkey, which begin on May 6th after sustaining a hand injury in the Irish boxing camp in Assisi.

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