'True blue' Dunne lends support for Dublin's sporting role

EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF SPORT 2010:BERNARD DUNNE received a sustained and warm round of applause from a crowd representing all areas of Irish sport at Dublin City Hall yesterday.

The recently-deposed WBA super bantamweight world champion, with wounds still visible from last Saturday’s brutal third-round knockout by Thailand’s Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym, was the keynote speaker at the announcement of his beloved Dublin as the European capital of sport for 2010.

Understandably, Dunne refused to discuss the fight. Neither would he reveal any future intentions in or outside the ring. “I wasn’t going to miss out on this,” said the 29-year-old. “We all know what happened on Saturday night, but today is about promoting Dublin city. I am a true blue at heart, and I wanted to be a part of it.

“Yes, it was a big decision, it was long thought out, but there was no way I was going to miss promoting Dublin city. I’ve been around the world and there’s no place like home, and not only as a sporting venue.

“We want to encourage as many people to get involved in sport and for the Government to keep investing in sport. There are so many young kids coming through and it’s about being given that opportunity and talent being nurtured. If doors are shut, kids won’t be able to expose the talent that they have. But if doors are open, kids can freely let people see what they can do and that’s what I’m trying to promote.

“It’s an honour to represent my county. I’ll never get to do it in the blue jersey, but at least I get the chance to do it here today. Given the opportunity, this country can compete with anyone.”

Dunne’s words seemed to carry particular resonance considering the sports budget is due to be slashed, along with everything else, in December.

Succeeding Milan, details about actual events are limited, but a formal hand-over will take place in February while a sports conference is scheduled for October.

The site www.dublinsport.ie has yet to be activated, but the presence of some heavy hitters yesterday, including FAI chief executive John Delaney and the IRFU’s Philip Browne, was an encouraging sign. All sporting organisations are asked to nominate an ambassador for the year.

Meanwhile, 641,000 viewers tuned in to RTÉ Two for round three of Dunne’s fight last Saturday, accounting for 49 per cent of people watching television at the time. The audience peaked at 663,000 during the final minute of the bout. There were 48,091 live streams on RTÉ.ie.

Ireland’s only remaining world champion Katie Taylor was also present (despite hailing from Wicklow – even more strange was the sight of Packie Bonner on the podium!) and she was asked to respond to the widespread opinion that Dunne was dragged into a needless brawl against the harder- hitting Kratingdaenggym.

“It’s not that simple,” said Taylor. “Everyone was saying he should have kept him long and outboxed him, but when someone is coming forward like that, it’s very hard to keep moving all the time. You have to stand there at some stage and fight with him. That’s what he did. He was just so strong and he punched so hard he was going to catch him at some stage.”

Just back from defending her European title in the Ukraine, Taylor won her “18th or 19th” cap as a substitute for the Republic of Ireland against Kazakhstan in Cork last week, but she revealed yesterday that her retirement from international football is imminent due to boxing commitments.

This rules out an appearance at the 2011 World Cup in Germany should Ireland qualify. “I probably wouldn’t be able to play in them. This is probably going to be my last year playing football. After that, I’ll probably have to concentrate on Olympic qualification and stuff like that. It would be hard not to play in the finals if I had helped the team qualify.”