THE dust has long settled on a tumultuous chapter far from his new home in Patiala, a bustling city in south-eastern Punjab. For Bernard Dunne, so much is different from Dublin - the climate, the language, the food, the culture, the sheer size and scale of everything.
But the work remains the same. That is what brought him to India 11 months ago, having finally finished up as Irish Athletic Boxing Association (IABA) high performance director months earlier.
In every respect, it was a huge leap. A husband, a father to Caoimhe and Finnian, a son and a brother whose life has always revolved around family suddenly spending most of the year at a sports campus thousands of miles away.
“My wife, my kids, I miss being able to see them every morning, being able to hug them,” he says during a break from a training camp ahead of the upcoming Asian Games in China.
“I’d be up in my mam’s every day, just having a cup of tea. My mam and dad live close by, my brother and sister are close by, my wife’s family live close by, so we’d be seeing each other every day, so it’s those little interactions…”
Yet Bernard Dunne has never been afraid of the deep end.
Boxing brought him around the world as an amateur, before the formative years of a fledgling pro career that would peak on a famous 2009 night against Ricardo Cordoba were spent learning his trade in America.
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The offer from the Boxing Federation of India came as soon as word got out that his days with the IABA were numbered. Despite the potential upheaval, it was wife Pamela who convinced him to take the plunge.
“I wasn’t sure about the job, but it was actually my wife who said ‘this is what you do, this is what you’re good at’.
“I’m here fairly permanently. The initial changes they were trying to bring in - structural changes, staff I’m acquiring - need my presence.
“There’s a whole programme there I’m trying to develop, trying to put the processes by which we do things in place, whilst all the time trying to make sure I’m developing the people around me, developing my staff, my athletes and empowering them to really take ownership of it.
“One thing I really want is that, when I leave here, the system shouldn’t have to change too much for whoever comes behind me.”
Despite the challenges faced, he hasn’t regretted the decision for a second.
The Asian Games in Guangzhou, where Dunne and the Indian team have been based since last week, are expected to provide further proof of India’s emergence as an international force to be reckoned with.
And the indications, particularly from their female team, are that a strong performance could be in store at next year’s Olympic Games.
“The experience so far has been superb,” said the Dubliner.
“It’s been hugely challenging. Obviously a different culture, a different philosophy about how things work, different language… I’m trying to learn the language, it doesn’t help that they all speak English to me. I’ve contemplated speaking Irish to them just to confuse everybody!
“But we’ve had some really good early success, four world medals with the female team, three male world medals. The programme is still evolving, I know we’ve had that early success but in my mind it’s going to take a period of time before we fully implement the plan I’d like to have in place, and that I know my stakeholders are looking for.
“Some tough decisions have been made, high performance sport isn’t for everybody, it’s an elite system, but you try to make those decisions with the right intention and the right meaning, and remain completely unbiased in what you do.
“I’ve brought one of my coaches [former Irish coach Dmitry Dmitruk] with me as well, and he clearly understands my philosophy and how I like to work.
“The vastness of everything is incredible, the enormity of the task… I need to be challenged, and what greater challenge than to lead the most populated country in the world to try and achieve Olympic success.”
To put India’s past Olympic boxing performance in context, the country – with a population of almost 1.5 billion - has only ever won three bronze medals (Vijender Singh won at Beijing 2008, Mary Kom at London 2012 and Lovlina Borgohain at Tokyo 2020).
Ireland, with a population of seven million people, has 18 (three gold, five silver, 10 bronze). Dunne hopes to add to their tally in the not-too-distant future.
“With the resources they have, they want to be successful. For such a huge country, they probably haven’t achieved what they should have. There’s something that needs to change there.
“But they have a huge desire to grow and to develop, and ultimately to succeed. That’s hugely impressive. I’ve obviously got ambitions as well, and to get an opportunity like this, it doesn’t happen too often.”
Dunne cites seven years spent in the Dublin GAA performance system as integral to his rise through the ranks – but it was his upbringing, and those who form his core group, that remain central to everything, providing the foundation for the environment he hopes to create in India.
“I’ve been knocked out in front of the world in 86 seconds, nearly told you’re washed up and you’re finished. The core people around, the people you trusted, they knew who I was and what I was, then two years later [against Cordoba] life changes again.
“You need to have that group that truly believes in you, and that’s what I’m trying to put in place here. Being with Dublin afforded me a greater understanding of bringing people together, aligning a group towards the same goal, so I had a really good grounding in that. I worked with some superb people.
“When I came into the IABA, my job was to support my athletes, support my staff, put processes in place so they knew what the plan was - they had clarity around where we were going, and that open communication among my group was really important.
“Trust was a huge piece, that they knew I was there to help, but ultimately athletes always have to be accountable and take responsibility for what they do, from a performance and personal point of view.
“My job is to push them in a certain direction, share my life experiences with them. I’m blessed to have been surrounded by great people.
“Look at some of the coaches we had back at home, support staff back at home, they’re better qualified than I am, more intelligent… even here in India, I surround myself with as many of the best people I can find.
“I’m comfortable with that; I don’t feel threatened by people who are better than I am.”
