A WEEK may be a long time in politics, and election fatigue has long since set in a week down the line, but the folks on the hill have nothing on Irish amateur boxing. Apart from the occasional throwing of low blows, there is one common thread between the two – not much ever seems to change.
Last Wednesday, just as ballots were about to open, the Northern Ireland team being sent to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham was being unveiled in Jordanstown. It was here word began to filter through that Bernard Dunne had resigned as the Irish Athletic Boxing Association’s (IABA) High Performance director.
It was no great surprise. The former super-bantamweight world champion had been on an extended period of leave since returning from last summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.
The IABA revealed last week that Dunne lodged a complaint against two volunteers in October 2021 after an unsigned SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threat analysis) was circulated at board level months before the Olympics.
The document, which runs to over 1,500 words with 19 bullet points and a conclusion, was scathing in its criticism of Dunne and the Sport Ireland-funded High Performance unit he was overseeing.
It also contained personal attacks on the Dubliner’s leadership, interpersonal skills and personality, as well as recommending that he should not be offered another four-year contract to bridge the next Olympic cycle. The timing – so close to Tokyo - was no accident, the content clearly designed to undermine and inflict maximum damage.
The names of those believed to be behind the document have circulated via Chinese whispers since. There are few secrets in boxing.
The warning signs were there, of course. Indeed, Dunne’s very first day in the job in March 2017 gave the clearest possible indication of the challenges that lay ahead.
Smiling, pressing flesh, chucking out a few soundbites – such occasions are seldom controversial. Yet Dunne’s unveiling descended into farce, with two men claiming to be chairman of the IABA’s board of directors as the fall-out from an acrimonious split within the association spilled out into the public domain on a day when he should have been the story.
Dunne is a canny enough media operator to bat away any awkward questions and, with that familiar coat hanger grin, did just that in Abbotstown five years ago. Away from the cameras, though, he must have wondered just what the hell he had got himself involved in.
A few weeks later, I spoke to Billy Walsh at his Colorado base late one Monday night.
In public, the Wexford man said all the right things. He knew Dunne from his days as an amateur, had spoken to him during the interview process for the job, warned him of the pitfalls but also wished him luck.
“I think it’s the dawning of a new era for Irish - it’s a great appointment.”
Walsh didn’t want to send out a message of negativity.
But, given the nature of his own high-profile departure for America two years earlier from what was essentially the same role – as well as being Irish head coach - there was weariness and wariness as he chatted after.
It was clear his faith in Irish boxing’s ability to stop the internal wrangling, and to govern itself without warring factions, was non-existent.
While there had been obvious financial considerations in the face of such a lucrative offer to become Team USA head coach towards the tail end of 2015, Walsh hadn’t wanted to leave Ireland. The High Performance unit, of which he was a central component, had become known as ‘the medal factory’ following the success of the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games.
Yet the overarching issues he had in 2015 were also there 10 years earlier, when the High Performance unit was in its infancy. Primarily, they centred on matters of autonomy – and the desire to have a right to pick teams for competition without having to submit them to committee for approval.
This became like a recurring storyline in a bad soap opera.
Dunne, upon his appointment, was granted greater autonomy than Walsh had enjoyed. The High Performance director and his support staff were now making selection calls and, where once Irish teams were picked from winners of the national championships, a process of continual assessment and evaluation was preferred.
For those who argue against that system, Aidan Walsh is an example of its benefits. After narrowly losing out to Paddy Donovan in the semi-final of the 2019 Irish elites, Walsh’s chance of making it to Tokyo looked dead in the water.
Donovan lost to Kieran Molloy in the final, leaving Walsh third in the chase for the welterweight spot. Yet the west Belfast man was invited to Abbotstown for assessment, and made such an impression that he was selected to go to the World Championships.
Three months later he was crowned Irish champion at the National Stadium, before going on to not only secure an Olympic spot, but return home from the Japanese capital with a bronze medal around his neck.
However, the flip side to taking the show behind closed doors is that elements of amateur boxing’s grassroots felt further alienated, an already apparent ‘upstairs, downstairs’ feeling becoming even more entrenched.
And while there are undoubtedly some out there determined to further a different agenda, it should never be forgotten that hundreds of men and women the length and breadth of the country have volunteered their lives to the sport they love, and produced the champions who helped Ireland become such a strong boxing nation.
One thing all sides can surely agree on is that, the longer this drags on, the more damage will be done. You don’t need to stare too hard into the rearview mirror for examples.
Just last week, while announcing their High Performance funding for National Governing Bodies for the forthcoming year, Sport Ireland confirmed a major wedge of boxing’s funding was subject to the ongoing review and compliance with their governance code.
The creation of a new 12-member board of directors was the key proposal, with a qualified coach and a former Olympian being two of the directors.
Indeed, in the IABA’s own governance review, published early this week, it was noted that ongoing disputes “undermine it’s [the IABA] standing with external stakeholders”.
“The perception of a deeply divided body makes it very unattractive for sponsors and creates difficulties for funding partners to support”.
The circumstances which led to Bernard Dunne’s departure will have done little to help that cause, or to attract a possible replacement, as the cycle of suspicion and mistrust perpetuates. Until a solution is found, by whatever means necessary, boxing will continue to find itself on the ropes.
