Bernard Dunne reaches settlement in dispute with Irish Athletic Boxing Association

Seán McCárthaigh

An employment dispute between the Irish Athletic Boxing Association and its former high-performance director, Bernard Dunne, has been settled at the Workplace Relations Commission.

A hearing of an employment rights claim by the well-known, former Irish boxer was due to be heard at the WRC on Wednesday.The case had already been adjourned from a previous sitting of the WRC in May which the former world super bantamweight champion was unable to attend due to a work commitment in India.

At the outset of the latest hearing, however, WRC adjudication officer, Pat Brady, was asked by the legal representatives of both sides if they could have some time for further talks.

Dunne (43), who retired as a professional boxer in 2010, attended the hearing via video-link from China.

However, he was not required to address the inquiry.

After an hour’s adjournment, counsel for Dunne, Seamus Collins BL, informed the WRC that the sides had “achieved a consensus.”

Mr Collins added: “A settlement has been reached. We’re happy to adjourn for four weeks pending implementation.”

Counsel for the IABA, Mark Harty SC, confirmed that the two parties had reached an agreement.

Both sides then signed a withdrawal form with the WRC listing October 13th for a hearing to confirm a settlement in the case.

No details of the exact nature of the statutory complaint made by Dunne against his former employers were made public.

Dunne handed in his resignation as high-performance director to the IABA in May 2022 after five years in the job over a failure to resolve a conflict with his employers since the Tokyo Olympics.

During his time in the role, Irish boxers won two Olympic medals and another 27 medals at World and European level.

In late 2021, Dunne filed a complaint with the IABA in which he alleged his position had been undermined in an anonymous document which he maintained was designed to discredit him both personally and professionally.

Dunne identified two IABA board members as having a role in the drafting of the letter.

The IABA claimed the document was malicious and represented an appalling attack on its high-performance unit and its director.

At the same time, it acknowledged that a small cohort of the “Irish boxing family” had expressed robust dissatisfaction with the high-performance unit since it was established in 2003.

The IABA, which asked Dunne to reconsider his resignation, said such individuals did not want to leave the selection of boxers for international competition to the unit’s staff.

The loss of Dunne was the third time the IABA has parted ways with highly-regarded high-performance directors after the departure of Gary Keegan and Billy Walsh.

In recent years, Dunne has also assisted a number of GAA county teams as a performance coach including Waterford hurlers and Dublin and Galway footballers.

Dunne, who also works as a TV analyst, is represented by talent agent, Noel Kelly, who garnered widespread publicity this summer in his role as the agent who negotiated Ryan Tubridy’s contract with RTÉ.

Last October, Dunne was named as the new high performance director of the Boxing Federation of India.