Bernard Dunne loves having a fight on his hands, writes Kate Butler. On a historic day for Irish sport in March 2009, the 32-year-old fighter from Neilstown in Dublin, became the WBA super bantamweight world champion, just hours after the Irish rugby team had won the Grand Slam. His latest challenge, however, may prove difficult. On RTE’s Brod Club, Dunne is hoping to sign up 100,000 people to speak Irish as often as possible, each day. “I’m not fluent, but it’s about talking as much Irish as we can,” he says. rte.ie/brodclub
World title boxing belt
When I became the super bantamweight world champion, it was the stuff that dreams were made of. The fight was in Dublin’s Point Depot against Ricardo Cordoba from Panama. I dropped him in the third round and he got me down twice in the fifth. When I became champion, it was incredible, especially as I did it in front of a home crowd in my own country. I started boxing at the age of five and had my first fight at six. I was 29 when I won.
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Irish dictionary
I failed Irish at school, but when we had children I wanted to be able to bring them up using the language. I started taking classes in Clondalkin when I retired from boxing in 2010. For me it’s about the spoken word, the music of Irish. I’m not too worried about making mistakes, but the dictionary comes in handy.
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Winning gloves
These are the gloves I wore in the world title fight against Cordoba. You wear a new set of gloves for every bout. Until about six months ago, I wasn’t sure where they were. All my memorabilia was hidden away in the laundry room, but after getting stick from friends and family about having my world title gloves tucked behind the washing machine, Mrs Dunne recently put them on display in the house.
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Family portrait
I’m married to Pamela and we have two children: Caoimhe, five, and Finian, four. Caoimhe is a daddy’s girl and she’s given me a verbal contract that she’s never going to leave me. Finian is mad into wrestling. He loves bashing heads with his cousin and is a fan of Sheamus O’Shaunessy, the Irish World Wrestling Entertainment wrestler. We talk Irish at home every day.
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Golf clubs
I love to play golf. I play badly, but I love it. I couldn’t play when I was boxing, as my hands would be too sore to swing the golf club properly, but now I can, and I mostly go to Hollystown Golf Club. Some of my friends have the cupla focal, people such as Jason Sherlock and Seaghan Kearney [the footballers], so when we play together, we talk Irish.