Lord of the Dance
Bernard Dunne has stepped down from High Performance Director role with the IABA
Sport

Bernard Dunne has stepped down from High Performance Director role with the IABA

BERNARD DUNNE HAS Stepped down from his role as the Irish Athletic Boxing Association's (IABA) high performance director after failing to resolve a conflict with his employers since the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 

Dunne lodged a complaint with IABA CEO Fergal Carruth in November after an unsigned SWOT analysis – a strategic planning and management technique used to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats – critical of his performance was circulated at board level prior to Tokyo. 

The Dubliner told Morning Ireland on RTE Radio 1 last June: "My main focus is that the athletes are not distracted by it. 

My job is to serve them, serve the coaches and to make sure they have all they need to perform in terms of having the right strictures and right processes in place. 

"As we have seen out here the team has performed. They have now won 21 international medals in the last two-and-a-half years." 



 

The former world super bantamweight champion has now resigned from his role  

The 42-year-old took up the role in 2017 and has not worked HP Director since Tokyo since the complaint against the two board members. 

Dunne is the third HP director to leave the role and this comes after Billy Walsh went to America in 2016. 

Katie Taylor, Michael Conlan and Paddy Barnes all turned pro under Dunne's watch after Ireland failed to win a medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016.  

AIBA will now be searching for a new High-Performance Director as next Summer Olympics in Paris takes place in 2024.