Bernard Dunne: Apology and correction
IN the Irish Daily Mail of Wednesday, March 2, we carried an article under the headline ‘ Boxing hero Bernard Dunne: I’ll mediate in gangs war’. In fact, Mr Dunne had said three times to our reporter that he had never heard it suggested that he might become involved. However, on being pressed, Mr Dunne said that if anyone did make a suggestion to him about helping to mediate in the crisis, he would consider it. This was not, as suggested by the headline, a definite commitment in any way to become involved. Moreover, the headline could have been read as suggesting that Mr Dunne was putting himself forward for such a role when all he said was that if he were asked by others, he would listen to their proposals and then make a ‘judgment call’ as to whether or not his i nvolvement would be appropriate.
Furthermore, our report did not state that Mr Dunne had repeatedly made it clear that the question from our reporter was the first time he had ever heard the suggestion that he might act as a mediator in the gang war. His response to first being asked whether he would act as a mediator was as follows: ‘ No- one has approached me so it’s the first I have heard of it. I don’t know, it’s the first time I’ve heard anything of it.’
Finally, our report also contains reactions to this proposal from other members of the local community as though it had been agreed that Mr Dunne would take on the role, when such a notion had not even been discussed. These reactions appeared to suggest that Mr Dunne’s i nvolvement was a fait accompli when in fact it had never even been raised with him by anyone concerned.
We would like to apologise to Mr Dunne for any suggestion that he was volunteering to mediate in this gang war, or that he had agreed to do so if a request was made. Rather, Mr Dunne was simply acting as any responsible citizen would if the possibility arose that they might be asked to use their prestige and popularity to help resolve a difficult situation. We would further like to apologise to his family for any upset this error may have caused.