Bernard Dunne Returns to Irish Leaving Cert Exam

Bernard Dunne has faced world champions under the lights, but last week he walked into a very different arena: the Leaving Cert exam hall.

At 46, the former world champion boxer went back to sit the Irish exam, returning to the one subject that had beaten him as a teenager. Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland on Monday, Dunne laughed as he admitted it was unfinished business.

Irish was the only subject he failed in his original Leaving Cert. That mark stayed with him. So, with the kind of late decision you might expect from a man used to answering the bell, he signed up again — just a week before the exam.

“It was nearly as bad as doing the world title fight, to be honest,” he said, drawing a sharp comparison between the pressure of the ring and the tension of the classroom.

Dunne had been on the programme to talk about Katie Taylor’s upcoming Croke Park fight, praising her as a trailblazer and a standard-bearer for the next generation of Irish athletes. Taylor, he said, has become a role model whose impact stretches far beyond the ropes.

Only at the end of the interview did the focus swing back to him. The presenter congratulated Dunne on completing the Irish paper, and the Dubliner, never one to dodge a punchline, leaned on the language of his old trade.

“I needed to put that right and at the age of 46 I decided, a week before the exam, that I was going to do it,” he said. “Thankfully, we were able to survive a couple of low blows and get through it.”

Different stage, different stakes. Same fighter’s instinct to settle the score.