IT WOULD BE unfair to claim we now know less about the Irish Athletic Boxing Association’s interminable civil war than we did prior to today’s one-hour-and-40-minute-long Joint Oireachtas Committee. It would, however, be perfectly fair to suggest that we know exactly as much about it now as we did before four TDs and three senators posed their questions to IABA chairman Ciaran Kirwan, and we know slightly more about freestyle kayaking.

Prior to any questions from the assembled politicians, Kirwan confirmed that Sport Ireland has since June been conducting an independent review of IABA governance. He noted to the Committee chair, Niamh Smyth TD, that he would have preferred for that review to have been allowed to reach its conclusion before appearing before the committee to discuss the running of amateur boxing in this country, by which time he would have been able to refer directly to it.

As outlined in the documentation of Kirwan’s opening statement, the agreed scope of the review is as follows:

• 1. An external assessment of the IABA’s governance model.
• 2. Assessment of implementation of the governance code, and a review of cultures and behaviours with the IABA structures including Board, Council and Provisional structures.
• 3. Assess the extent to which the governance model supports the needs of boxing and its members.
• 4. Identify any additional considerations to facilitate the effective governance of the IABA going forward.

The review is expected to be finished by the end of 2021, and Kirwan insisted that he would be more than happy to reappear in front of the committee upon its completion.

Kirwan would at one point in this seemingly inexorable meeting forthrightly accept that the IABA does have “deficiencies” in its governance.

That would be to put it lightly: it has already been established that the IABA’s Leinster Provincial Council, Connacht Provincial Council and Dublin County Board have each withdrawn their support for their superior body, the Central Council.

Central Council last week passed a vote on these three units’ removal from the IABA, including the cancellation of membership of all parties involved in their decision to strike out against the overarching council.

This vote by Central Council has been passed by the IABA’s board of directors to an independent membership panel for a final decision.

Another reason why Kirwan asked Sport Ireland to look into the association’s governance was the unsigned, 1,500-word ‘SWOT Analysis’ (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat) on Bernard Dunne and his High Performance Unit, for all intents and purposes a character assassination which was circulated among members in the spring, just months out from the Tokyo Games.

As reported in the Irish Times this morning, Dunne, who is understood to have been on leave since the Tokyo Olympics, has issued a formal complaint to the IABA over the document, justifiably believing it to undermine him.

When quizzed about the document by Sinn Féin TD Imelda Munster, Kirwan said: “It was brought to my attention (in February or March) and I read it to the board and I rubbished it. And the board, despite some [IABA] members being involved with that document, they unanimously rubbished it with me.

The Swot analysis was anonymous and no one has admitted to writing it. We are investigating it. We have certain information on it. We know whose fingerprints are on it — or handprints, should I say, in an IT sense. So we’re making progress but it’s slow and there have been no admissions.

Kirwan insisted that the document “shouldn’t be given credence”, adding: “Even discussing it here gives it a certain legitimacy which it does not deserve. It was an appalling attack not only on our High Performance director, but on our unit. It said our High Performance Unit was out of touch with modern coaching methods.”

Kirwan stressed that the unit answered this charge with an Olympic gold medal and an Olympic bronze medal this summer, with six of Ireland’s Tokyo squad either winning a medal or being beaten by eventual medalists.

“I have absolute confidence in Bernard Dunne,” he added. “I should lay my cards on the table. I chaired the interview-selection panel that appointed him and I’m pleased with the result.”

With a couple of exceptions, we then entered a section of the meeting in which the attending politicians appeared to enter a game of chicken with the chair to see for how long they could drone on without asking a single question.

The only other real information of note to emerge regarded the initial decision not send an Irish team to the Men’s World Championships in Belgrade, but send one instead to Sheffield to spar with Britain’s tournament-bound team — a call which was the source of enormous rancour in Irish boxing circles. A team was eventually entered at the 11th hour.

Chairman Kirwan explained that it was CEO Fergal Carruth, present on the call via video link, who decided that the IABA “should delay the non-selection of any team and let the squad go over (to Sheffield) and the coaches could go over and make a determination.

“The coaches then went over made that determination and the team was sent,” Kirwan added.

Incredibly, this process was explored no further by the TDs and senators.

Instead, an inordinate amount of time was spent by Fine Gael Senator Micheál Carrigy trying to understand why the IABA spend almost six times more on insurance than do Swim Ireland. While the answer wasn’t explicitly established, it’s understood to be at least loosely connected to the fact that in one of those two sports, participants are routinely punched in the head.

As we moved even further away from the purpose of this Oireachtas meeting, and as one began to wonder out loud if such a thing even exists, Fianna Fáil TD Christopher O’Sullivan feinted with a couple of questions about ‘growing boxing’ in his West Cork constituency before firing his real shot: a request to outgoing Sport Ireland CEO John Treacy to assist with funding for freestyle kayaker Anaïs O’Donovan, a young Skibbereen woman who competed at last month’s European Championships in Paris.

After making a couple of suggestions, Treacy told O’Sullivan: “I’ll take it up with you after and see what can be done.”

Remarkably, things got only more farcical: the game of chicken would eventually be lost by Chris Andrews of Sinn Féin, a late call-up, who earned a couple of bollockings from chair Smyth for taking party-politically charged swipes at the other members.

“A lot of this conflict has its roots in, and since, the Examiner article which reported that the president of the IABA, Dominic O’Rourke, reported Fine Gael councillor Andrew Duncan (president of the AIBA’s Leinster Council) to the gardaí for breach of Covid rules. And I’m not sure where that investigation is, but maybe Deputy [Alan] Dillon or Senator Carrigy could update us on where that investigation is.”

Andrews was promptly asked to withdraw his comments by chair Smyth and Senator Carrigy, but in the end didn’t.

“Senator Carrigy is regularly reported as looking for the IABA to be brought into this committee”, Andrews added, “so all of this suggests to me that this is a dispute which has been politicised by a Fine Gael senator and a Fine Gael councillor.”

Again, Andrews was reminded — this time with a final warning — that he had been invited to ask questions of the IABA and Sport Ireland, not his colleagues.

So, he asked Kirwan: “Do you feel there is political interference with your being invited in here today?”

“I would hope that that it wouldn’t be political interference,” Kirwan responded. “I am aware that Senator Carrigy has called for us to be called in. I’m happy to be called in, I’m happy to explain…

“It is also the case that one of our board of directors (Andrew Duncan) is a member of his party and, in fact, a member of his constituency.”

A never was struck as we neared the nub of…something. Carrigy quickly clarified that as a senator, he doesn’t technically have a constituency, Kirwan reminding him that when he technically did have one, it was Longford-Westmeath (Andrew Duncan is a councillor for Mullingar-Kinnegad).

The IABA, however, would be better focused on its internal politics which will continue to embarrass the sport and its constituents for years to come unless Sport Ireland’s review tells it what it really should do: burn it down and start again.

- Correction: An original version of this article stated that IABA CEO Fergal Carruth had made the initial decision not to send an Irish team to the World Championships in Belgrade. In fact, Carruth suggested that this decision be delayed and that Ireland’s coaches should make a determination as to whether or not to send a team during a training camp with Britain in Sheffield.