The death on August 11th of Mick Dunne breaks another link with the generation that pioneered coverage of Gaelic Games and the GAA. An authoritative voice in both the print and electronic media, his journalistic career extended over 50 years.
Throughout that time, he was a meticulous reporter who quickly established a reputation for mastery of his brief in its minutest detail.
He remained an ardent enthusiast of Gaelic Games until the end and six days before he died, attended the Dublin-Donegal All-Ireland quarter-final at Croke Park.
Born on May 27th 1929 to Frank and Agnes (née Foley) Dunne in Clonaslee, Co Laois, Mick Dunne was one of two children. His father was a local businessman and his mother a schoolteacher.
He was educated at Knockbeg College across the border in Carlow. His first job was with the Irish Press, which he joined in 1947 as a librarian.
His flair for organisation remained with him and he built up a remarkable archive on matches and other GAA events, including his own notes on every match he covered since the early 1950s.
As one colleague recalls, "If you needed to know a fact or detail, Mick would have it for you in two minutes".
In recent years he successfully computerised these records to complete what is now a considerable historical resource. At his funeral it was mentioned that the archive ran all the way up to some under-21 matches on July 18th.
After a short time spent in the library, he moved into the reporting side of the house in the Irish Press and by 1950 he was covering sports, primarily Gaelic Games as number two to the late Paddy Purcell.
After a shake-up on Burgh Quay, he declined an offer of a job on the Sunday Review and became Gaelic Games correspondent of the Irish Press in 1957.
In those days before television, the correspondents of national newspapers had very high profiles. In the words of one contemporary: "Back then print outlets were the dominant media. You didn't have a multiplicity of media. Even with television, the only games covered, for a long time, were All-Ireland finals and semi-finals with occasional highlights of individual matches shown late at night. The print correspondents were regarded as the authentic voice of the GAA and had huge reputations. Mick would have been regarded as a voice of authority."
These were exciting times for GAA reporters. Coverage of the games was burgeoning and teams were undertaking overseas trips with increasing regularity. The St Brendan Cup, a competition between New York and the winners of the National Leagues, was inaugurated in 1957. It was to be the first of many journeys to the US for Mick Dunne, and an eventful one because an aircraft engine caught fire and the flight had to return to Shannon, even though it was three hours out.
Having survived the excitement, he was to make nearly 100 further transatlantic journeys, between Brendan Cups, National League matches, All Star trips and frequent holidays with his wife Lilly to visit her brothers.
He enjoyed travel and work took him to other places, including Australia and Canada. But he was especially fond of America and five years ago wrote The Star Spangled Final, the commemorative account of the 1947 All-Ireland final in the Polo Grounds, New York.
In 1970 he made a surprising move from print to broadcast media and became RTÉ's first Gaelic Games correspondent. He was headhunted for the job by Micheal O'Hehir, the station's head of sport. According to an RTÉ colleague: "Mick O'Hehir would have known him from the trips to the US and knew how reliable a statistician Mick was, how he had a vast store of information at his fingertips and would have been aware of his reputation as a GAA correspondent."
He arrived just as the broadcasting of games was becoming more ambitious and became a familiar figure conducting post-match interviews on the day of All-Ireland finals.
Mick Dunne's most frequently mentioned strengths as a reporter were his reliability, accuracy and dogged sense of fairness and impartiality.
He particularly appreciated the following compliment paid to his commentary on the 1986 NFL final, won by his own county: "Listening to you on Sunday, you'd never know you were from Laois."
He was also a staunch defender of journalistic rights and stood firm against attempts to victimise colleagues - in the midst of now forgotten controversies - by county boards, most notably Cork in 1961 and Tipperary in 1968. On another occasion he and John D. Hickey, his counterpart in the Irish Independent, earned the easily dispensed displeasure of New York president John "Kerry" O'Donnell, but despite threats that they "would need a ladder to get into Gaelic Park", both walked into the Bronx venue unmolested.
Perhaps one of his most enduring professional accomplishments was the still vibrant All Stars scheme. Mick Dunne devised the idea in the 1960s and when it failed to get off the ground, he revived it in 1971. This time, thanks to his efforts in selling the scheme to sponsors and then to a GAA chary of sponsorship, the All Stars awards were inaugurated.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, he was not an avid socialiser. Described by one colleague from the early days as a "good-living man", Mick Dunne steered clear of nightlife. A non-drinker whose preferred tipple was Diet Coke, he preferred home life to carousing, although he was a sociable individual. Another contemporary remembers him staying up in a hotel with work colleagues until four in the morning, matching their tumblers of whiskey with cups of tea and glasses of milk.
A devout Roman Catholic, his contribution to parish life was acknowledged during his funeral.
He was a dedicated family man and took pleasure in recounting how one of his sports bulletins on radio was followed by his daughter Eileen reading the news, which led into a radio play by his brother Frank.
He was a great handball enthusiast. A recreational player, he wrote extensively about the sport and helped its administrators with public relations.
Other hobbies included racquetball, swimming and reading
Mick Dunne is survived by his wife Lilly (née) Fox from Delvin, Co Westmeath, whom he married in 1956; daughters, Eileen, Una and Moira, and his brother Frank.
Mick Dunne: born 1929; died, August 2002