The tragic death of Ireland's bronze medal winner at the Beijing Olympics hit the sport hard, writes JOHNNY WATTERSON

IT WAS a year that saw the glorious and the cruel faces of boxing, one too where the death of an Olympian swamped everything that came before or after. Few deaths in sport hit as hard and as poignantly as that of 27-year-old Darren Sutherland, the laughing, handsome, bronze medallist who had left for England to chase a dream and ended up discovering his demons, finally taking his own life in an apartment in south London in September.

In Sutherland’s death and the dispute that erupted afterwards between his family and London promoter Frank Maloney, the only points of agreement that transcended the sadness and anger were the unanswerable questions of how he had found himself in such deep trouble and why he could see no other way out.

The effect was to stun the Irish public who had known him visually by his wonderful physique and athleticism and knew his character largely through his infectious high-octane energy and the constant chatter that dominated any media conversation in which he was involved.

For a short time, though, this was to be the year of Bernard Dunne, the Dubliner, who first won the coveted WBA Super bantamweight world title in Dublin on the same day as Ireland won their Grand Slam in Cardiff. Indeed one of the abiding memories of the title fight was of Ronan O’Gara kicking what would be the match-winning points as under card fighter Jim Rock went through his paces in the O2 Arena.

The roar that went up as boxing fans watched the rugby on a giant screen distracted Rock mid-round, as the middleweight didn’t know why the capacity crowd was cheering. What happened later that night was the stuff of Hollywood as Dunne faced the young Ricardo Cordoba from Panama. Cordoba was technically excellent but not a big puncher. “Styles make fights” was the mantra of Dunne’s promoter Brian Peters all through the week.

Dunne went down twice in the 11-round war and one more put-down would have spelled the end of his dream of becoming a world champion. As much a pain receiver as a pain giver that night, it was an epic fight, a brutal fight and one that was finally decided on heart and endurance.

Dunne went into the last two rounds, three points, five points and six points down with the three scoring judges. He was staring into a unanimous decision against him.

But the 29-year-old had been patient, able, durable and sure of the instructions his trainer, Hawkins, had been giving him for three months. Hoping that the left hooks he had been landing all night, at some considerable cost to Dunne himself, would shake the champion, the breakthrough arrived one second from the end of the 11th round with the third of three lefts forcing the Canadian referee Hubert Earle to jump in.

But severely dehydrated and bleeding from two cuts to his eyes, one that required 10 stitches and would keep him out of the ring for some months, Dunne finally brought it home.

It was in the aftermath of Sutherland’s death, and while the sport of boxing was still convulsed in grief and confusion, that Dunne was asked to defend his world title against the squat, former Thai boxer, Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym, the Buddhist that nobody really wanted to fight.

The World Boxing Association (WBA) told Dunne he must take the mandatory fight. The team of the fighter, trainer, and manager Brian Peters agreed to bring another epic to the O2 Arena, if reluctantly so this time.

Poonsawat was tough and durable and not suited at all to Dunne’s style. It was a dangerous fight and the Irishman paid dearly. In the third round Dunne was caught three times, the third forcing the referee to stop the fight. No one complained. The popular Dunne’s glorious reign was over after only six months.

Higher up the weight divisions, it was the middleweights that vied for attention, where Matthew Macklin, the hurling-playing Birmingham-raised Irishman jumped to the top of the queue for a world title shot ahead of Detroit-based Limerick fighter Andy Lee and New York-based Derry man John Duddy.

Macklin beat Finnish fighter Amin Asikainen at the Manchester Velodrome, England, on September 25th, for the vacant European middleweight title, which pushes him up the pecking order.

At light-welterweight, Dungiven fighter Paul McCloskey also earned a European belt, when he won the vacant title on November 6th. The former GAA player and Ulster Club football championship winner defeated Spanish boxer Daniel Rasilla after original opponent and former world champion Souleymane Mbaye withdrew due to injury. The fight with Rasilla was stopped late in the ninth round at the Meadowbank Arena in Magherafelt.

In the amateur ranks Katie Taylor alternatively charmed and punched her way towards a record that is unlikely to be equalled in Irish sport.

Now considered the best pound-for-pound female amateur boxer in the world, the Bray woman went on to win her fourth successive European Championship title in September 2009 in the Ukraine, remarkably without conceding a point.

It sets her up as an Olympic favourite in the lightweight division come London 2012, a tag she could do without but one earned through her enduring excellence in the ring.