Dunne, Michael (‘Mick’) (1929–2002), GAA broadcaster and journalist, was born 27 May 1929 in Clonaslee, Co. Laois, one of two sons of Francis Dunne, insurance agent, and Agnes Dunne (née Foley), schoolteacher. Educated at Clonaslee national school and Knockbeg College, Co. Carlow, he took his first job in the etchings library of the Irish Press in 1947. He soon became a reporter on the paper, and by the early 1950s he was acting as understudy to its Gaelic games correspondent, Patrick Purcell (qv), as well as covering other sports. In 1957 he was appointed Gaelic games correspondent of the Irish Press and his meticulous research and reliability earned him a reputation as one of the most authoritative voices in Gaelic games over the following four decades. With GAA teams increasingly travelling abroad he made numerous trips to the USA and developed a major interest in games played overseas; in 1997 he published The star spangled final, an account of the staging of the 1947 All-Ireland football final in New York. He was also a strong supporter of developing relations with Australian-rules football.
In 1970 he joined RTÉ as the station's first Gaelic games correspondent, having been headhunted by Michael O'Hehir (qv). Again, he quickly established a reputation as an utterly reliable broadcaster on radio and television, whose knowledge of Gaelic games was unparalleled. An innovative presence in sports broadcasting, he helped devise the successful handball series ‘Top ace’, established in 1973 and expanded in 1980 to include Mexican and American players. He brought cameras to training sessions and dramatically increased coverage of the national league, as well as developing ‘Gaelic stadium’ into a regular feature on the Saturday television schedules. While at RTÉ, he successfully established in 1971 the all-star awards scheme to honour the leading Gaelic footballers and hurlers each year. Having previously failed to establish the scheme in the 1960s, he remained its driving force up to the 1990s, and before his death he was honoured with a special award for his work on the scheme. He was a key figure in RTÉ's Gaelic games coverage until his retirement in 1995. He then returned to print journalism on a freelance basis, writing regular columns for the Irish Independent and Gael Sport magazine. He was contributing editor to Highball magazine following its establishment in 1998, having previously edited Gaelic World. He also published a history of Gaelic football in the gardaí, The story of the Garda GAA club (1998). He had kept an archive of all the matches he had attended since the early 1950s and was meticulous in his compilation of records. He was instrumental in correcting mistakes in the GAA's record books and in rectifying omissions. He updated the GAA's own records for the 1975 Our Games Annual and made invaluable contributions to various editions of the Complete handbook of Gaelic games up to 1999, the definitive guide to GAA records.
A non-drinker and non-smoker, he played handball into his seventies, having also taken up racquetball at an advanced age. Handball was a passion throughout his life and he was ultimately awarded the Waterford Crystal Handball Award for special services to the game. As well as a career as a recreational player, he was involved in the administration of handball and wrote extensively about it, including numerous articles for the annual Irish Handball Yearbook. He died 11 August 2002.
He married (1956) Lilly Fox, from Delvin, Co. Westmeath. They had three daughters, Eileen, Una, and Moira.