Midway through the press conference in the Green Room at the O2 Arena late on Saturday night, the questions became as meaningless as the recriminations that followed.

The new WBA super-bantamweight champion of the world Poonsawat  Kratingdaenggym sat in front of us, the smile on his face as wide as the Liffey running freely outside the window.

Poonsawat had just silenced some 10,000 Irish voices and raised new doubts about Bernard Dunne’s chin in the process as he took two full rounds and then two minutes and 57 seconds to depose of our own world champion.

Dunne was already on his way to Beaumont Hospital’s emergency ward to be checked out after he was knocked-out by the time Poonsawat and promoter Brian Peters sat down in front of the Irish media.

Naturally the early questions all surrounded the health of Dunne, who had just taken one hell of a hammering in his first and only defense of the world title he had won so spectacularly in the same arena six months earlier.

Peters -- a neighbor of mine in Dunshaughlin for what it’s worth -- assured us that all was well with his fighter despite the presence of the medics in the ring at the end of the contest, and his subsequent transfer to hospital.

Then the questions toughened up. Was it right to take a fight against such a classy opponent for Dunne’s first night out as world champion?

Was there any way back for the first Irish champion to surrender his world crown on home soil?

Could Dunne bounce back from this defeat as he had bounced back from a sensational knock-out at the hands of Kiko Martinez from Spain in a European title defense some six fights earlier?

Would Dunne ever be seen in a boxing ring again, or would he now take up the offer of life as a fireman in the Dublin fire service?

Peters has been around boxing long enough to know how it works. His man had fought valiantly to win the world title last March, his man had the nation behind him going into a fight on Saturday night which, in hindsight, he was never going to win.

Poonsawat, known as the Little Tank back home in Thailand, had been waiting for 14 months as the mandatory challenger to get his crack at the title.

When the fight was first presented to Peters by the WBA the choice was simple -- take it or relinquish the crown.

The Meath promoter, to be fair to him, did offer both scenarios to his man.

“Bernard was never going to surrender his title just to protect himself, he’d have fought Mike Tyson himself if they’d made him,” revealed Peters and we all nodded our heads in agreement.

Nearly half an hour into the press conference, we had heard from Peters and we had heard from the proud new champion when the talk turned negative and the real questions were asked of Dunne’s future as a professional fighter.

Even the possibility of a move up to featherweight was discussed, such was the battering that our man had received in that dramatic and conclusive third round when not one but three punches of real power floored the hometown hero.

It was then that thoughts turned back 24 hours to Friday night’s Late Late Show and the rather emotional appearance of Darren Sutherland’s father Tony.

He brought tears to his own eyes and many others as he retraced his steps on the day his son took his own life in a London flat, all the time asking why when we all know there can never be an answer to that question.

Tony Sutherland struggled to contain his emotions on Friday night, and I beg anyone who watched him live to tell him they didn’t feel like shedding a tear for the heartbroken father and for the son he had just lost.

This was real tragedy. This was real sorrow. This was real life and death, exposed to the RTE cameras and beamed into every home in the nation.

The Sutherland interview is still available on the RTE website, as is the coverage of the Dunne-Poonsawat fight some 24 hours later.

As an exercise in sports psychology, it would be well worth your while to log on to www.rte.ie and study both events on your laptop or home computer.

When you see a man’s soul laid bare as Tony Sutherland’s was by the circumstances surrounding Darren’s death, you suddenly realize how futile our love affair with top class sport really is.

Bernard Dunne lost a fight on Saturday night. That’s all.

He may have lost his world title belt, his pride may have been as battered and bruised as his face and maybe even his ego, but it was only a fight.

Whether or not he ever fights again, and I happen to believe he will, is really irrelevant in the context of the real world.

People live and die in that real world. Parents lose their children in that real world. Darren Sutherland took his own life in that real world, and Tony Sutherland has been left behind to pick up the pieces.

Anything that Bernard Dunne did at the O2 Arena on Saturday night means nothing next to the trauma and the pain suffered by those close to Darren Sutherland these past two weeks.

Yes, Bernard apologized to the nation and to Irish boxing for not winning the world title in Darren’s honor last weekend, but he didn’t have to.

He did us proud the minute he stepped into that ring. He gave us something to believe in away from the real world.

And when he lost the real pain was only his own. Next to the loss suffered by the Sutherlands, his pain and our pain is nothing.

Sometimes it would do us all good to realize that sport is only sport. It will never be a matter of life or death. It will never be serious enough to achieve that status or that importance.

Sideline Views


SOCCER: It’s been a good week and a bad week for Giovanni Trapattoni. His new two-year deal with the FAI, awarded before our World Cup status is known, is certainly good news for the Italian, and in fairness he has even agreed to a pay cut given the nation’s current financial status. More importantly, and more worryingly, is the injury crisis that has befallen Trap’s squad ahead of the Italy and Montenegro games next week. Damien Duff and Caleb Folan were both ruled out on Tuesday, while the word concerning Celtic winger Aiden McGeady is not good. I’d bet he’d take a fully fit squad over a new contract at this moment in time. And surely Andy Reid is worth a recall in these circumstances? Only time will tell. 

GAA: It’s time to be nice to Paul Galvin. Yes, I said it is time to be nice to Paul Galvin. He may have behaved like a prat last year, but he has been consistently good for Kerry this term and deserves his place on the short list for the Footballer of the Year award. He should even win it. Just don’t tell his aunts I said that or they’ll be filling the letters page again!

GOLF: Rory McIlroy announced on Tuesday that he will play for Britain and not for Ireland if golf is accepted into the 2016 Olympics. Just thought you might like to know that! 

SOCCER: My colleague Paul Lennon broke a story on Tuesday that the World Cup playoff draw will be seeded. That’s not good news for Ireland.

Hero of the Week

IT’S been a bad couple of weeks all round for Irish boxing, but at least Matthew Macklin gave us something to shout about when he won the European middleweight title on Friday and thus became the first inter-county hurler to win a professional boxing belt. Macklin played minor for Tipp in his day, but he is now very much a major player in European boxing. So how about a crack at Andy Lee or John Duddy for your European belt Matthew?

Idiot of the week

DWIGHT Yorke had a pop at struggling Ipswich boss Roy Keane in a British newspaper this week claiming that the former Sunderland manager told him to go you know where when he sent him a text wishing Keane the best of luck after he resigned as boss with the north-east club. Yorke was well paid to have the pop at Keane as he promotes his new book, and really should have kept his mouth shut.