{"id":550846,"date":"2026-07-15T11:25:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/550846\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T11:25:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:25:11","slug":"one-of-the-greatest-things-thats-ever-happened-dunne-on-the-tipp-triumph-that-changed-his-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/550846\/","title":{"rendered":"‘One of the greatest things that’s ever happened’: Dunne on the Tipp triumph that changed his life"},"content":{"rendered":"

And there are. Tommy Dunne wipes them away as he contemplates what captaining Tipperary to the 2001 All-Ireland SHC<\/a> title means to him.<\/p>\n

In Croke Park on Sunday, he will lead out Nicky English\u2019s side as the jubilee team are celebrated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was the pinnacle of Dunne\u2019s career, a season capped with a hurler of the year accolade. For an outstanding hurler who had been so under-decorated at inter-county level up that point, it was a year of justification for a man who carried himself impeccably on and off the field.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, everyone will be present on Sunday. A week later and it will be the turn of the Galway footballers in what will be a bittersweet occasion as they remember Paul Clancy and John O\u2019Mahony.<\/p>\n

At the same time, it will be emotional for this Tipperary group. They were the county\u2019s sole All-Ireland senior winners in a 19-year span. And theirs were genuinely innocent times.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two days after Tipperary beat Galway, the Twin Towers were hit. Tommy Dunne\u2019s girlfriend and future wife Deirdre was living in New York at the time and was only home for the final.<\/p>\n

Dunne has led the way in organising the fundraising for the day. A golf classic was held in Thurles last Friday week. This weekend, the group will stay in Louis Fitzgerald\u2019s Arlington Hotel in the middle of Dublin city.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re always looking at the 25-year celebrations and thinking, \u2018Ours is way off\u2019,\u201d he smiles. \u201cNow it’s here. But I’m glad we’re still here. I’m glad that it’s getting a huge response. Lots of people remember it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt probably changed my life,\u201d Dunne says as he blinks his watery eyes. \u201cSome of the lads will probably say the same thing, for the better. I feel really honoured that I got to captain Tipperary. It’s an incredible thing. It’s one of the greatest things that’s ever happened. I was part of a fantastic team, fantastic management. The whole environment at the time was a really happy, positive place.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s nice that Tipp are still up there competing and winning their fair share. I remember Nicky saying to us, when he came in as manager first, he was such an inspirational person for us all. He said, \u2018We’ll play for a while, we’ll be lucky to play but at the end of the day, we’ll be back up in the stand supporting the next generation.\u2019 And that’s what it is.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"2001:2001: Tipperary’s Thomas Dunne lifts the Liam MacCarthy Cup after victory over Galway. Ray McManus\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

Dunne has paid it forward as a coach with three different Tipperary senior management teams and now as the architect of the coaching and games development strategy in the county\u2019s new five-year strategic plan.<\/p>\n

The appointment of a full-time head of athletic co-ordination and creation of senior development squads are the headline objectives from the committee he heads up.<\/p>\n

Initially, he was daunted by what was being asked of him by strategic plan overseer Liam Sheedy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just felt so big. I said to Liam, \u2018What exactly are we trying to do here?\u2019 He said, \u2018We\u2019re trying to inspire the next generation.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ie<\/p>\n

DALO’S HURLING SHOW ALL-IRELAND
FINAL PREVIEW<\/p>\n

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Dunne is never going to say \u2018no\u2019 to former players getting involved in coaching, but he wants to widen the base. \u201cBreak some of the, what would say, stereotypes or perception that \u2018I can\u2019t ever be\u2026\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, I never thought I was going to go into coaching. I never asked for any coaching job. It’s just people thought that you might offer something in it. But being around the right people in the right environment can drive you forward.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lineage from 2001 is strong: it was English\u2019s fitness coach Dr Liam Hennessy who encouraged Dunne to become a qualified coach through his Setanta College.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The college continues to work closely with Tipperary GAA.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the most important things you can give to another person is belief. Either as a coach or as a player. When someone else believes in you, that can take you to whole new places. And that’s part of this plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel we have the people in Tipperary. We have to show them that we have the actual physical resources to help them develop. And that we believe that they can develop by supporting them and by giving them opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"And there are. Tommy Dunne wipes them away as he contemplates what captaining Tipperary to the 2001 All-Ireland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[177329,5582,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-550846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-championship-2026","tag-tipperary-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}