Ben Dunne wasn’t afraid to own his mistakes and to apologise afterwards

Behind the controversial headlines, Ben Dunne was first and foremost a husband and father of four grown children.

His private life was private until some questionable overseas partying rocked the family dynasty in 1992.

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Tributes and hair-raising tales about this ‘larger than life’ character, who became a business supremo, political challenger and industry questioner, will fill newspaper and broadcast headlines for weeks to come.

Ben Dunne at the All Ireland GAA final between Mayo & Donegal at Croke Park,Dublin. Pic: Gareth Chaney Collins

Friends and foes alike will pore over his 74 years, which began as a babe in arms in Cork to parents Ben Senior and Nora Maloney. While Ben Dunne lived his life in the often harsh glare of the media spotlight, he was not slow to own up to his many mistakes and apologise for them.

In a way, his life came in and out of the public’s focus like any good soap opera does. He enthralled us all with his controversial opinions, his kidnapping by the IRA, public partying, boardroom battles and his desire to succeed.

And succeed he did. The youngest of six children, he helped build the family empire that is the ubiquitous supermarket chain Dunnes Stores, present in nearly every town and city across Ireland.

MARGARET HEFFERNAN SISTER OF BEN DUNNE. PIC: COLIN KEEGAN/COLLINS AGENCY

His death leaves his older sister, Margaret ­Heffernan, 80, as the last of her generation of the renowned Dunnes dynasty. A currently highly-ranked employee of the chain described Dunne as ‘loyal to the core once he knew you were a worker’.

Growing up in Cork’s Ringmahon House, Dunne left school earlier than he perhaps should have, to join the family business founded by his father in Cork in 1944.

Once a drapery shop at Cork’s Patrick’s Street, it grew into a multibillion-euro enterprise, employing 15,000 people in more than 130 shops across Ireland, the UK and Spain. Even during the low points of his life, Dunne admitted in an interview several years ago that he never contemplated suicide.

Ben Dunne. Pic: RollingNews.ie

A nadir was reached on that infamous night in Florida in 1992 when it was claimed he was trying to kill himself by jumping from a 17th floor balcony while high on cocaine as an escort sat inside.

He was then arrested for cocaine possession and soliciting a prostitute. But before all of that public drama and open apologies, his gregarious character and business acumen led Dunne Jnr to become a very public figure in the latter half of the 1970s and early 80s – the polar opposite to how his father ran the family business.

Becoming such a well-known figure resulted in him being targeted by the IRA.

BEN DUNNE. Pic: COLIN KEEGAN, COLLINS, DUBLIN.

He was abducted from his car just north of the border while travelling to open a shop in Portadown, Co Armagh, in October 1981, and held captive for a week.

Gardaí insisted at the time that no ransom was paid for his release but reports suggested £1.5million had been handed over. Decades later, property developer Patrick Gallagher claimed he provided the ransom money at the direction of taoiseach-in-waiting Charles Haughey, despite claims by his friend Dunne that he knew none of the details about why he was released.

Following the death of his father Ben Snr in 1983, the question turned to succession, at a time when the Dunnes Stores board consisted only of his mother Norah and his five siblings.

Businessman Ben Dunne of Dunnes Stores shakes hands with Fianna Fail Leader Charles Haughey. Pic: Eamonn Farrell/Photocall Ireland

Ben Jnr emerged as the supreme boss. But within a year of his highprofile escapade in the US, he was replaced as executive chairman of the supermarket and retail chain by his brother Frank, which led to him launching High Court proceedings against his siblings. His sister Margaret took firm control of the business’s reins and sent her youngest sibling away with an IR£100million pay-off.

During this time, he also became involved in questionable payments to politicians revealed in the McCracken and Moriarty tribunals.

But Dunne Jnr shook himself down and brushed off any ill-will towards him, instead channelling his energies into the successful Ben Dunne Gyms. He fronted the publicity campaigns for his gym empire and continued to be a heavyweight lifter, in entrepreneurial terms, right until his death on Saturday in Dubai while on holiday.

A private and discreet passing for his public persona would have been at odds with a man who lived his life to the full, right to end.