In Fingal, a teenage aviation journalist leads the national media

At 11.47am on 3 June, 16-year-old Shaun Dunne told his 16,000 or so followers on X that a United Airlines flight en route from Brussels to New York was diverting to Dublin.

This was “due to a Disruptive/Unruly passenger on board”, he reported. “Gardaí and Airport Police will await the aircraft’s arrival.”

At 1.57pm, he added that “The HSE infectious disease unit is currently en route to the aircraft, the medical incident on board is a suspected Infectious Disease.”

Over the course of the afternoon, national media followed him in reporting on the story: the Journal (it’s story is stamped 3.39pm), the Examiner (4.33pm), the Irish Times (7pm), the Independent (7.01pm).

“I was kind of the one who broke the silence on that,” Dunne said last Thursday, standing atop the Mound, a dirt bump high enough to give aviation enthusiasts a clear view – over a two-lane road and a fence – of Dublin Airport.

Dunne held his scanner, listening to the pilots and the air-traffic controllers. At his feet, on the dirt and grass and dandelions, his backpack and a bottle of Energise orange sports drink. Tools of the trade.

His profile on X says he’s an aviation journalist, “Posting news and incidents from Dublin Airport”, and his one on Instagram has him as a photographer. “I don’t work for any media companies but I do some of the same stuff as them,” he says.

He is often out here on the Mound, says his mum, Joanne Saunders, by phone last week. Weekends. Holidays. “He’s obsessed, absolutely obsessed,” she says.

But what he’s interested in isn’t journalism, Dunne says. “This is just kind of a sidekick,” he says. It’s planes.

Dunne doesn’t want to write about airplanes when he finishes school, he says. He wants to fly them.

Raised into it

On 7 June, DAA, the company that runs Dublin Airport, put a planning application to Fingal County Council, to transform the Mound into a formal airport viewing point.

It would have an “elevated viewing platform with a sheltered viewing structure, seating and tables”, the application says. Better car parking, bicycle stands, lighting, signs, landscaping, drainage, the lot.

But for now, it’s just a mound of dirt and grass. Dunne stands at the ridge of it, along with two men, looking out across the airport.

What’s he looking for? “Special livery, rare aircraft, that kind of thing,” Dunne says.

The most unusual plane he’s seen at Dublin Airport was Air Force One, Dunne says. Because there’s only one of them? “Actually there’s two,” he says.

Dunne says he was raised into this interest in aviation.

“My parents used to bring me here when I was a kid and it just clicked and I stuck with it,” Dunne says. “I was just always fascinated by them [planes], they’re just a big tube of metal that can fly through the air.”

His mum, Joanne Saunders says, “It started as a kid, he used to go down with his dad and watch the airplanes.”

Damien Dunne, Shaun’s dad, said by phone on Friday that he himself has always had an interest in aviation.

“I grew up in Killester, when I was younger, we’d go out,” Damien said. “When I got my first car, I’d go out to the airport too.”

What drew him? “It’s a good question,” he says. “Probably a hard one to answer. I just thought it was fascinating that a big steel tube could fly through the air.”

So after Shaun was born, Damien would take him out to the airport too, Damien says.

Up up and away

Standing atop the Mound on Thursday, Shaun Dunne points out the difference between the Aer Lingus A330s and A321neos at different gates at the airport.

An Aer Lingus A320 comes roaring in from the east and lands on what Dunne says was runway 2A Left. He watches intently.

“I was just looking at how the plane comes in, how stable it is, rating it in my head,” he says.

DAA has taken notice of Dunne and his interest in aviation, and, presumably, his big social media following.

In January, the company invited Dunne down to the airport for Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s visit. “They let me up on the ramp”, to see the plane he came in, Dunne says.

Dunne is just finishing his transition year. He did placements at a place that repairs aircraft parts, and at a cargo airline, where he worked in the office, he says.

The road to becoming a commercial pilot is long and expensive, Dunne says. The most practical way to do it is to get an Aer Lingus cadetship, he says.

If he manages that, Aer Lingus would pay for the training and he’d work off the cost of that over time.

His dad, Damien, says, “Two more years to knuckle down and hopefully that cadetship will be his.”

For now, though, Shaun has a couple of flights planned for this summer. Day trips to the UK and Spain.

He’s looking forward to checking out the aircraft at the airports there, he says. “There’s a good few you wouldn’t see here.”