‘Dingle is missing a favorite son’, laments Dáithí Ó Se

Dingle is missing a favorite son, said television host Dáithí Ó Se, as the much-loved dolphin Fungie has been missing for more than a week.

The city has been scouring the area for the world-famous bottlenose, and even called the Mallow underwater unit to search the harbor, using sonar to scan the seafloor and dispatch divers, but no one has been found. Fungie.

“It has been a very sad few days,” Ó Se said.

“People at home are very, very worried. It’s like a human has disappeared, he’s friends with Dingle, there’s no sign of our friend Fungie and we’re very, very worried.

“And the longer this lasts, the worse it will look.

“If he is gone, it will be as if a great personality of the city had passed away.

Dáithí, native of Kerry and co-host of RTÉ One’s Today show, said Fungie has not only become an integral part of the community, but has also been a great economic asset to the rural area, drawing millions of people to visit and fall in love with Fungie’s foster home.

He estimated that Fungie has generated up to a billion euros for Ireland, attracting people from around the world to visit the country.

“It has been there for over 30 years, drawing people to see it and then being part of every ad campaign to get people to Kerry and Ireland. It was a godsend.”

Some local people have suggested that another pod of dolphins may have come to Dingle Bay and lured Fungie to join them, Dáithí said, but no one yet knows what happened to the dolphin that was first seen in Dingle in the decade. 1980.

“I was only 11 when Fungie came along,” Ó Se said. “I remember talking about it, and then Fungie was there forever.

“We always went out to see him. We went there after the Tralee Rose last year and I brought Micheál to see it and I couldn’t believe there was a dolphin near Nana’s house. We all have pictures of him and everything.

“We have to hope all the time that it’s okay, but as time goes on, the more worried you’ll be that there’s something wrong.

“Jimmy Flannery, who runs Dingle Sea Safari, was in the Today show this week saying they haven’t seen it in days and it’s totally out of line. I was distraught.

“Fungie was probably the most important member of the Dingle team.”

Dáithí said that if Fungie, who has been in Dingle for 37 years, is gone, his loss will be felt “across the country.”