I raised this with the BBC. Somewhat to my surprise, they replied. They have added an update at the start of the article which reads:
Update 27 November 2012: Further checks have shown United Airlines does not fly from Dublin to Boston. Irish and US aviation authorities also say they have no record of these events.
This information was put to Mr Young, who did not wish to comment.
It is a pity that they did not do this checking earlier but, fair play to them, at least they did it in the end.
SFS