Cork Person of the Year

Cork Person of the Year Award Scheme. 1993 - 2020. These awards were founded in 1993 to recognise outstanding achievements by people from Cork.[1] Each year 12 Cork persons of the month are chosen, although some months multiple people in the same area are selected. Then, in January of the following year the overall Cork person(s) of the year[2] are selected from this group. The awards scheme is Cork's premier award scheme, backed by Cork City Council and Cork County council over the last 27 years. Award Judges are Ann Doherty, Chief Executive, Cork City Council and Tim Lucey, Chief Executive, Cork County Council. Awards Organisers are Manus O'Callaghan; Pat Lemasney; Ann-Marie O'Sullivan. Sponsors are Irish Examiner/ The Echo ; RTE; Southern; Lexus Cork; AM O'Sullivan PR; Cork Crystal; Tony O'Connell Photography; CAVS; Musgrave MarketPlace. Past Hall of Fame recipients are Ted Crosbie(2018) and Fergal Keane OBE(2019). People made Honorary Corkpersons at awards are David & Patsy Puttnam(2012), Jeremy Irons(2013), Michael Flatley(2014), Joe Schmidt(2019), John Bowman(2020). Manus O'Callaghan, Awards Founder & Organiser said " Our award scheme celebrates Cork's greatest asset - our people." President Michael D. Higgins said " It has been inspiring to read and hear the stories of generosity, imaginative thinking, enormous compassion and often great courage which have been behind the many nominations for this award across the last two decades." BBC Foreign Correspondent Fergal Keane OBE wrote " Nobody would've dared suggest to people at this gathering that they didn't have the right to be Cork people, Irish people and Europeans...as for which mattered the most? can there ever be a doubt in the heart of a true Corkonian?. Acclaimed young writer, author of Only Ever Yours, Asking For It wrote " If one of us succeeds, then all of us do. This is where I will plant my flag. I'm from Cork, like. "