Flatleys to be made honorary Corkonians

Lord of the Dance star Michael Flatley and his wife Niamh, are to be made honorary Corkonians.

They will receive their awards on January 16 at the 22nd annual Cork Person of the Year Awards in tribute to their ambassadorial work on behalf of their adopted city and county.

This news was revealed last night by the founder of the awards, Manus O’Callaghan, as a special book was launched in City Hall which traces the 21 years of the event.

He said the Flatleys were also receiving the award for restoring one of the country’s great houses, Castlehyde, near Fermoy, Co Cork. It is now one of their family homes.

They will join Jeremy Irons and David Puttnam and his wife Patsy on the growing list of honorary Corkonians.

The book, 21 Years of the Cork Person of the Year Awards, was written by Irish Examiner correspondent John Daly and features articles on all of the annual winners and many of the 252 who were presented with monthly awards.

It was launched by Lord Mayor Cllr Mary Shields as it was disclosed it had been nominated for the final of the Irish Print Awards, which takes place on November 28.

The book costs €30 and a contribution for each one purchased will go to Marymount Hospice.

Former winners including Chernobyl Children’s Project founder Adi Roche; Angie Benhaffhaf, the mother of previously conjoined twins; and Prof John A Murphy, who attended the ceremony.

Mr O’Callaghan said he got the idea for the awards in 1993 after reading a comment from Roots author Alex Haley who once said, “find the good and praise it”.

Irish Examiner chief executive Tom Murphy said his company was delighted to have a long association of sponsoring the awards and saw them as highlighting “all that is good about Cork”.

He said acknowledging the tremendous work done by people was more important today than ever.

Mr Daly said it was an honour to work on the publication and he was especially delighted to meet people “who worked for no material gain, whether it be with the sick or the destitute. They’re the real heroes”.