Apex Employee nominated for Cork Person of the Year 2008

Mon 26th Jan 2009

PRESS RELEASE.

Apex Employee nominated for Cork Person of the Year 2008

RTE Senior Newsreader Anne Doyle, together with MEP Brian Crowley, will M.C., Cork’s Gala Awards event on Jan 23rd next, when the Cork Person of the Year for 2008 will be announced, at a lunch in the Sheraton Fota Island Hotel, Cork.

Over the past year Persons of the Month have been chosen, and the Person of the Year will be selected from this group. Judges are Cork City Manager Joe Gavin, Cork County Manager Martin Riordan and Hon., Chairman is Bishop John Buckley.

“This is the 16th year of these awards, and we have a great line up of nominees this year” said Awards Organiser Manus O’Callaghan.

“The guiding philosophy of these awards is to honour achievement and celebrate success so that others may be inspired to follow” added Manus O’Callaghan.

Past winners of the Cork Person of the Year included Barry Galvin, Jimmy Barry Murphy, Adi Roche, Roy Keane and Prof. John A. Murphy.

This year’s Persons of the Month, and Person of the Year nominees are as follows:

January:- Pat Falvey & Dr. Clare O’Leary - the ‘Beyond Endurance’ Antarctic team to mark their historic 1140 k., walk, over 58 days, to the South Pole.

February: Tom McCarthy - on this, the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Irish Credit Union League, we mark Tom’s 40 plus years of voluntary service to the league.

March:- Fr. James McSweeney - innovative parish work in city northside parishes that captured the imagination of young and old alike, such as a live animal crib at Christmas and spreading his love of nature through books, calendars and the web.

April: John Spillane - for his work in promoting Cork through his unique songs in Irish and English, this singer/songwriter maps our social history with songs such as Dunnes Stores Girl & Johnny Don’t go to Ballincollig.

May: Anne Cleary - for empowering young people to take leadership in helping others, through her work as a youth leader with the Presentation Brothers Edmund Rice Action Movement. June: Niamh Gunn - the work of law hero Niamh, uncovered the evidence to set Walter Swift free from an American jail, after serving 26 years for a crime he did not commit.

July: Ronan O’Gara - a glittering rugby career this year, including the Heineken Cup win and helping to establish the famous Munster brand throughout Ireland and beyond..

August: Eleanor O’Sullivan - this young Ballymakeera girl believes in direct action to help the disadvantaged, and travelled alone to India to distribute clothes and help in children’s orphanages in Calcutta.

September: Tony Hegarty - celebrating his 60 year career in Cork theatre through cabaret, pantos, plays, musicals and The Swans. He’s worked as a performer, promoter and producer in every Cork theatre since the late 1940’s, and is very much a Cork comedian..

October: Tom Butler (Apex Fire Ltd) - represents the best in volunteerism, through his work with Tidy Towns, School Boards, Credit Union, Residents Association, Scouts, Business Groups & Church. A great community activist especially through his leadership of the Tidy Town committee.

November:- Gerry O’Sullivan - Professor O’Sullivan was recently awarded an honorary fellowship by the American College of Surgeons for his work, which includes the Cork Cancer Research Centre, one of the leading cancer research centres in Europe..

December: Martin O’Donnell - as honorary chairman and medical officer Dr. Martin B. O’Donnell has maintained and enhanced the range of services for people with disabilities at St. Joseph’s Foundation, Charleville, which he helped found exactly 40 years ago in December 1968.

ENDS Further information available from Manus O’Callaghan, Awards Organiser 086-2526476

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