The Cork Person of the Year 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.
| Year | Winner | Contribution | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Sr. Colette Hickey | Homeless Charity | |
| 1994 | Dr. Michael Mortell | UCC Leadership | |
| 1995 | John Bermingham | Cope Foundation | |
| 1996 | Barry Galvin | CAB | |
| 1997 | Paddy Comerford | Theatre | |
| 1998 | Kevin Downing | Overcoming Disability | |
| 1999 | GAA | ||
| 2000 | Athletics | ||
| 2001 | Business | ||
| 2002 | Founder and chief executive of the Chernobyl Children International (1991) | ||
| 2003 | Fr. Sean Healy | Social Justice | |
| 2004 | Sport [3] | ||
| 2005 | Prof. John A. Murphy | History | |
| 2006 | Dan Donovan | Theatre | |
| 2007 | John Fitzpatrick | Choral Festival | |
| 2008 | Adventure | ||
| 2009 | Conor Buckley | Business | |
| 2010 | Paddy O’Brien | Over-60s Talent | |
| 2011 | Liam Casey | Business | |
| 2012 | Bill Deasy | Community | |
| 2013 | Rob Heffernan | Athletics [4] |