'It feels like I’ve won the lotto': Joe Duffy's delight at being named honorary Cork person

Shandon St has been celebrating its recent good fortune, but one Dubliner has told The Echo that he feels like he’s also won the lottery.

RTÉ’s Joe Duffy, who finishes up as Liveline presenter on Friday after 37 years, is to be named an honorary Cork person at next January’s Cork Person of the Year annual gala awards lunch, in recognition of his contribution to broadcasting over his career.

“It feels like I’ve won the lotto after a 37-year rollover,” he said.

“I love Cork, love Patrick St, love Oliver Plunkett St, love UCC, I just love the city, love the buzz, love the people, although I can’t find any Cork connections.

“I have the unusual distinction that my parents were both born within the two canals of Dublin.”

Mr Duffy said he had made some very memorable programmes from Cork, and had “loads of great characters” ringing in over the years.

He has many great friends in Cork, he said, among them poet Theo Dorgan, film festival pioneer Mick Hannigan, and Taoiseach Micheál Martin, whom he has known since their student days.

“I was president of the Union of Students of Ireland and Micheál was president of UCC students union. We’ve marched up and down Patrick St many an afternoon about grants and medical cards.”

To mark his investiture as an honorary Leesider, Mr Duffy will be presented with a Republic of Cork passport and a commemorative piece of Cork Crystal at the Cork Person of the Year event in January.

“It’s a great honour, I was absolutely chuffed, I was genuinely taken aback, in a lovely way, I said yes immediately before they changed their mind,” he added. “The only thing is, do I have to wear a Cork jersey?”

Awards organiser and founder Manus O’Callaghan said Mr Duffy was one of Ireland’s great broadcasters.

“In lending a compassionate ear to his Liveline listeners for the past 37 years, he has given voice to many and shed light on innumerable significant societal issues,” he said.