RTE sports commentator and broadcaster Marty Morrissey, who was born in Mount Alvernia Hospital, Mallow, has been named Cork Person of the Month for April, to mark his contribution to sport, especially GAA sport, over the years.
Marty told Brendan O’Connor on a recent Saturday Night Show, “I am very proud of my Cork blood and my Mallow roots, and although a Clareman, I am deeply honoured at receiving this award.”
Mallow’s Michael O’Neill, now living in Dublin but a frequent visitor and activist in Mallow, nominated Marty for the award. “Marty’s mother was Mallow native Peggy Twomey and his father taught at a local Mallow school. The family finally settled in Clare, where Marty’s father came from,” said Mr O’Neill.
Marty Morrissey said, at the recent Cork awards ceremony: “Yes, my father came from West Clare to teach in Mallow and rented a room from the Barrett family, just around the corner from that famous Mallow pub ‘The Mouse Trap.’
He met a young hairdresser who was a cousin of the Barretts, Peggy Twomey, and the couple later emigrated to the Bronx, New York. “However, my mother insisted on coming back to Mallow for me to be born in the local Mount Alvernia Hospital.
“I rang my mother, over in West Clare, to tell her of this award and she was very emotional that her home town and county should honour the family in this way,” added Marty.
Marty returned from Clare to Cork to study at UCC and also got his broadcasting break and start in Cork, with the local Cork Multi-Channel TV and RTE Radio Cork.
His name now goes forward for possible selection as Cork Person of the Year. If chosen, he would be the first person ever to be Clare Man of the Year and Cork Man of the Year in the same year, or indeed any year