Cork City Sports Meet Director Joe Hartnett was named May Cork Person of the Month to mark his voluntary work with the Cork City Sports International Athletics Committee over the years.

Joe Hartnett’s expertise involves working with sports agents, athletes and administrators in European and World Athletics governing bodies. Through making such valuable contacts he was able to successfully steer Cork City Sports to become part of the prestigious World Athletics Continental Tour last year. Thanks to his work, Cork City Sports was the first athletics meeting to achieve this high status in Ireland, both north and south.

Cork is now officially the highest ranked athletics meeting on the island of Ireland and is also ranked in the top 8% of meetings throughout the world.  In short, Joe Hartnett negotiates the deals that bring the best athletes to Cork and he has to do it on a very limited budget in a very difficult and competitive marketplace. Cork City Sports has been running for seventy years and the next meeting takes place in July 2024 – unfortunately, the 2023 meet had to be cancelled due to ongoing resurfacing work on the MTU athletics track. 

In his younger years Joe competed in athletics at international level and is still ranked at number five on the Irish all-time list for the 3000m steeplechase. He was Irish Universities Champion also in the 3000m and represented Ireland on road and track from 1978 to 1985.

Joe Hartnett was a well known teacher at Social Stiofain Naofa and also helped transition the school into a College of Further Education (CSN).

Joe Hartnett’s name will now go forward, with the other Persons of Month chosen this year, for possible selection as Cork Person of the Year at an awards function to be held in January next.