{"id":255659,"date":"2026-01-24T17:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T17:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/255659\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T17:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T17:12:09","slug":"kabin-studio-king-hits-right-note-as-hes-named-cork-person-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/255659\/","title":{"rendered":"Kabin Studio king hits right note as he\u2019s named Cork Person of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"contextmenu internal_Body1st\">A man who has mentored and recorded the work of young rappers and songwriters has been announced as Cork Person of the Year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Garry McCarthy was given a standing ovation at the 33rd annual awards ceremony in The Metropole Hotel yesterday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Joe Duffy, who stepped down from his role as RT\u00c9  Liveline presenter last year, was named an \u2018honorary Cork person\u2019, while former Barnardos chief executive Fergus Finlay was inducted into the Cork Person of the Year hall of fame.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4943810_1_articleinlinemobile_DK20260123_20CorkPerson_20061.jpg\" alt=\"Fergus Finlay, who was inducted into the Cork Person of the Year hall of fame, speaks at the awards bash.\" title=\"Fergus Finlay, who was inducted into the Cork Person of the Year hall of fame, speaks at the awards bash.\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Fergus Finlay, who was inducted into the Cork Person of the Year hall of fame, speaks at the awards bash.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Mr McCarthy, who leads non-profit community music centre The Kabin Studio in Knocknaheeny, and who is known creatively as GMC, has been a key figure in the music industry for over 20 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">The studio was the birthplace for hit song  The Spark, which received more than 1.5bn views on TikTok and 9m views on YouTube.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">The track was performed by a group of children, many from a direct provision centre in Lisdoonvarna, Co Clare, together with others from the northside of Cork city who attend The Kabin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Mr McCarthy has organised more that 2,500 music workshops through his GMCBeats and Song-in-a-Day projects. These initiatives provide an inclusive environment for young people to express themselves and gain experience with recording technology.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">His work includes virtually mentoring international artists and composing the soundtrack for the award-winning film  Christy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cI\u2019m shocked with this, especially with the amount of legends in this room,\u201d Mr McCarthy said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\n            \u201cI love working with the kids and now even the grandparents are rapping in Knocknaheeny. It\u2019s like one big family up there,\u201d .\n        <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4943813_1_articleinlinemobile_DK20260123_20CorkPerson_20078.jpg\" alt=\"Joe Duffy, recipient of the honorary Cork person award, with the Lord Mayor of Cork, councillor\u00a0 \u00a0Fergal Dennehy, and Mayor of County Cork councillor\u00a0 Mary Linehan Foley. Picture: Darragh Kane\" title=\"Joe Duffy, recipient of the honorary Cork person award, with the Lord Mayor of Cork, councillor\u00a0 \u00a0Fergal Dennehy, and Mayor of County Cork councillor\u00a0 Mary Linehan Foley. Picture: Darragh Kane\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Joe Duffy, recipient of the honorary Cork person award, with the Lord Mayor of Cork, councillor\u00a0 \u00a0Fergal Dennehy, and Mayor of County Cork councillor\u00a0 Mary Linehan Foley. Picture: Darragh Kane<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">He was chosen as the winner by the judges, the chief executives of Cork City Council and Cork County Council, Valerie O\u2019Sullivan and Moira Murrell, and was presented with his award jointly by Lord Mayor of Cork Fergal Dennehy and Mayor of Co Cork Mary Linehan-Foley.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4943816_1_articleinlinemobile_DK20260123_20CorkPerson_20060.jpg\" alt=\"Marty Morrissey, RT\u00c9 with Joe Mac who was the recipient of the Supreme Cork Award at the Cork Person of the Year Award in the Metropole Hotel. \" title=\"Marty Morrissey, RT\u00c9 with Joe Mac who was the recipient of the Supreme Cork Award at the Cork Person of the Year Award in the Metropole Hotel. \" class=\"card-img\"\/>Marty Morrissey, RT\u00c9 with Joe Mac who was the recipient of the Supreme Cork Award at the Cork Person of the Year Award in the Metropole Hotel. <\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Meanwhile, The Dixies drummer Joe Mac, who is approaching his 90th birthday, was presented with a \u2018supreme Cork\u2019 award in recognition of his decades of contributions to Cork music.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">This surprise presentation was made by previous Cork Person of the Year winner Shane Casey, aka Billy Murphy of  The Young Offenders.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Joe Mac said he was \u201coverwhelmed\u201d by the honour. He proceeded to tell a few jokes and then said: \u201cI have to sit down, I\u2019m shagged.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who has mentored and recorded the work of young rappers and songwriters has been announced as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[27983,135544,146,85,46,409],"class_list":["post-255659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-cork-news","tag-cork-person-of-the-year","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}