Cork’s ambition to become a stronger national and international sporting destination took another step forward at the National Rowing Centre in Farran, on Friday morning, where the latest Cork Sport 2040 gathering focused on Ireland’s new approach to sports diplomacy.
The meeting followed on from an initial session at Páirc Uí Chaoimh in March and brought together representatives from sport, business, tourism, government, education and local agencies.
The initiative is being coordinated and driven by Maeve Buckley of Leading Sport, Sinéad O’Keeffe of Cork GAA and Rob Hartnett of Sport for Business.
The central question was how Cork can organise its sporting assets, facilities and networks into a stronger proposition for hosting events, building international connections and delivering lasting economic and social impact.
Matt McKerrow, Interim CEO of Rowing Ireland, welcomed the group to the National Rowing Centre and outlined how recent investment has helped develop the Farran facility into a high-performance environment.
He pointed to the addition of athlete support spaces, a commercial kitchen, lounge, gym, boathouse, hot-desk facilities, and a heat chamber as part of a wider ambition to give athletes in Cork a standard of support comparable to that available at the Sport Ireland Institute in Dublin.
The meeting then moved to a recap of the Cork Sport 2040 work to date, with four core themes emerging from the March session: positioning Cork as a destination for national and international sporting events; auditing and developing facilities; using sport to drive participation and inclusion; and building stronger collaboration between public and private stakeholders.
Those themes were given added relevance by a major sporting weekend in Cork, with Páirc Uí Chaoimh hosting the Republic of Ireland women’s international against the Netherlands, Cork facing Armagh in the TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Football Championship, and the Munster Hurling Final between Cork and Limerick also taking place in the city.
The main policy presentation came from representatives of the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport and Robert O’Driscoll, Director of the Global Ireland Unit at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
They outlined the thinking behind Ireland’s new International Sports Diplomacy Strategy, which contains 68 actions and seeks to use sport more deliberately as a tool for international engagement, trade, tourism, diaspora connections, and reputation-building.
They said the strategy builds on a period of major government investment in sport since the launch of the National Sports Policy in 2018, alongside a pipeline of major events including the Ryder Cup in 2027, UEFA Euro 2028, the potential Women’s Champions League Final in 2029 and the Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup in 2030.
They added that sport gives Ireland a powerful calling card overseas and recalled how Ireland’s cricket win over England at the 2011 World Cup had an immediate effect on awareness of Ireland in parts of the world where cricket carries major cultural weight.
The strategy will include a sports diplomacy fund of around €1 million over five years, a Global Ireland Sporting Leaders Initiative, a network of Irish sports administrators working internationally, and a major international conference on sports diplomacy.
For Cork, the discussion quickly moved to how the city and county can plug into that national strategy.
There was strong support in the room for Cork to create a more coordinated structure for pursuing sporting events, rather than relying on individual organisations to pitch separately.
The need for a single point of contact, or at least a clearly organised local structure, was raised by several speakers, with Cork City Council, Cork County Council, Cork Sports Partnership, Cork Chamber, Cork Convention Bureau, MTU, UCC and local sporting organisations all identified as potential contributors.
Cork Chamber highlighted the economic value of sporting events and the importance of linking sport more closely with the business community. The impact of events on hotels, hospitality, transport, local businesses and wider regional activity was a recurring theme.
The tourism opportunity was also explored, with the point made that Cork has capacity at certain times of the year, particularly during the summer, when university accommodation and sporting facilities may be more available.
Páirc Uí Chaoimh was discussed as a key asset, not only for GAA but as a venue that can host international soccer, rugby, concerts and other sporting occasions. The Ireland women’s international was cited as an example of how the stadium can reach diverse audiences and support Cork’s broader positioning as an open, ambitious sporting city.
There was also a strong view that Cork should not focus only on the biggest events. Niche sports, women’s sport, student sport, emerging sports, and second-tier international events were all identified as opportunities for Cork to build a reputation and develop capability over time.
The role of universities was another important strand of the discussion. MTU, UCC and the wider higher education sector were seen as central to Cork’s offer, through facilities, international links, student accommodation, research capacity and alumni networks.
Sanctuary Runners was referenced as an example of a Cork-born initiative that has grown internationally by combining sport, inclusion, values and storytelling. That values-led dimension was seen as an important part of Ireland’s broader sports-diplomacy proposition.
There was also discussion of the diaspora and philanthropy, particularly in the United States, where emotional ties to Ireland and Cork can potentially support investment in sporting infrastructure and programmes, provided the proposition is clear and compelling.
One of the strongest messages from the room was that Cork should see itself not simply as another regional location, but as Ireland’s second-city region with the potential to complement Dublin in a national sporting events strategy.
The meeting closed with a call to create a smaller working group to drive Cork Sport 2040 forward. The next steps are likely to include identifying where the group should be housed, who should be involved, what projects should be prioritised, and how Cork can feed into the next National Sports Policy.
The sense from the morning was that Cork already has many of the ingredients: facilities, universities, clubs, governing bodies, businesses, tourism assets, international links and powerful sporting stories.
The task now is to connect those dots and turn them into a coherent proposition for Cork, for Irish sport, and for Ireland’s place in the world.
Leading Sport, the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport, Cork GAA, MTU, Athletics Ireland, and Rowing Ireland are full members of Sport for Business.
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