Joe Kernan

Joe Kernan (born 8 April 1954) is an Irish former sportsperson who played Gaelic football for his local club Crossmaglen Rangers and at senior level for the Armagh county team.

Joe Kernan was born in Dublin, in 1954.

in the 1970s and 1980s.

He won five senior county championship titles between 1971 and 1988.

Kernan made his senior Armagh playing debut in a Dr McKenna Cup game against Donegal in 1971.

In December 1976 Joe married Patricia Morgan, in 1983 the first of their five sons was born, they are Stephen, Aaron, Tony, Paul & Ross.

The four eldest boys are well known due to their successes in football with Crossmaglen Rangers and they are on the Armagh panel.

Kernan played his club football with the Crossmaglen Rangers team and, in time, would become one of the most celebrated players with the club.

Kernan also won two National Football League Division 2 in 1976 and 1979.

Awarded All Stars in 1977 and 1982, he is the former manager of Armagh's senior football team, and led them to the 2002 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship title, their first before retiring in July 2007 after the team lost to Derry.

He later managed Ulster and the Ireland international rules team.

It took until 1977 for Kernan to have his first major success when he won his first Ulster title.

Armagh later played Dublin in the All-Ireland final; however, in spite of Kernan scoring two goals, he still ended up on the losing side.

Kernan earned an All-Star award for his performances that year.

In the end he decided to stay in Crossmaglen and in the 1980s he ran a bar in the town.

In 1980 Kernan won another Ulster medal with Armagh; however, his side were later beaten by Roscommon in the All-Ireland semi-final.

A third provincial medal was claimed by Kernan in 1982; however, Armagh fell at the All-Ireland semi-final stage once again.

In spite of this he was still presented with a second All-Star award.

Kernan continued playing until 1987 when he retired after an Ulster final defeat to Derry.

It was his sixth provincial final appearance overall.

Kernan retired from club football in 1988.

In 1989 Kernan got a first taste of inter-county management when he served as assistant to the Armagh manager, Paddy Moriarty.

After Armagh were beaten by the eventual Ulster champions in 1989, 1990 and 1991 Moriarty decided to resign as manager and Kernan also walked away.

He closed the pub in the early 1990s and currently works as a self-employed estate agent and mortgage broker.

In 1993 Kernan became manager of Crossmaglen Rangers.

At the time Crossmaglen football was at an all-time low.

Three years later in 1996, after the club had won four under-21 county titles in-a-row, Kernan guided the senior side to a first county championship in 11 years.

Crossmaglen went on to claim the Ulster club title before defeating Knockmore to win the 1997 All-Ireland club title.

In 1997 and 1998 Kernan guided Crossmaglen to two further county titles.

The latter win was later converted into a second set of Ulster and All-Ireland titles.

In 1999 Cross captured a fourth county title in-a-row as well as a second successive Ulster title.

On St. Patricks Day, 2000 Kernan's side went on to win a third All-Ireland title in four years.

Following this victory Kernan decided to retire from club management.

In November 2001, Kernan was appointed manager of the Armagh senior football team.

No stone was left unturned in preparing the team.

The second son in a family of three boys and two girls, his father died when he was just 11 years old and his mother died in late 2007.

Kernan was educated locally and later boarded in Omeath and then attended the Abbey Christian Brothers Grammar School in Newry.

Following his secondary education there were few employment prospects in Northern Ireland and Kernan considered emigrating to Australia where three of his siblings had already gone.

A biography of his story was published in 2011 called Joe Kernan: Without a Shadow of Doubt.

He would later return in 2013.