He's lived in a plush restored castle in Cork for many years now, so it’s only fitting that Michael Flatley was awarded with an honorary Corkman award at the annual Cork Person of the Year shindig last week.

"The Lord of the Dance" creator/star, still thrilling audiences on the show’s current European tour which is due to touch down in Dublin and Belfast at the end of March, said that no place in the world can compare to Cork.

“They have treated us so warmly since the very first day we arrived,” he said.

“I have lived in a lot of places – Beverly Hills, the south of France – but no place has ever been as inspiring to me as walking on the banks of the Blackwater. There is something in the land, the air, in the people – there is something very motivational.”

Chicago native Flatley received his honor from actor Jeremy Irons, another non-native Corkonian who calls the Rebel County home.