A native of Cork city, Dr. Sean Pettit was a secondary teacher at Midleton College before he was appointed a Lecturer at University College Cork in 1970, a post which he held until his retirement 31 years later – he never once missed a day. His motto has always been: “Aoíblinn Beath an Scolaire”.
He decided to place whatever talent he had at the service of the wider community in extra-mural. He had a lucky break when he was invited by RTE local radio, “Corkabout” to give a weekly talk on Cork history. A second opportunity arose when he was invited by the “Cork Evening Echo” newspaper to write a weekly series of articles on Cork. From both of these came a flurry of requests to conduct Walking Tours of the City and give talks. Dr. Pettit has taken hundreds of school parties, community groups, business people and the general public out and about in Cork and continues to do so.
In 1972, he was conferred with Degree of Master of Arts with First Class Honours; in 1975 he was conferred with Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) while in 1985, during the Cork 800 Celebrations, he received a Media Award for promoting Cork on TV and Radio as well as a Public Speaker of the Year Award.

Publications:
1976: “This City of Cork” which quickly went out of print and is now regarded as a work of reference.

Popular Publications:
“The Streets of Cork”
“Cork City Tourist Trail”
“My City by the Lee” – at the request of the Department of Education. A copy was presented to every primary school in Cork city and county by the Department.
“Blarney Castle – The Story of a Legend”
“A Pilgrim Trial? In Cork”.

In 2002, Dr. Pettit received the Lord Mayor’s Award (Cllr. Tom O’Driscoll) for “generating a huge interest in local history among all ages”.

His most recent publication in 2012 is “Doing the London Walk”.

His most recent public engagement was Guest Speaker at the Annual Cork Rotary President’s Dinner on the 15th May 2015.
Dr. Pettit extends his grateful thanks to a quartet of versatile writers from the “Irish Examiner” and “Evening Echo”: Walter McGrath, George Cronin, Maureen Fox and Tim Cramer.

For Dr. Pettit, whatever service he has given has already been richly rewarded by the generous response of the people of Cork, who have joined him in celebrating the life and times of our beautiful City in places great and small.