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.
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.
In December 1976 Joe married Patricia Morgan, in 1983 the first of their five sons was born, they are Stephen, Aaron, Tony, Paul & Ross.
Kernan made his senior Armagh playing debut in a Dr McKenna Cup game against Donegal in 1971.
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.
In 1980 Kernan won another Ulster medal with Armagh; however, his side were later beaten by Roscommon in the All-Ireland semi-final.
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.
This win allowed them to advance to an All-Ireland quarter-final meeting with Sligo; however, no Armagh team had won a championship game in Croke Park in twenty-five years.
During his half-time speech he pulled the second of those famous stunts when he produced his runners-up plaque from the 1977 All-Ireland final and smashed it in the dressing room.
[3] In Kernan's five seasons in charge, Armagh played 36 Championship games and lost just seven of them, winning 23 and drawing six.
[5] However, in August 2010, he resigned after a very unsuccessful year with the result of Galway getting knocked out of the championship early by being defeated by Wexford.
[6][7] In late March 2015, Kernan was appointed manager of the Ireland international rules football team for the 2015 Series against Australia.