Stephen Kenny has been named as the Airtricity/Soccer Writers’ Association of Ireland Personality of the Year following a campaign in which he rounded off a remarkable rebuilding job at Dundalk by leading the club to the title.

The 43-year-old admitted recently that he had considered walking away from the game in September 2012 when he was dismissed by Shamrock Rovers, but instead he took the job at Oriel Park two months later and set about completely transforming the club’s fortunes.

A young and attack-minded team led the Premier League for most of the 2014 campaign but failed to wrap things up before a final-night clash with Cork City in which the southerners ended up needing only to avoid defeat in order to lift the title. Dundalk held their nerve, though, and won well on the night to lift the title, Kenny’s first since 2003, although he also won his fifth League Cup last year.

While Cork missed out, goalkeeper Mark McNulty was recognised the country’s football reporters for his role in keeping them in the title race until the very end and Liam Tuohy, himself a winner of the personality award back in 1966, was given the association’s Special Merit award.