With Swifts needing to win by seven goals, Cork ended any hope of an unlikely comeback by taking a fourth minute lead when Colin O'Brien headed powerfully home from six yards following Ray Lally's corner from the left.

Denis Behan added a second on 35 minutes to put Cork in cruise control.

Skipper Dan Murray sent Cillian Lordan away down the right to cross and Behan headed home his eighth goal in the competition.

Swifts pulled a goal back on 65 minutes when Shane McCabe's shot from Rory Hamill's short free-kick took a deflection off Murray to wrong foot Mark McNulty in the Cork goal and enter the net.

To compound Swifts' misery, keeper David Wells was sent off on 82 minutes for handling the ball outside his area.