Richie Foran headed a late equaliser to give Shelbourne the Super Cup and its £7,000 winners prize. Cork looked to have given themselves a chance of snatching the trophy when Anthony Buckley headed home Alan Carey's cross for the lead on 85 minutes.
But Foran beat Michael Devine with a perfectly placed glancing header after excellent work by the impressive Jonathan Minnock to level three minutes later.
Both sides had their chances in a lively first-half. Gareth Downey, signed by Shelbourne on Saturday, made two excellent stops from Ollie Cahill and Noel Hartigan while Colin O'Brien then hit a post as Cork pressed.
Ex-Derry City captain, Peter Hutton, made an impressive debut for Shelbourne; bringing a fine save from Michael Devine on 24 minutes after troubling the Cork defence with several of his typical surging runs.
Having taken a gradual grip on the game, Shelbourne's Brian Byrne hit a post while Trevor Fitzpatrick flicked a header just wide shortly before the break.
In a dreadfully poor second-half, Downey showed his ability again on 81 minutes with the save of the match from a Mark Herrick free-kick before the goals finally arrived.
SHELBOURNE: Gareth Downey; Heary, Gannon, Doherty, Minnock; R. Baker, Hutton, Crawford, B. Byrne; Fitzpatrick, D. Baker. Subs: Glen Downey for Doherty (half-time), Foran for R. Baker (57 mins.), S. Geoghegan for Fitzpatrick (72 mins.).
CORK CITY: Devine; Carey, O'Rourke, Coughlan, Horgan; O'Brien, Herrick, O'Grady, Cahill; Hartigan, Mulligan. Subs: Daly for O'Brien (55 mins.), Morley for Hartigan (61 mins.), Buckley for O'Grady (75 mins.).
Referee: P. McKeon (Dublin).
Longford Town 2 (O'Connor 11, 39) Bohemians 2 (Meade 18, Nesovic 40)
Cameroon and South Africa became the first qualifiers for the 2002 World Cup yesterday. But while the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon cruised to a 2-0 home win over modest Togo, equally modest Burkina Faso made visiting South Africa sweat a little in a 1-1 draw.
Victory took Cameroon to 18 points in Group A, six more than second-placed Angola, who drew 1-1 in Libya Friday. Each country has one mini-league fixture to fulfil.
South Africa needed only one point to move beyond the reach of Zimbabwe in Group E and for much of a lively duel in Ouagadougou looked likely to collect all three.
Morocco and Tunisia are favoured to fill two of the other three places reserved for Africa. But Group B is set for a thrilling climax this month with outsiders Liberia and Sudan challenging 1994 and 1998 qualifiers Nigeria for first place and a passport to the Far East.
Cameroon brushed aside a coaching reshuffle to outplay Togo and goals from Samuel Eto'o and Marc-Vivien, two of their many Europe-based professionals, ensured maximum points.
The failure of Angola to win in Tripoli left the 2000 African Nations Cup winners needing only a draw to book a fourth consecutive finals appearance, but once Eto'o struck after 28 minutes there was going to be only one result.
It was a welcome return to scoring form for the Spain-based midfielder, whose last goal in the qualifying competition came in the 2-0 away win over Togo last January.
