Remember the thrill of opening a Christmas card and finding a note fluttering out? Imagine then being a GAA County Board Chair today when letters began arriving containing a cheque for €1 million from JP and Noreen McManus and their family.
When the Limerick Billionaire last distributed largesse in this manner it was to the tune of €100,000 each in the wake of Limerick’s generational breakthrough in winning the All Ireland Senior Hurling Championship.
This time around the generosity is on a scale that irish sport can rarely if ever even dreamt of.
There is a stipulation that this is for each club playing Gaelic games and that the GAA will be asked to distribute on an inclusive basIs to clubs playing under their, the LGFA and the Camogie banner.
It is also requested that the money is distributed to clubs by a deadline of January 31st, making this a very immediate shot in the arm for clubs.
“With Limerick’s success in the GAA in recent years, we have seen the joy that this can bring on and off the field and how it enhances the spirit, camaraderie and confidence of communities, urban and rural,” said the McManuses in the letter.
“My family and I greatly value the spirit and meaning of community and our GAA, Camogie and Ladies Gaelic Football clubs who are at the heart of communities right throughout the island.”
The money is to be spent on initiatives that enhance the role of the clubs within communities with an emphasis on wellbeing and the broader social good rather than on team preparation.
The GAA and the LGFA have both issued statements thanking the McManus family for their generosity, which while understood to have been a while in the planning was only notified to recipients in the last 24 hours.
The original story was broken by Philip Lanigan in the irish Daily Mail and Extra.ie.
A number of politicians have already questioned McManus’s donation suggesting it would be more valuable if he paid more tax in this country.
He lives in Limerick and is very much of the county though he can only spend a certain number of nights in the country due to tax planning.
His Golf Pro-Am at Adare Manor is understand to have raised almost €150 million for local charities across the mid-west.
Given that little or none of his fortune, derived from financial trading, emanates from Ireland it does seem remarkably churlish to question his generosity but there will always be some who prefer to throw stones rather than bouquets.
The money is equal for every county meaning that Leitrim with only a few clubs will be able to distribute proportionally more than the Cork or Dublin County Boards but this really is a Christmas gift for clubs the length and breadth of the nation.
And if some are wondering how it might best be spent we will have news tomorrow morning of a report into the value of the Irish Life and Health Ireland backed Healthy Club initiative, the timing of which could be most serendipitous.
JP McManus was given a lifetime achievement at last year’s Irish Sport Industry Awards and at last year’s Horse Racing Ireland Awards.
