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Scramble for JP McManus’s millions begins

Clubs across the country are debating how the cash should be allocated

JP McManus has been a long-time supporter of the GAA, especially in his native Limerick, but also further afield. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho

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Cantillon
Sat Dec 16 2023 - 06:00

When it emerged that businessman JP McManus was giving every GAA county board in the country €1 million, the initial response was wonder. Even in Ireland’s bullish economy, writing cheques for €32 million will still get you noticed.

It quickly emerged that the money was intended not for the county boards themselves but for distribution to every club.

Splitting the latest cash evenly across clubs within a county would mean windfalls for each club of between €2,500 and €30,000 in round figures, depending on how many clubs are registered in the county. In bigger counties with more clubs, the figure will be at the lower end: a few smaller counties in the midwest will be among the biggest beneficiaries.

For a club like Ballaghaderreen, based just inside the Mayo border and answerable to the Mayo County Board, but an integral part of the village of the same name that lies inside Roscommon, that distinction will cost it about €7,000.

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Unsurprisingly then, as soon as the first wave of wonder died down, club treasurers across the country were crunching the numbers to see just how much would come their way. Would clubs with both hurling and football teams get a bigger share of the spoils that those just playing one or other code? And would it not be fairer to distribute the largesse according to club size – with those having greater numbers of players or members benefiting disproportionately – or to those that are more active?

There is no such thing as a “fair way” to manage such windfalls. Small clubs will argue their need is greater as many struggle to survive and to provide facilities in parishes across the country. Larger clubs will claim that they need more money by virtue of the higher costs that go with running bigger clubs.

McManus understood this. Hence his decision to accompany each letter with criteria on how the money should be disbursed, although at least one county officer said, “the letter dictates quite clearly ‘what’ to do, but not how”.

The bottom line is that all will receive funding that would not otherwise have come their way.

But even that is seen in places as a two-edged sword. Already, in the background, there are murmurings within some county boards that the windfall millions and the headlines that have come with them will create problems down the line as counties approach sponsors.

Separately, the businessman’s gifts reopen the wider debate about non-residents, tax and the growing practice of the very wealthy to control the destiny of any surplus they choose to return to society rather than trusting the state with its management.

All of which proves once again that there’s a price to be paid for everything in this world.

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