JP McManus to donate 1 million to each county. Greatest gesture in the GAA ever? What's your take?

evolvingtipperary101

Businessman JP McManus is to donate €1 million to Gaelic games in every county in Ireland.

The money is to be used equally in support of men's football, women's football, hurling and camogie.

The donation is expected to arrive to each county in the coming days.

Sources close to McManus have refused to comment on the story but Limerick GAA have already welcomed receipt of €1m.

brokenbad

Great news for GAA in all counties - as long as the money is invested appropriately, in the right manner and there is governance and transparency regarding same.

kirk.

Irelands answer to Robin Hood

TheRiverman

JP is one of our greatest ever Irishmen. Hopefully all counties outside Limerick appreciate and spend it properly for what it is intended for. Limerick already have and will continue to benefit greatly from his wonderful generosity.

Quitelife

32 million just like that, obviously the man is loaded but this is an incredible act of generosity and will make huge differences to GAA clubs all over Ireland .

Don’t see some of the other billionaires like Larry Goodman , John Magner giving anything to anyone , Denis O Brien give plenty to the FAI to be fair but nothing of this level .

Tommysocks11

Ha ha Larry Goodman too busy ripping off the poor farmers in this country, miserable hungry little man, well done jp, fair generous gesture out of you, u put the rest of them to shame

JVince

Great gesture and he will probably not make comment. There are many charities that receive equally substantial contributions from him on condition of anonymity.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121494529#Comment_121494529

The Magnier Family have been extremely generous to people in their locality. You just have to look at Fethard Town Park to see what they contribute.

Mantis Toboggan

Got to love those Swiss taxes, nice gesture all the same, plenty of people don't pay a cent in tax but still give nothing back.

waterwelly

Won't be long now until the "but he's a tax dodger living in Switzerland" brigade arrive on.

Mantis Toboggan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121494578#Comment_121494578

But he does dodge paying tax by living in Switzerland, don't think we need a brigade to figure that one out!

Glenomra

The greatest living Irish person imo. Acknowledging the work the GAA does in local communities is the principal point imo. Well done JP.

Quitelife

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121494553#Comment_121494553

i was informed by a local in the past - sports club asked for donations in the past and got nothing but maybe they were wrong .

larry Goodman definitely wouldn’t give anything , he doesn’t want to pay the farmers or the taxman and the conditions in his meat factories misfortunes from Brazil , Latvia etc endure for minimal wage is a utter disgrace .

NIMAN

Is there any tax involved in this? Or will each board get it tax free?

ucd.1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121494685#Comment_121494685

Tax free.

Gusser09

It's a great gesture. Some will find a reason to criticise or knock him but this will be massive in terms of development. Especially for the smaller counties.

Well done JP. He hasn't forgotten his roots.

blackbox

I'm with the tax dodger brigade.

I'd far prefer to see him paying taxes like a normal citizen rather than being a tax exile.

We'd all love to pick and choose where our tax money is spent but it's a much fairer system where we democratically elect a government to distribute our taxes.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121494640#Comment_121494640

I'm afraid they were quite wrong. The rugby was always using land belong to Coolmore until the new town park provided them with a top-of-the-range syntehtic pitch to use in conjunction with the GAA club.

I know people on committees in the area and they have mentioned that Coolmore will not 100% fund a project in the locality, if they did, the clubs would have everything without having to put in any work. They have no problem 70/80% fund a project if the receiving party can come up with the balance.

Quitelife

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121494720#Comment_121494720

I don’t like tax evasion but he’s probably giving the same money back into the Irish system albeit to stuff he’s interested in be that many charities in the mid west and indeed all over ireland and he obviously has a huge interest in GAA and horse racing luckily enough for those sports . The Irish government squander so much money he’s probably doing a better job .

Compare that to Larry Scrooge pay no one Goodman and his Luxembourg tax evasion model .

Fair play to him, no doubt it’s badly needed in some countys.

Tax dodger? Give it a rest, we would all do the same because they get plenty of it anyway & would only waste it on nothing!

blackbox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121494763#Comment_121494763

I can't argue against the government wasting money, but at least they are the people we have elected. How much does JP McManus waste?

How much of this money going to the GAA will be wasted?

Fair play to him. People moan about his tax status but he does a lot more good with his money for this country than our poxy government would ever do with it.

niallpatrick

Yep fair play and not many would make the same donation or any donation, I'd love to have that kind of wealth (who wouldn't?) and in these times of austerity you've got miserable sods as CEO's and employers working their staff to misery and not giving them a bonus. Anyone who dips into their own personal bank account to give donations is a quare fella/lady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121494911#Comment_121494911

Yeah Hutch is well known for his philanthropy alright 🤔

lisasimpson

For counties like Letrim,Carlow that's some donation.

What's he going to do if Limerick manage the famous 5 in a row

Hank the DJ

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121494911#Comment_121494911

That's a hell of an accusation to make against JP, I'm sure you have plenty to back it up.

lisasimpson

That's some insult to the man comparing him to hutch.

Throwing crumbs. I suggest you take a tour of the Midwest I'm not from Limerick. The amount he has given the hospital for example, the various equipment etc he has funded for it, has funded significant amount into facilities in UL just to name a few.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121494911#Comment_121494911

Troll

gormdubhgorm

My first thought was how many of those 32 counties will waste the money and show how unprepared they are to do some long term planning?

It will be interesting to come back to this in 10 years time and see if many of the counties used the money with any level of foresight and astuteness. Or alternatively filtered away the money on white elephants etc

KaneToad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121494578#Comment_121494578

I'm definitely one of those. McManus has benefitted hugely from the the Irish tax payer but doesn't contribute himself. He funds his pet projects to boost his ego.

munchkin_utd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121495264#Comment_121495264

my reading of it is that €0 stays with the county boards, its to be passed on in full to camogie, ladies football, hurling and gaelic football clubs.

So the only white elephant you might get is a fence or something at a club ground.

jm08

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121494720#Comment_121494720

Isn't his main business currency trading and is based it is based in Switzerland. Funds generated from that business is invested in Ireland. He has businesses all over the world and is probably paying tax there anyway. Would you prefer if he just lived in Limerick and probably would not have the funds to generate jobs in Ireland (ie, Adare Manor which is probably a loss maker anyway) and he is bringing the Ryder Cup to Ireland which will put a lot of money into everyone's pockets.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121495264#Comment_121495264

Pretty sure it will have to be spread evenly to every club like last time.

Limerick GAAs tweet would suggest that is the method again this time.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121495268#Comment_121495268

If he doesn't live here why should he pay taxes here?

Snooker Loopy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121495259#Comment_121495259

Yeah, anybody who doesn't grovel at the altar of a rapacious currency speculator is a troll.

You can see how Donald Trump and Elon Musk developed their vast armies of cretinous fanbois.

Tug the forelock, now, doff your cap, take the soup.

coolbeans

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121494553#Comment_121494553

Magnier does feck all save rip out thousands of kilometres of hedgerows throughout Tipp. There's a lot of resentment toward them. Land is near impossible to buy too. People love that.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121495318#Comment_121495318

Gerry Hutch, Donald Trump, Elon Musk 🤣 Anyone else while you're at it? I must have a search through twitter for this supposed army of right wing Limerick based McManus "followers"!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121495358#Comment_121495358

Apt username!

keeponhurling

32 million big ones !

TheRiverman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121494911#Comment_121494911

Can you back up that ludicrous comment ?

arctictree

To be honest, a great way of charitable giving. Would be about 25K to each club in my own county. Would be mostly spent on equipment, transport, gear etc.. If you donated a similar amount to a large charity, how much would go on salaries, admin etc?

Snooker Loopy

At least DJ Carey can now be assured his cancer treatment in the US will be funded.

realdanbreen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121495318#Comment_121495318

You sound like one of those knobs that go into libraries with the camera phone out shouting and roaring !

DJIMI TRARORE

Rumour going round that Cavan is to be split in two

Stanley 1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121495315#Comment_121495315

But he does live here, built the largest gaff seen in Ireland for a 100 years.

Personally do not believe someone in Shannon is clocking him in and out on a daily basis.

Stanley 1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121495465#Comment_121495465

By who............

realdanbreen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121495498#Comment_121495498

Actually everything in your post is wrong, how did you manage to do that!

Stanley 1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121495512#Comment_121495512

Feel free to expand.

Strumms

I literally have no opinion on the man. Couldn’t care less.

but I value that in a democracy, people should have the right to do what the fûck they want with their own cash….

if he wants to buy an umbrella and a hot dog for every citizen here, let him at it.

he wants to fund the GAA, it’s a democracy, he should be allowed.

He’s dammed if he does, dammed if he doesn’t…

he’s a billionaire…. If he wants to bankroll GAA clubs, athletics, soccer, cricket, snooker, basketball, so what ?

Me personally, if I had his wealth I’d probably invest in other areas of sport closer to my heart and interests… and to be honest if certain people saw fit to criticise me for spending / giving away my money how I wished, I’d just be 🖕🏻😵‍💫🖕🏻

Stormyteacup

Agree, there are some clubs well placed for sponsorship and some not. This gives all clubs hopefully, a boost to fund the essentials, without the usual percentage absorption into admin costs.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121495452#Comment_121495452

Fair play to him - 32 mil a drop in the ocean for healthcare and education, and most likely would swallowed by fees and regulatory costs etc.

I have a sense that this is in response to the recent riots, in part. Having grassroots sports clubs and facilities properly funded and accessible, will go a long way to engender community pride, community cohesion, purpose, and ambition throughout Ireland (regardless of ethnicity).

kippy

If his human rights record is clean, the money actually makes it to clubs I am fine with it. Should be matched by the state in an ideal world.