Cavan GAA to consult with LGFA and camogie before distributing McManus windfall
GAA news
GAA, ladies football and camogie clubs in Cavan are in line for a major windfall thanks to a donation from the JP McManus Foundation – but the details of how it will be distributed have yet to be ironed out.
Limerick businessman and philanthropist McManus’ donation of €1 million to each men’s county board was kept a closely-guarded secret, with counties only finding out when cheques arrived by registered post yesterday morning (Thursday).
McManus’s accompanying letter specified that the money was to be dispersed among GAA, ladies football and camogie clubs.
There are approximately 80 such clubs in Cavan but some parent clubs are integrated under one banner, as is preferred GAA policy.
Due to that, Cavan county board have stated that while the funding will be passed on to clubs as per McManus’s wishes, some consideration will be given as to how exactly the it will be distributed.
“We’re exploring our options with our counterparts in ladies football and camogie as to the best way of doing it within the constraints of the McManus Foundation’s document,” Martin Cahill, Head of Operations with Cavan GAA, told the Anglo-Celt this morning.
“It is a very generous gesture and we’re very appreciative of it but we have to find an equitable mechanism within the terms of the donation to disperse the money.
“We’re not going to make a rash decision, we don’t need to decide until the end of January so we will talk to our counterparts in ladies football and camogie and come up with the fairest way that we all agree on.”
The gesture comes five years after the McManus Foundation gifted €100,000 to each county board.
“The GAA would like to acknowledge and thank JP McManus, his wife Noreen, and their children for their incredible generosity on the news today that they are donating €1m to all 32 counties for distribution to clubs across the Gaelic Games family,” a statement from the GAA said.
President Larry McCarthy and Ard-Stiurthoir Tom Ryan commented: “We would like to place on record our sincere gratitude to JP McManus and his family for yet another remarkable gesture of support.”