Individual clubs in Fermanagh will be among the biggest winners in Ireland following JP McManus’s €32 million GAA cash injection into the GAA, with some clubs set to receive close to €50,000.
The number, approximately £42,000, compares to the majority of clubs in neighbouring Tyrone receiving at least €20,000 from the €1m pot sent to each county.
Counties were given a deadline of January 31 to conclude the payment process and details sent to the McManus on how the money was distributed.
Instructions were also delivered to the GAA on how the money had to be distributed, with county boards told to “evenly” disperse among each association, the GAA, Ladies’ Gaelic Football Association (LGFA) and the Camogie Association, men’s hurling and football, women’s football and camogie.
In Fermanagh, with the 24 GAA clubs, and 18 with women’s football teams, each association will receive €24,390 so the clubs, with both male and female teams, receiving over €48,000. There are no camogie clubs in the county.
“It is very, very much welcome,” said Fermanagh GAA’s Deirdre Felloni, adding that it is particularly so because her county has less ability to generate income than bigger ones.
Many counties calculated how much each club would receive based on “units”, teams playing football, hurling and camogie and some setting aside for handball.
Few clubs across the island will receive a larger amount than those in Fermanagh, though some in Leitrim might reach that number.
The county with the lowest population will distribute the €1m among 43 units across their football, hurling, camogie and also handball teams, each receiving €23,255. Those with men and women’s football teams and camogie will receive close to €70,000.
In Tyrone, which has 54 clubs, five solely hurling, the board calculated there are 108 units across the county, so each will receive €9,259, with the maximum close to £28,000 and most expected to receive at least just over €18,500.
Derry calculated there are 90 units across the country, 42 football and hurling, 21 camogie and 27 women’s football, with each to receive €11,111. Clubs with teams in all three codes will receive €33,000.
In Donegal, the county board decided to take a different approach, delivering the same amount to each of the clubs in the county playing various codes, one stand alone hurling, Setanta, and one camogie. Each will receive €24,390. The county has a model where the accounts of each club are shared.
Volunteers would have to sell a lot of tickets to raise this amount of money and “it is a real boost at the start of the year”, said Donegal PRO Sinead Breen.
Cavan decided the “easiest and fairest” was to distribute the money based on units, approximately 80 in the county, with each receiving over €12,000.
The instructions in the letter accompanying McManus’s €32 million donation were simple — county boards would disperse the money “evenly” among each GAA, women’s football and camogie club in their county. McManus, a billionaire financier, is donating €1 million to each of the 32 GAA county boards in Ireland
Armagh, Down and Antrim all have just under 50 clubs so the distribution is likely to be in a similar range to Tyrone and Derry.
In a statement, GAA president Larry McCarthy and director general Tom Ryan said: “We would like to place on record our sincere gratitude to JP McManus and his family for yet another remarkable gesture of support.”
