The Donegal GAA County Committee has responded to backlash over the distribution of JP and Noreen McManus’s €1 million donation in the county.
Racehorse owner JP McManus and his wife Noreen donated €1 million to all 32 county boards in Ireland to invest in local Gaelic games.
However, the Donegal LGFA claimed the money was not divided equally between the clubs affiliated to the GAA, LGFA and Camogie Associations (CA). Huge dissatisfaction was aired at a recent meeting of the Donegal LGFA board over the matter.
The Donegal County Board split the sum between the 41 clubs in the county with no distinction made about how many affiliations they have (40 GAA, 37 LGFA, one CA). Each unit is receiving €24,390.
Donegal GAA has today stated that the division of the funds was shared decision by the County Committee.
A spokesperson said: “At the County Committee meeting on January 10th, two proposals were put to delegates: to divide the money evenly amongst the 41 clubs or to divide the money according to the activities of each club (dividing the money by 81).
“County committee made a democratic decision to divide the money equally between the 41 clubs in the county. The money has now been distributed.”
Donegal GAA re-iterated “huge thanks to JP & Noreen Mc Manus, their family and their foundation for their incredible generosity”.
They added that they did seek clarity from the LGFA and the Camogie Board as to whether there were any stand-alone LGFA or Camogie clubs in Donegal.
Donegal has 41 clubs, one stand-alone Hurling club and one stand-alone Camogie club.
All other clubs are either GAA Clubs or Clubs based on the ‘One Club’ model.
