GAA donation a truly remarkable gesture from JP McManus

The quip that no good deed goes unpunished came to mind in the wake of JP McManus’s remarkable gesture to donate €1 million to each of the GAA’s 32 county boards. The initial reaction was one of shock, delight and then thoughts of what county boards would do with the money. However, any thoughts that the money might be used towards developing the Dermot Earley Centre outside Roscommon Town were quickly dashed.

Instead the legendary JP stipulated that the money be distributed among the clubs in each county and among the four codes. It means that Christmas has come early to clubs around the country. That is a particular boost for counties with lower populations and fewer clubs, such as Roscommon. While the speculation on social media is that Sligo will fare best from the donation, clubs in Roscommon will also do well per capita.

Yet, within a few hours of this feelgood festive story breaking, critics in traditional and social media were sniping at what the Limerick billionaire, who has Roscommon connections, had done. It wasn’t a huge surprise that Jennifer Whitemore of the Social Democrats was carping at McManus not paying taxes here.

One couldn’t help but smile at the retort of Kilmore footballer and All-Ireland minor medal winner, Paul Garvey, who wrote on X that if Whitmore or her party contributed a small percentage of what McManus has to Irish society, then she could lecture the rest of us.

A more general reaction to Whitmore was to look at how our taxes are being spent on essential projects such as the Children’s Hospital where the costs have spiralled to astronomical levels from the original estimates. As far as can be ascertained, McManus is tax compliant in Switzerland, and, to be fair, Ireland has benefited enormously from corporation tax from multinational companies which are domiciled here for tax purposes.

As Philip Lanigan of the ‘Daily Mail’ broke the story, a few other media outlets went for negative angles such as highlighting the headaches that lay in store for county boards. It was all a bit petty.

The essence of this donation is what each club does with its money is up to itself. It’s reminiscent of the Biblical story of the wise and foolish servants: clubs that are short-sighted will fritter the money away on managers; farsighted, sensible clubs will spend the donation on underage development and facilities.

Another group who were quick out of the traps were those annoyed by the preferential treatment of the GAA.

As always seems to happen, time appears to accelerate in December the nearer we get to Christmas. One can sense the growing anticipation and excitement. A real buzz circulated around Roscommon Town on Saturday night when it seemed that every restaurant and pub was humming with crowds and joviality.

On Sunday, we headed out of town and switched on ‘Christmas FM’ on the car radio. I’ve developed a nuanced relationship with ‘Christmas FM’ over the years. Gone are the days of automatically listening to it every time I get in the car during December.

There are only so many times you can be transported back to idyllic US Christmases of the 1950s with Bing, Frank, Nat, Andy and Perry. The candy cane sugar rush is too much. Now I am more selective, helped greatly by having so many quality podcasts as alternatives.

However, last Sunday, it was ‘Christmas FM’ all the way up the motorway and I heard ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ for the first time this year. Because I hadn’t been bombarded by the Slade masterpiece for the last few weeks, I realised what an ecstatically, buoyantly, joyful song it is. It’s a rollicking tune that puts people in good form, the musical equivalent of ‘Home Alone’.

In this pre-Christmas column every year, I usually ponder why nobody has been able to write a stone-cold classic Christmas song since about the mid-1990s. Maybe the simple answer is songwriters pondering the challenge listen to the anthems of the 1970s and 1980s, along with the earworms from the 1950s and 1960s, and give it up as an insurmountable task.

Anyway, as everybody wallows in their favourite festive films and songs, I wish a Merry Christmas to all Herald readers, the Herald staff, and their respective families.