Westmeath and Roscommon GAA to benefit from €1m donation

The Westmeath and Roscommon county boards are to benefit once again from the the generosity of Limerick businessman JP McManus.

Billionaire financier McManus is set to donate €1 million to every GAA county board in the country from his JP McManus Charitable Foundation, it emerged today (Thursday).

McManus has a passionate interest in sport and is well known for his financial backing of his native Limerick, who have won the last four All-Ireland senior hurling titles in a row.

As Limerick sponsor, the financier and racehorse owner has been a huge benefactor of Gaelic games in his native county but now every corner of Ireland is poised to benefit from his largesse.

Similar to the €100,000 figure McManus donated to every county board in 2018 in the aftermath of Limerick's first All-Ireland hurling success in 45 years, it is expected that many counties will divide the donation equally among GAA, camogie and LGFA clubs.

However, with both Roscommon and Westmeath hoping to develop training facilities for their county teams in the coming years, both counties may wish to ringfence at least some of the money for this purpose.

Roscommon GAA was recently granted planning permission for the Dermot Early Centre of Excellence - see article here.

But progress has been very slow regarding Westmeath GAA's ambition to develop training facilities for its county teams. It's understood a site for such a facility has been earmarked but it appears that matters haven't progressed much further.