McManus furore was misplaced indignation

IT was inevitable that the initial consensus that JP McManus was just an allround good guy for that €3.2 million present to the GAA last week could not last.

It was not so much that begrudgery comes easy to us as a nation, just that there are some out there who are simply waiting to be offended.

And so it was this week as Joe Duffy’s Liveline programme was the conduit for the outrage that the money which JP had instructed to be dispersed equally, on a county-bycounty basis, was to be distributed equally among GAA clubs nationwide, which was interpreted as ‘disrespectful’ by those who believed that it was sexist because Ladies football and camogie was not included.

The argument that much in the same way the GAA is not duty-bound to fund the LGFA and the Camogie Association through its gate receipts and commercial revenues, it can hardly change tack when it receives a donation with expressed wishes from the donor was slow to be absorbed.

But the conversation that needs to take place is why have the ladies organisations decided not to come under the one GAA umbrella.

Cork ladies manager Ephie Fitzgerald pointed out the lack of support for the ladies game. That situation will not be addressed by squabbling over a share of JP’s modest gift, but in ensuring that the ladies’ games moves under the cover where security rather than charity will allow it to thrive.