County chairperson Coughlan says McManus money split was 'a democratic decision'

Donegal GAA chairperson Mary Coughlan has stated that a democratic decision was taken by county committee when distributing the €1 million donation from JP McManus.

Writing in the Irish Examiner earlier this week John Fogarty outlined the Donegal LGFA’s annoyance in how the donation was divided.

Instead of issuing the money equally between the clubs affiliated to the GAA, LGFA and Camogie associations, the sum was instead divided up equally between the 41 clubs in the county with no distinction made about how many affiliations they have (40 GAA, 37 LGFA, one Camogie), with each unit receiving €24,390.

However, Coughlan has clarified that the reason for the above, equal split is that Donegal GAA clubs are almost entirely based on the ‘One Club’ model, stating there is no difference between a GAA, LGFA and camogie club under the same name.

“Here are the facts, Donegal GAA is based on the ‘One Club’ model,” said Coughlan. “On that basis there are 39 clubs, one specifically is hurling, which is Setanta and we have one specifically for camogie, which is known as Markievicz Camogie Club.

“All other clubs in Donegal are based on the ‘One Club’ principle, so it can’t be compared with other counties who separate their clubs and see the LGFA and Camogie as different clubs from the GAA. This issue was discussed by the executive, which was then brought to county committee, which is representative of all of the clubs.

“An alternative was put by Burt and Carndonagh, which was ultimately put to county committee and, in the end, a democratic decision was made to divide the money equally among all the clubs.

“Those are the facts, it was the democratic decision of county committee and, you need to remember, the county committee is the governing body of the GAA in Donegal.”

In several other counties, officers have divided up the McManus donation per affiliation. In the case of a club with GAA, LGFA and Camogie memberships, they would get three donations whereas a club with a men’s section would only get one.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner during the week, Donegal’s LGFA chairperson Joanne McKinney expressed her disappointment that she received no consultation from the GAA board and that the decision made regarding the distribution of the McManus donation was made without any input from the county’s LGFA.

“They divided it among the 41 clubs so there are 37 clubs that have both men and ladies football and we have two clubs that have no ladies and one standalone hurling and standalone camogie. So, the funds were divided among 41 as opposed to almost 80.”

Coughlan though says the onus is on the clubs themselves now to make sure that the spirit and principle of the donation is adhered to.

“All club secretaries were furnished with the letter from the McManus Trust and now every club must take it upon themselves to adhere to the principle of the letter,” Coughlan said.

“People need to read the whole letter. The letter also refers to integration, it refers to enhancing more families and new families into the GAA, it addresses the issues of mental health. The ethos and entirety of the letter must be taken as a whole.

“The most important thing to say is that we are hugely thankful to the McManus family for their massive contribution to the GAA.”