The maor of Martinstown
IT is difficult to conceive of a circumstance where JP McManus could be described as your average GAA sponsor, but I've thought of one.
There are very few GAA team sponsorships made purely on financial grounds. Most invest their emotions and dreams without ever honestly concerning themselves with the bottom line. Being close to their heroes is payback. And that's JP McManus.
Perhaps that what makes him so extraordinary.
Handing a E5 million cheque to Limerick GAA officials is a jaw-dropping act of philanthropy by anyone's standards. So, despite his renowned reticence in the general vicinity of a camera or microphone, I sat in his expansive Martinstown Stud office somehow expecting to be wowed with tales of GAA men wiping amounts of dancing perspiration from their forehead at the imminent prospect of liberation from the financial millstone of the Gaelic Grounds redevelopment.
And all I got was "because they needed it."
That's it? Maybe it said everything. Well, almost everything. McManus might have added that he was one of the few Irishmen in a position to do it, and one of fewer still inclined to do so. But that is not his way.
The small print also made him sponsor to Limerick's inter-county teams 'Sporting Limerick' is on the jerseys and if you were to listen to the chattering classes, afforded him the right to tell the hurlers "I don't back losers" at one training session.
JP smiles ironically at the suggestion that someone who was "neither brave enough nor good enough" to be a player himself would have the temerity to say such a thing to any
inter-county hurler, least of all to ones in a green jersey.
"I went along to one session, but I don't think I passed that comment," he says politely. "I have to admire their commitment, and you can't ask for more. Once they give it what they've got, that's enough. Don't worry, we'll be back."
The trouble is McManus does worry about Limerick. More than he ever worried about Manchester United, because his stake in Limerick is emotional.
He watched the first 90 minutes of United's FA Cup final trauma against Arsenal, but had to abandon extra time for the Munster Championship replay against Tipperary. He stopped briefly at the Four Elms in Ballyneety for the penalties, but the extra-time defeat at the Gaelic Grounds creased his brow a lot more than the shoot-out loss in Cardiff.
"Noreen (his wife) and Kieran (son) are mad Arsenal fans, Declan (another son) is a mad Man U fan. I'll be honest. I'm not a huge soccer fan, I'd have gone to see Arsenal in London more than Man Utd over the years. But I've been at Old Trafford a good few times I read that I was never there and not always in the directors box."
It is immediately apparent upon meeting this folk hero to the masses that not only is his love of Limerick genuine, so too is his angst over their continuing hurling famine. Though he jokes "they must have been stuck", those appointed with the selection of GAA presidential awards this weekend will honour a die-hard.
McManus grew up next door to Eamonn Grimes, and his captaincy of the last Limerick team to win a hurling All-Ireland (1973) is something his fellow South Liberties clubman is incredibly proud of. That and his team-mates for club and county, Joe McKenna and Pat Hartigan.
"They would still be my heroes today 14 All-Stars between Joe, Pat, and Eamonn. He (Grimes) was a couple of years older than me, but used to give me a lift to school. We were always very close, he's a great neighbour and friend. The All-Ireland in 1973 was like winning the Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle, Two Mile Chase and the rest all rolled in one."
It also came while he was chairman of South Liberties the youngest, at 22, in the club's history.
For a man who has made his living and his millions from being adept at arithmetic, it is little surprise that he throws up the following statistic and not with any pleasure.
"If we don't win an All-Ireland this year, and you'd have to say there is a shade of odds against it, it will be 33 years in 2006 since our last senior hurling title the same span from our All-Ireland of 1940 to 1973. And 1940 seems now like 'who were those guys'."
Losing All-Irelands in 1974, 1980, 81, 1994 and 1996 is bad enough, but the manner of them still grates, and leaves Limerick vulnerable to the charge of being nearly men. "The thing about Kerry football or the hurlers of Cork is that you'll never beat them unless you're better than them. And there are times when we could be better and still not win. These counties just know where the winning post is.
"I always thought the 1996 final (against Wexford) was a harder pill to swallow than the '94 final. While Limerick had the winning of the final for an hour in '94, Offaly did finish much the stronger and I didn't have a problem with that. But against Wexford we were the better side, and we had the extra man. That was really one that got away."
McManus pauses for a moment. "You know, it would have taken very little to get an All-Ireland or two at the end of the Seventies. We were probably worth three All-Irelands over the last 20 years and we have none in the last 30."
The post-mortem into Limerick's woes had begun across the hallway in the office of his adviser, Declan Moylan (the former Munster Council treasurer is a long-time contemporary and business friend of McManus), before being moved to JP's own den as the clock ticked towards the 6.45 at Gowran Park. Two races later (both second, by the way, and viewed on a screen the size of a modest bed), the conversation returns to a "misunderstanding" that McManus had alluded to earlier.
First however the background.
"At the (club) AGM in 1973, the younger brigade decided that they were going to leave their mark and took the older guys a bit by surprise," he laughed. "We had the backing of Eamon Grimes and Pat Hartigan at the time. The club was definitely the most important thing in my life at the time we were beaten in the county final in '71, won it in '72, and them I came in for Seamus Hartigan, Pat's brother. He was on our side, a good fella.
"The positions that time were very competitive. Whether it was chairman, secretary, treasurer, captain, selectors, there was a vote on everything. You'd have 130 people at an AGM, and it was the same in every parish.
"It was unusual to have a 21 year-old chairman, but it was a learning process for me because you had to carry out the wishes of the club at county board, even though it wasn't always what you might have done yourself."
McManus quickly made his mark at club and county board level. One contentious club issue was decided before the usual stragglers had even arrived. "The monthly meeting was set to start at 8pm, and we had a quorum. We sorted it there and then."
McManus had already conceded at that stage that he was not going to make his mark on the pitch "I was very poor, enthusiastic but I'd have struggled to get on any team, and I only made it if there wasn't 15 there. I wasn't brave enough or good enough, but you wanted to be involved."
After going senior in 1967, South Liberties enjoyed unprecedented success in the early 70's. But there was trouble ahead for the young chairman and his cohorts.
"We had an incident in '74 when Pat Hartigan got injured in the championship for Limerick against Clare the week before we were down to play in the county championship. Pat was given an undertaking that the match wouldn't be played the following Sunday things were different in those days. We said we wouldn't play and we were thrown out.
"It was all a bit sad. The hearing was held after the All-Ireland (which Limerick lost) and I've no doubt to this day that if the hearing was held before the final, we'd still have been in the Championship.
"Of course, there was wrong on our side too but we appealed it to Munster Council, and had the wording (in Irish) composed by two eminent members of the Association who were on Central Council. However the whole thing was thrown out because it was incorrectly worded.
"That was a bad day for the GAA. We didn't have our own grounds, nor our own dressing room, we had a bush in the middle of the field where fellas togged off. I was very sad about that ok, say we are wrong, but don't throw it out because it is incorrectly written. Hear our point of view. It was a form of three card trick, really."
WE met last Friday, and McManus has since been to Switzerland, Wentworth for the PGA Championship, and tomorrow he travels to Epsom for the Derby festival. Not that he's a slave to the flat. It's "too fashionable" for JP.
"You'd want a lot of resources to take on these lads in a serious way, but that doesn't mean you can't get a good horse for sensible money either. But I'll always be associated with the jumps as long as I have a few bob. Anyway this is jumping country," he says, peering out on the vast expanse of his 500 acre stud farm. In the distance is the sprawling dream home he has commissioned, but for the moment, a more important project takes priority.
"We've had a lot of goodwill, and a lot of people want to help promote it, so it's got a bit of momentum going now," explains JP of his charity pro-am golf tournament the first week of July in Adare. The momentum has been provided by the absurdly impressive list of the world's top players who have answered McManus' call. And for no appearance money.
It all seems to come from a world few us ever will ever inhabit, but McManus' ability to normalise it is itself instructive.
"Mark (O'Meara) always wants to do what's right," he explained. "When we got Tiger in 2000, we met him at the Ryder Cup. 'Tell me what's this event is all about', he said.
'You don't want to know', protested McManus. 'I can't even guarantee we'll play together because it's an open draw.' "Well, if you're asking me, I'm coming," Woods underlined.
"When I got home I said to Noreen 'Tiger has said he'll play in the event. Should I write to him to confirm'? "No, he knows he said it, if he wants to play he'll arrive', his wife reasoned.
"I took her advice and March came, and one day it was someone from his office confirming that he was coming. He's great because you can promote it a long time in advance
because he's true to his word. It gives everyone involved a lift."
Given what O'Meara said about McManus at a recent pre-tournament launch in Adare "this man is a true friend I would do anything for" it is not hard to believe that
McManus is less worried about pampering the stars as he is about the use of the money raised. Five years ago, the equivalent of E19m was distributed to a raft of local causes.
"That's the hardest job, following it through. People will contribute more generously when they know there are no deductions, when every euro goes to worthy causes. What really helps is for the carers to see these people coming in making the effort to raise the funds for them. It highlights the work they do, shows that the world out there recognises the work they do."
Like his penchant for hurling, McManus is an enthusiastic and competitive golfer off 16. "I've played once this week, and was in Waterville three weeks ago. That's been it, lately. I played a lot in January when I was away (in Barbados). Eleven holes every evening when it got cool."
Given his legendary composure in and around the betting ring, steering Padraig Harrington to victory in the Dunhill Challenge at St Andrews two years ago was a virtual stroll. But even then his competitive nature was evident.
"What was really thrilling was playing with a pro who wins the event, rather than just winning the amateur prize. We were going down the 12th and Padraig had fallen two behind Eduardo Romero. 'It'll will be a dry cup if you don't win the individual, especially as we're travelling home together', McManus teased.
Needless to say, Harrington triumphed.
Outside the security gates of his secluded wonder-world at Martinstown, it's an ordinary country road on the Limerick-Tipperary border, half a dozen miles from Kilmallock. Even with the gates closed tight and the high walls, it's long odds McManus will ever forget where he came from.
When he took early retirement from CIE 13 years ago, Declan Moylan was immediately offered work by his long-time friend. During the interview, another of his aides, Walter Shanahan, presents himself. He captained South Liberties to a County Championship "and several East Limericks", McManus proudly announces.
As if to prove the point, the phone rings. It's Noreen. Dinner's ready.
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