Close to a fortnight early, Santa came down the chimney on Thursday afternoon and deposited €1 million in to the bank accounts of every GAA county board in the country, a Christmas gift from JP McManus “wrapped in shiny gold tinsel and twinkling silver lights”. As one county board chairman in Connacht told Paul Keane, it was “like all our Christmases coming at once”. Mind you, soon enough it was being dismissed as a “PR stunt”. “It seems you can’t even give €32 million away these days without offending someone,” writes Paul.
On the whole, the gift was welcomed, although as Labour TD Ged Nash put it, in Arthur Beesley’s profile of McManus, it was “tempered by the fact that this particular Santa Claus is tax-resident in Switzerland”.
Dominic Coyle looks at the potential tax implications of the donation, north and south of the border, while Gordon Manning asks, in light of the naysayers’ grumblings, “is it not something we should be celebrating?”
The IRFU, no doubt, would love to find their own JP McManus, but they still managed to locate enough loose change down the back of the couch to extend Andy Farrell’s contract to the end of the 2027 World Cup. It’s “good business,” writes Gerry Thornley, and “a clear ‘hands-off’ to would-be suitors, notably his known admirers in the English RFU”.
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Gerry also talks to the outgoing IRFU high-performance director David Nucifora who dismisses any notion that Ireland’s failure – yet again – to get past the World Cup quarter-finals was down to too many key members of the squad being overplayed.
RG Snyman saw a fair chunk of minutes at the World Cup too, 224 in all, but ended up with a winner’s medal. The Munster faithful already knew that they would be losing his services at the end of the season ... but Gerry brings news that will be a dagger through their hearts: he’ll be joining Leinster. Leaving Leinster, though, will be Michael Ala’alatoa who will be heading to Clermont next year.
Back in Gaelic games, Paul talks to Aaron Kernan, the former Armagh footballer expressing his concerns about how “monotonous” the game has become, while Philip Reid catches up with golfer Sara Byrne who intends turning professional after the 2024 Curtis Cup. And in horse racing, Brian O’Connor doesn’t hold back when addressing cross channel talk of trainers being restricted to having a maximum of four runners in top level races: it “smacks of little more than oven-ready opportunism”.
Johnny Watterson, meanwhile, wonders if you’re finding it harder and harder to love sport after events of the past number of months, Luis Rubiales and Conor McGregor among those who get a mention. “Sport,” he writes, “has always paid regular visits to the sewer, but lately there’s an apprehension that it’s drifting further from its moorings, sliding from its integrity base and moving at a rate of knots away from what it’s supposed to be”.
TV Watch: Before the Irish provinces leap in to action on Saturday and Sunday, you have two (clashing) televised Champions Cup games this evening to warm you up – Northampton v Toulon (TNT Sports 1, 8.0) and Bayonne v Glasgow (TNT Sports 2, 8.0). And at the same time, Nottingham Forest and Spurs kick off in the Premier League (Sky Sports).
