Eastern Gaels LGFA express disappointment over McManus funding omission

EASTERN Gaels LGFA have expressed disappointment with their omission from over €11,000 of funding from JP McManus, The Mayo News has learned.

The East Mayo club and Mayo Gaels LGFA were the only clubs omitted from €11,363 paid to every GAA, LGFA and camogie club in Mayo by the Limerick billionaire.

The recent meeting of Mayo GAA’s county board heard that the clubs were omitted as they did not field adult teams and did not constitute a club.

The funding formed part of a €32 million donation to every GAA, LGFA and camogie county board on the island by McManus.

Eastern Gaels secretary Michael Murphy said that including the two omitted clubs as part of Mayo’s €1 million allocation would have resulted in a deduction of €252 per club.

The club currently field at Under-14 level and is aiming to enter an adult ladies team in the future.

“As a newly formed LGFA club who pay affiliation fees to the LGFA we are disappointed not to be included in this funding,” Murphy said.

“We are entering our third year and aiming to enter an adult team as our girls progress. We have fulfilled all fixtures since formation and are striving to give the girls in our community the opportunity to play sport.”

Mayo GAA distributed its share of the funding to clubs on January 31.

Seamus Touhy, Mayo GAA Chairman, said that the Mayo GAA received no guidelines from Croke Park regarding the distribution of the funding.

Touhy told the recent county board meeting allocating funding to underage LGFA clubs or amalgamated clubs, such as Carras, would create ‘inconsistency’ in the distribution.

Mayo Gaels county board delegate, Dermot Flaherty, described their omission from the funding as ‘very unfair’.