The State is considering a gift offer from businessman JP McManus of his shuttered €30 million Rugby Experience in Limerick in order to turn it into a women’s museum.

Minister for Culture Patrick O’Donovan will bring a memo to Cabinet on Tuesday informing colleagues that the billionaire businessman has offered to gift the property to the State.

O’Donovan will seek approval to explore the possibility of changing the landmark building on O’Connell Street into a new branch of the National Museum of Ireland which will house a “permanent, dedicated women’s museum”.

The six-storey International Rugby Experience (IRE) was funded by a €30 million gift from the McManus family foundation.

It had a high-profile opening in May 2023, attended by a large number of international and former rugby players including Johnny Sexton, Paul O’Connell and Keith Wood. Wood and O’Connell had been involved in the project since its inception.

However, the visitor experience shut its doors permanently within 19 months. It had projected visitor numbers of 100,000 annually but the numbers who passed through its doors were considerably lower than that, at about 60,000 in the first year. Its accounts showed that it recorded a loss of €1.04 million in operating costs in 2024.

At the time of its closure in December 2024, the number of staff had been reduced from 31 to 20 during 2024.

[ The inside story of JP McManus’s shuttered €30m Limerick rugby attractionOpens in new window ]

Some months before its closure, McManus offered the building as a gift to Limerick City and County Council in addition to a payment of €1.2 million to cover most of its projected losses until the end of 2027.

The council declined the offer in October 2024, but not before the matter had led to deeply divided views among councillors and political parties in Limerick.

McManus later attended a private meeting of the council to put across the case for the Council accepting the gift. It is understood that in an emotional contribution, he told councillors the response of the local authority had been disheartening.

The latest development will see the State exploring the feasibility of a women’s museum in the shuttered building.

O’Donovan, who is a TD for Limerick County, said he would like to begin a detailed consultation process with the National Museum of Ireland, the Office of Public Works, the McManus foundation, and the Department of Public Expenditure, “with a view to acquiring the property”.

A museum dedicated to women is one of the key recommendations of a report of the Advisory Committee on Women’s Stories, which was adopted by the Government in December.

It recommended a “permanent, dedicated physical museum, to give visibility, legitimacy and recognition to women’s representation, experiences and voices, in all their diversity”.

Consultants commissioned by Limerick Mayor John Moran estimated the rugby experience would have needed to attract over 70,000 visitors a year to break even.

Speaking after the Cabinet meeting, O’Donovan said it was the “right thing to do” for the Government to accept the gift of the building as a home for a museum celebrating women.

“All of our national cultural institutions, with the exception of the Crawford Gallery, are either entirely, or almost entirely, based in Dublin. And there is a commitment by the government to commit to a regionalised focus for our national cultural institutions.”

He said there would be no cost to the State in accepting the gift from the McManus family.

“What I’ve got permission from the Government today is to go into a deep dive with regard to the transitional period.”

Asked about the decision by Limerick City and County Council to reject the offer of the building, O’Donovan said the Council had “made a controversial decision that the elected members of the council did not agree with”.