JP McManus<\/a> gave \u20ac1 million to every county board in the country.<\/p>\nHe had previously donated \u20ac100,000 to each in 2018.<\/p>\n
But, according to those who advise on philanthropic work, there is now more scope for philanthropy in Ireland than ever before.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is \u20ac1.43 trillion in household wealth here,\u201d says \u00c9ilis Murray, chief executive of Philanthropy Ireland. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe wealth is there. Now that does not necessarily mean it is going to translate into philanthropy but for the first time we are having a conversation about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murray says Ireland is going through an unprecedented transfer of intergenerational wealth at the moment, and she and others are advocating that people consider using some of this money for charitable causes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the United States and the UK they have a lot of inherited wealth and philanthropy is part of the DNA there. It is only beginning to emerge in Ireland,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
This is not to say that, outside of inherited wealth, philanthropy has not already played a significant role here, she adds.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things most of us don\u2019t realise is the amount of philanthropy that is being done and the impact that has on communities the length and breadth of the country,\u201d says Murray.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Children\u2019s Rights Alliance was a project initially funded through philanthropy. The legislation that followed all came from that movement and that area of support \u2013 by funding the research \u2013 it helped identify the issue that needed addressing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe same with marriage equality \u2013 funding went into identifying \u2018what is the issue\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Limericks’](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/PFHGUPDIINEJHFC6KLIKJA3D2U.jpg\")
Limericks\u2019 Tom Morrissey with JP McManus and the Liam MacCarthy Cup in 2022. Photograph: James Crombie\/Inpho <\/p>\n
Philanthropy Ireland has been working with businesses too. Last month it helped Dublin-based investment firm Broadlake launch its charitable trust, the Broadlake Foundation.<\/p>\n
Its \u2018head of impact\u2019 Daragh Anglim says the company believed it could help not-for-profit organisations expand by lending them some business expertise.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe work with businesses that are in a stage of their development where they\u2019re ready to grow,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought about how we could match the skills and expertise of our people … to help them deliver on their mission\u201d. <\/p>\n
Anglim says the company has committed \u20ac1 million along with 2,000 hours of support.<\/p>\n
There are not the same tax incentives associated with philanthropy in Ireland as there might be in other parts of the world. In the case of Zuckerberg and McManus there is no obvious financial incentive behind their contributions here. <\/p>\n
In the US, Zuckerberg has had to defend his charitable foundation from claims that the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative could enable him to avoid paying tax. <\/p>\n
It was structured upon launch as a limited liability company as opposed to a typical charity or foundation. He transferred 99 per cent of his Facebook shares worth around $45 billion to it in 2015. It was also pointed out at the time that such a structure allowed for greater flexibility when it came to political lobbying.<\/p>\n
The Facebook boss has said he and his wife will face capital gains tax on any sale of their shares, and he has foregone tax reliefs available through the traditional US philanthropic models.<\/p>\n
At present in Ireland, tax relief on philanthropic donations works to the benefit of the recipient organisations. <\/p>\n
This is designed to boost the overall contributions, allowing an approved charity or body to go to Revenue and claim back 31 per cent relief on top of a donation. The individual making the donation cannot avail of the relief.<\/p>\n
This means a donation of \u20ac1,000 would be topped up with an additional \u20ac449 in relief by Revenue. <\/p>\n
Niall O\u2019Sullivan runs an independent service called The Philanthropy Adviser. It helps high net-worth individuals and companies consider their charitable options. <\/p>\n
He is also a trustee of a group called \u2018My Legacy\u2019, which encourages people to leave a charitable gift behind in their will.<\/p>\n
![\"Mark](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/77MLR7AJTC4SKBHYGW7ETPETMY.jpg\")
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Meta. Photograph: David Zalubowski\/AP <\/p>\n
He believes there is more that could be done to tap into some of the vast money that now exists here \u2013 and there may be a reason why so many large donations \u2013 like those of JP McManus and Broadlake \u2013 top out at \u20ac1 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a couple of things that inhibit philanthropy,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a cap of \u20ac1 million in any given year [in tax relief]. It sounds like a lot, but if you have a net worth of \u20ac50 million or \u20ac100 million and have made a decision to move into philanthropy, you might give more if there was a better tax incentive in place\u201d.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Sullivan says there is lobbying of the Government going on around this at the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a lot of talk about all these wealth managers and estate planners. But when it comes to philanthropy they don\u2019t have a lot to talk about [with clients]. They don\u2019t have many financial instruments to discuss,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He says that, in the US, philanthropy is much more part of the \u201cpsyche\u201d and there are many more options open to wealthy people who want to make donations.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t need tax breaks in an ideal world, but we do need incentives. Especially now in Ireland where there is such a transfer of generational wealth. We have a real opportunity to embed philanthropy in Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n
[\u00a0Mark Zuckerberg donates \u20ac150,000 to Waterford GAA clubs after buying castle in the areaOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before the arrival of the modern welfare state, there was philanthropy. In the absence of a proper system…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,66155,2597,1226,43],"class_list":["post-646538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jp-mcmanus","tag-mark-zuckerberg","tag-meta","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Strancally](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791296170_642_SJXS7AOM75GPPLR3YI33JSS52E.jpg\")
Strancally Castle Co Waterford <\/p>\n