BREAKING: McManus says he's ‘mystified’ at Limerick Council as he drops Rugby Experience gift

JP McMANUS has announced he is stepping away from further talks with Limerick City and County Council on his proposed donation of the International Rugby Experience, saying the process has left him "mystified" and "disheartened".  

Addressing the members of the local authority in the Council Chamber at Dooradoyle this Thursday, the Limerick man cited a number of "unanswered questions" before declaring that "we have no intention of proceeding with any further discussions or process with Limerick City and County Council in regard to this proposed gift".

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He made the comments at a behind-closed-doors workshop, where he read from a pre-prepared speech, which was seen by Limerick Live.

There was a security presence at County Hall to ensure only those permitted to be in the chamber actually were allowed to enter to hear Mr McManus address the local authority.

Businessman JP McManus pictured leaving County Hall in #Limerick today following a meeting over the closure of @IRELimerick.

Full story from meeting online at #LimerickLive shortly. pic.twitter.com/fiUaY0hs8T

— Nick Rabbitts (@Nick468official) June 26, 2025

But among those not physically present in the Chamber were Mayor John Moran, who said on Wednesday night, he would not be able to attend due to a clashing commitment.

Limerick Live understands that councillors appealed to the businessman to reconsider, something which he said he would do "in order to leave the meeting on a positive note".

It's also understood from sources, the local authority's director general, Dr Pat Daly, made a sincere apology to the McManus family for any hurt caused.

"JP has the full support of the council members," one councillor present in the meeting said.

According to councillors, Mr McManus showed emotion in his voice at times during the address.

Mr McManus expressed sorrow over what he perceives to be the council’s failure to embrace what he called a gift to the people of Limerick "to create something special".

It's the first time the businessman has spoken on the controversial saga, which saw the landmark venue close at Christmas with the loss of 50 jobs.

This happened after talks broke down between the McManus family and council, over a difference of opinion in relation to the valuation of the property.

At a meeting held in October, council bosses disclosed that a consultancy firm they appointed suggested the International Rugby Experience was on course for a loss in the region of €700,000.

In this Thursday's meeting, Mr McManus confirmed he had witnessed that meeting online.

"In our view, the presentation of the proposed gift heavily focused on the alleged negatives with minimal articulation of the benefits the attraction offered to the city or of the fact that Limerick City and County Council could use the International Rugby Experience building for any civic purpose on behalf of the people of Limerick after 2027," he said.

Mr McManus said it was a matter of "concern and disappointment" that this report was "changed without consultation and presented as a joint report even though we had not been informed of the changes."

"In our view, this contributed heavily to the misrepresentation of the proposal to the councillors and the heads of terms agreement was not honoured by Limerick City and County Council," he added, according to councillors present at the meeting.

"We believe that all the information was in place to ensure a smooth transition if there had been meaningful engagement with the International Rugby Experience team. However, the imbalanced orientation of how this gesture was presented to the councillors at that meeting in October 2024, made it nigh-on impossible for the councillors to accept the donation," he said.

Mr McManus said while Limerick is a city "we all dearly love" and "which has made great strides over the last 30 plus years".

"Sadly, the city centre appears not to have kept pace," he added.

"In order to help with this, and boost the city centre, Paul O Connell and I discussed a regenerative idea to try to increase footfall into the heart of our city. More generally, we recognised a lack of civic spaces and a growing dereliction in Limerick city centre, and we wanted to establish a project of scale to help kick-start the urban, social and cultural regeneration of Limerick," he added.

"As with all of the many projects and initiatives that we have been involved in, we tried our very best, with this endeavour, to create something special."

Mr McManus left after the meeting without addressing the media.

Speaking to reporters following the meeting, Fianna Fail's council leader, Cllr Michael Collins said members had decided they will not be commenting.

Pictured below: JP McManus departs the meeting at County Hall alongside Barry Hannon, chief executive of the International Rugby Experience, Sue-Ann Foley and Paul Foley

"We want to respect the councillors, respect the executive and most of all we want to respect the McManus family. We hope that further discussion will happen in the days and weeks ahead. Then you'll be briefed in time as to outcome of that," he said.

"Today wasn't about a resolution. Today was about getting the information in relation to the whole background to it," he said.

Asked if a deal was still on the table, Fine Gael's Adam Teskey said: "We've established an awful lot of facts and beyond that we are not making any further comment."

Cllr Collins said he would expect there will be another meeting with Mr McManus.

Limerick Live has contacted Limerick City and County Council for comment.