The thing about McManus is that its completely bottomless.
The perception is that he made his real money dabbling in currency exchanges in the late 1990’s/early 2000’s but like he must have spent billions in the last two decades alone between Racing/Property/Charity/General Lifestyle and no end in sight. Between the Big House, The Manor, Sandy Lane, Geneva, the mansions in Chelsea & Ballsbridge there must be a billion down the drain.
What did he make off United? £300 million? Small change in the grand scheme. Those nursing homes and pub chains are hardly cash cows either.
I think he made significant amounts of money from arbing on foreign exchange markets before they became more real time. But to do that you would want a lot of money to begin with. Hard to know where the seed capital came from origninally.
He made a monumental fortune on the devaluation of either the Mexican or some South American currency. All above board but he was well tipped off in advance so you’d wonder where the info came from
I have the story on how JP started. One cold wet winter’s night I was below in the Dark Horse and fell into the company of a Par-tricks-well gaa man. He had won a rake of county medals in the 70s and 80s. The day before a county final he was in town for his traditional pre final haircut, and the bould JP passed him on the way out the door. JP was in his early 20s and chairman of South Liberties. They exchanged pleasantries and JP stated that Liberties would win tomorrow, the Par-tricks-well man roared laughing. JP asked him to put 20 pound on it and he accepted. Sure enough he lost the match and the 20 (which was a site/sight/scythe of money at the time he assured me)
The following day JP bought a new pin for the 3ft bucket on the JCB and the rest is history as they say.
Ah I wouldn’t say it bottomless. The nursing homes are cash cows. The pubs make money. He still has a team of lads betting horses. Probably a silent partner in a lot of stallions. There’s plenty in come as well.
He dropped a court case against IRS after some portion of winnings was withheld from him. I wonder did the securities exchange comission over there have their eye on him and he was advised to drop the case. Either way he probably landed 100s of Barney Curley type gambles over the years.
Classic “Part-tricks-well”. The auld lad lost a weeks wages to JP way way back, apparently! Must explain the barneys between the auld pair I can remember as a wee mawn.