Conor McGregor’s recent announcement that he plans to run for the Irish presidency has come as no surprise to those paying attention to his outbursts over the last few years. Having become increasingly vocal about what he sees as Ireland’s immigration problem, he is now seen by the Irish far right as their saviour.
Across the Irish extremist ecosphere McGregor is widely lauded as a hero who offers an alternative to the mainstream parties and even the old guard of the Irish far right. This latter aspect has caused some ructions in a movement already rife with infighting regarding tactics.
Some of the more public talking heads have balked at the idea of McGregor the politician, seeing him as a liability more than anything else.
The hugely successful Mixed Martial Arts champion was convicted in a civil court, only last November, of assaulting and raping Nikita Hand, who said he had violently beaten and raped her in a Dublin hotel in 2018.
Vast wealth
The High Court decided against him and he was ordered to pay Ms Hand 240, 000 Euros in damages and 1.5 million Euros in costs. Despite losing several sponsorship and partnership deals as a consequence he still enjoys vast wealth.
He currently faces a civil lawsuit in Florida, where a Vice President of a prominent Wall St financial firm claims he violently attacked and sexually assaulted her during an NBA Finals game in Miami in 2023.
Unfazed by any of this, his recent reception at the Oval Office has only emboldened McGregor whose self-appointed guardianship of Ireland regularly veers into disinformation, if not delusion.
White House appearance
With the trip seen as a slight against taoiseach Micheál Martin who had visited with Trump the week before for the annual St. Patrick’s Day visit, the Irish public held its collective breath for McGregor’s appearance in the White House with Trump on 17 March.
McGregor started the visit with a press conference where he declared that Ireland was being destroyed by immigration. From the podium he opined that “What is going on in Ireland is a travesty”.
Elaborating, he went on to tell the journalists gathered there that “The illegal immigration racket is running ravage on the country. There are rural towns in Ireland that have been overrun in one swoop. That have become a minority in one swoop”.
He said he wanted to bring this to the attention of the 40 million Irish Americans in the US. Later that day Trump heaped praise on the former UFC champion, pensioner puncher, and rapist, with McGregor returning the favour for his fellow rapist.
Taking a break from his gutting of the US civil service, Elon Musk was also present for the photo opportunity.
Run for the Presidency
But this was just a preface to McGregor’s announcement that he intends to run for the Irish presidency later this year. On 20 March he took to X (formerly Twitter) to officially make his intentions public.
Writing that the government’s plan to implement the EU Migration Pact which establishes a common asylum framework for the EU must be opposed, he promised that a McGregor presidency would block the pact and put it to a referendum.
But this demonstrated McGregor’s fundamental misunderstanding of the power of the president under the Irish constitution.
And although the announcement made international headlines, many reports also neglected to mention the limited power the office holds.
In short, the role is largely ceremonial and perfunctory, with the president expected to sign off on Bills as they are passed.
No veto power
The president has no absolute veto power and can only delay a Bill by referring it to the Supreme Court to ensure its constitutionality after consultation with the Council of State.
This has only happened a handful of times in the history of the state.
Likewise, the president may refuse to sign a Bill only under very specific circumstances, such as “a majority of the members of the Seanad and at least one-third of the members of the Dáil petition the President not to sign it”.
Such a scenario has never come to pass and is unlikely to do so.
No hope of running
However, all this is rather jumping the gun for one simple reason: McGregor will never make it on the ballot paper in the first place.
In order to run for the presidency a candidate has to be nominated by 20 members of the Oireachtas or by four of the 31 city or county councils around the country.
Only when one of these criteria has been met does a candidate qualify to have their name on the ballot. For McGregor, this is a hurdle that he can’t hope to clear.
Popular with extremists
Although he may pick up nominations from individual councillors — such as a former Irish Freedom Party councillor (but now Independent) Glen Moore — McGregor won’t manage to secure a majority in his favour from even one council.
Regardless, McGregor continues to be a popular figure in extremist circles. Just two weeks ago on 15 April Tucker Carlson made the journey to Ireland to interview McGregor.
During the two-hour discussion, he reiterated his now well-known views about immigration being a racket which has made people feel like “third-rate citizens in their own country”.
Going further, McGregor said immigration is “a genocide of our people. This is an attempted erasure of our people”.
Rape not mentioned
He went on to accuse the government of bullying people but that this would not be allowed to continue.
McGregor told Carlson “We say no more, and we are in the midst of highlighting it and continuing our motion towards the betterment of our country and the saving of our great country”.
Needless to say, the Nikita Hand rape case was not mentioned.
McGregor treated Carlson to a reception in his Dublin pub, The Black Forge. In attendance were some of the more well-known faces of Irish extremism
Afterwards, McGregor treated Carlson to a reception in his Dublin pub, The Black Forge. In attendance were some of the more well-known faces of Irish extremism, such as councillors Tom McDonnell, Malachy Steenson, and the already mentioned Moore.
Searchlight previously reported on McDonnell’s comments on the need for Irish women to “breed” more as “we need to produce more children of our own origin, of our own people”.
Conspiracy theorist
Also in attendance was Jana Lunden, an American conspiracy theorist, anti-trans and anti-immigration agitator who founded anti-trans group the Natural Women’s Council.
Lunden has called Ireland her home for a number of years now and was photographed alongside McGregor at the event.
Neither his previous conviction for the rape of Nikita Hand nor the sexual assault lawsuit recently filed against him appeared to be of any concern to Lunden despite her purported advocacy for “women’s safety”.
In terms of becoming a far-right cultural figurehead – as opposed to an elected official – McGregor doesn’t have to win an election to succeed.
With a net worth in the hundreds of millions, his financial largesse is likely to flow to various far right and anti-immigration groups and movements.
If it hasn’t already.
