{"id":270162,"date":"2025-03-30T14:05:06","date_gmt":"2025-03-30T14:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/30\/not-a-hope-in-hell-irish-politicians-roundly-reject-conor-mcgregors-presidential-bid\/"},"modified":"2025-03-30T14:05:06","modified_gmt":"2025-03-30T14:05:06","slug":"not-a-hope-in-hell-irish-politicians-roundly-reject-conor-mcgregors-presidential-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/30\/not-a-hope-in-hell-irish-politicians-roundly-reject-conor-mcgregors-presidential-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Not a hope in hell’: Irish politicians roundly reject Conor McGregor’s presidential bid"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Not one of 134 Irish politicians who replied to a Sky News survey would support Conor McGregor’s ambition to become the country’s president.<\/p>\n

Comments ranged from “not a hope in hell” to “I could not think of anyone more unfit” and “I would genuinely rather we didn’t have a president at all”.<\/p>\n

The former MMA champion<\/strong><\/a>, who is appealing a civil case<\/strong><\/a> in which a jury found that he raped a woman, needs significant backing before he would be allowed to stand.<\/p>\n

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McGregor praises Trump and hits out at Irish PM<\/span>
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McGregor used a St Patrick’s Day meeting with Donald Trump in the Oval Office<\/strong><\/a> to further his aim to run in the election, which must be held by November.<\/p>\n

Days later he formally announced on social media he would seek election and stand on an anti-immigration platform.<\/p>\n

Candidates must garner the support of 20 Oireachtas (parliament) members, or the backing of four of Ireland’s local authorities in order to stand.<\/p>\n

There are 234 Oireachtas members: 174 TDs or members of the lower house, the Dail, and 60 senators.<\/p>\n

Sky News asked each one if they would give McGregor a nomination. A total of 104 TDs and 30 senators replied.<\/p>\n

Every one of the 134 politicians said they would not support McGregor running. None chose the “maybe” option.<\/p>\n

Read more: Why McGregor has ‘close to zero chance’ of becoming Ireland’s next president<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n


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‘Ireland and America are siblings’<\/span>
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Sky News asked: Would you nominate McGregor for a presidential candidate? Irish politicians answered:<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n

“I consider him to be a tacky, moronic vulgarian. I would never consider him even remotely a suitable person for a nomination.” – Senator<\/p>\n

“He’s a misogynist and a thug. On behalf of the women of Ireland he can f*** off.” – TD<\/p>\n

“McGregor has become the cheerleader for misogyny in Ireland\u2026 a populist buffoon.” – Senator<\/p>\n

“I genuinely would struggle to think of anyone worse to hold that position.” – Garret Ahearn, Fine Gael senator<\/p>\n

“I could not think of anyone more unfit for public office.” – Duncan Smith, Labour TD<\/p>\n

“There is no evidence Mr McGregor has the necessary skillset for the role.” – Malcolm Byrne, Fianna Fail TD<\/p>\n

“There isn’t a snowball’s chance\u2026 he made a show of himself in Washington DC last week and with no elected mandate he certainly does not “speak for Irish people” when he travels overseas.” – Cathal Crowe, Fianna Fail TD<\/p>\n

“Conor McGregor’s divisive behaviour and rhetoric would be completely unsuitable for such a role.” – Maeve O’Connell, Fine Gael TD<\/p>\n

“As a mother of four young boys I have far more ambition for them than to have someone like that in a position of respectability.” – Erin McGreehan, Fianna Fail TD<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Sky News has approached McGregor’s representative for comment on our findings. None has yet been received.<\/p>\n

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If McGregor chooses to pursue the council route to a nomination, he may not find it much easier, according to Gary Murphy, professor of politics at Dublin City University.<\/p>\n

“The difficulty there is they are also dominated by the political parties. And so I think he would find this extremely difficult to actually get on the ballot.<\/p>\n

“Now there is a big independent vote in Ireland, and maybe McGregor is targeting that, but the problem with that independent vote here in Ireland is that it’s very left wing and he’s not.”<\/p>\n

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Many don’t believe McGregor actually wants to be president<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n

This is not an exhaustive or a very scientific poll, and several strong-willed independent politicians declined to give a view, despite repeated emails, calls and WhatsApps.<\/p>\n

So it is still possible Conor McGregor could pick up a few nominations from the Oireachtas\u2026 should he ask.<\/p>\n

But the 134-strong No camp \u2013 combined with the scathing replies we received \u2013 paints a picture of the strength of opposition to McGregor running.<\/p>\n

That is of course, assuming he actually wants to be president. There are many who don’t believe he does. <\/p>\n

Pretty much anyone can run in Irish general elections, and we had one of those a few short months ago.<\/p>\n

McGregor was nowhere to be seen. But every time he posts about his political ambitions, he is lauded as the “Irish Trump” by a mostly American fanbase.<\/p>\n

It could be a strategy to further burnish his reputation and brand in America, rather than a sincere desire to embrace a restrictive seven-year stint of often symbolic public service back home.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

McGregor is currently appealing the result of a civil case in which a Dublin jury found he had raped a woman<\/strong><\/a>, Nikita Hand, in 2018 and ordered him to pay her damages. He also faces a civil case in Florida, where a woman claims he sexually assaulted her<\/a><\/strong> at a basketball game in Miami in 2023. His legal team says the allegation is “false”.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Not one of 134 Irish politicians who replied to a Sky News survey would support Conor McGregor’s ambition to become the country’s president. Comments ranged from “not a hope in hell” to “I could not think of anyone more unfit” and “I would genuinely rather we didn’t have a president at all”. The former MMA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/25\/03\/768x432\/skynews-conor-mcgregor-ireland_6859951.jpg?20250317192529","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8192,31248,8918,5066,7975,66845,4263,212,10724,207461],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270162"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270162"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":270164,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270162\/revisions\/270164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}