Conor McGregor draped in the Irish flag (Credit: Getty Images)
Conor McGregor announces bid for Irish presidency
Conor McGregor, once a celebrated UFC champion and later a figure mired in scandal, is now seeking to swap the fighting cage for Ireland’s Áras an Uachtaráin, the Irish Presidential residency
The 37-year-old has launched a bid to run for the Irish presidency, but with less than three weeks before the nomination deadline, his campaign is struggling to gain traction.
McGregor must secure support from at least 20 members of Ireland’s Oireachtas (parliament) or four local councils by September 24 to appear on the ballot. On September 4, he turned to social media, urging followers, “Contact your local county councillors today and ask them to nominate me.”
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In a video posted outside the Department of the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) in Dublin, McGregor lashed out at the government, “We have seen the homelessness of Irish children risen to levels unprecedented, proving this Government’s refusal to abide by and respect our proclamation where all children of Ireland are to be cherished. Instead, our children abandoned.”
He linked the crisis to immigration, saying, “This incompetent failure of future generations has been accompanied with an intense influx of mass migration into an already severed system.”
The Irish presidency is largely symbolic, but McGregor’s rhetoric has placed him at the center of far-right politics. Once the highest-paid athlete in the world, the former fighter has reinvented himself as an outspoken critic of immigration, echoing nationalist themes that have gained momentum in Ireland in recent years. He has also aligned himself with US President Donald Trump, whom he met at the White House on St. Patrick’s Day.
But McGregor’s public record clouds his path. He has faced multiple allegations of sexual abuse, including a civil case in Dublin where a jury ordered him to pay nearly 250,000 euros in damages in 2024. He also faces an ongoing lawsuit in Florida tied to an alleged assault during the 2023 NBA Finals. Earlier run-ins with the law include a guilty plea for punching an elderly man in a Dublin pub and a two-year driving ban for repeated offenses.
Critics argue that his incendiary rhetoric is a distraction from Ireland’s real challenges. Immigration has increased, with 149,200 arrivals in the year leading to April 2024, a 17-year high, but surveys suggest most Irish citizens remain supportive of migrant rights, with housing and healthcare ranking as more pressing election issues.
McGregor insists he can be a disruptive force. Branding himself a “master of martial combat” and a “solution driven man,” he claims to be the only candidate willing to resist an EU migration pact. “Who else will stand up to Government and oppose this bill?” he wrote in March. “Any other Presidential candidate they attempt to put forward will be of no resistance to them. I will!”
Yet McGregor faces near-total opposition from lawmakers. A Sky News survey earlier this year found no members of parliament or senators willing to back his candidacy. Some dismissed him in biting terms, calling him “a misogynist and a thug” and “a populist buffoon.” One senator remarked, “I genuinely would struggle to think of anyone worse to hold that position.”
