Conor McGregor, one of the world’s most famous athletes, is standing in front of a burning bus in Dublin. Dressed in his trademark three-piece suit, he gazes into the distance as a mob — fists clenched, faces covered, petrol bombs in hand — stand behind him.
The image is a fabrication, a digitalised “artwork” posted to Twitter/X on Friday by Paul Golding, leader of the far-right political group Britain First, who has previously been convicted of religiously aggravated harassment and a terror offence.
It speaks to the unusual position that the mixed martial arts fighter McGregor, formerly Forbes’ highest-paid athlete in the world, has found himself in recently. McGregor has been accused of fomenting unrest in his home city and elsewhere and been embroiled in controversy thanks to comments hitting out at immigration in Ireland and saying the country was at “war”. There is no suggestion McGregor has endorsed the violence or the politics of the far right.
McGregor’s posts are being assessed by the gardai, the Irish police, as part of an inquiry into the dissemination of online hate speech. The inquiry is being led by Justin Kelly, an assistant garda commissioner.
• What happened in Dublin? How false rumours fuelled a night of chaos
In a tweet above the artwork he posted, Golding, 41, urged McGregor to hold a “freedom march”, on the basis that “Ireland is full” and “Ireland belongs to the Irish”. He added: “The people of Ireland would be solidly behind him.”
McGregor responded to the tweet emphasising that he did not condone “[Thursday night’s] riots, any attacks on our first responders in their line of duty. I do not condone looting and the damaging of shops.”
He added: “I do understand frustrations however, and I do understand a move must be made to ensure the change we need is ushered in. And fast! I am in the process of arranging. Believe me I am way more tactical and I have backing. There will be change in Ireland, mark my words.”
McGregor, who has more than 10 million followers on Twitter/X and more than 47 million on Instagram, is one of Ireland’s most famous sons. But he is also one of the nation’s most controversial.
His divisive comments began before the riots in Dublin on Thursday night, which flared hours after the stabbing of three children and a creche worker outside an Irish-language school by a man of French Algerian origin with mental health issues. A five-year-old girl, who is understood to have been born to an eastern European father and South American mother, remains in a critical condition. The creche worker is also fighting for her life.
For weeks, McGregor has taken a very public stand on immigration debates that are dividing Ireland. He was particularly vocal this month following the conviction of Jozef Puska, a Slovakian labourer, for the murder of the teacher Ashling Murphy, 23, in Tullamore.
McGregor called on the Irish government to set up a “brand new task force … with the sole objective of assessing and monitoring all entrants that come into Ireland” owing to the murder “at the hands of a foreign criminal”. He added: “Our country is at stake and we will tolerate nothing less.”
Taking to Twitter/X on Wednesday, he told his followers: “Ireland, we are at war.”
And in response to a video of a journalist at the scene of the stabbing, McGregor said: “We are not backing down, we are only warming up. There will be no backing down until real change is implemented for the safety of our nation. We are not losing any more of our woman [sic] and children to sick and twisted people who should not even be in Ireland in the first place. Call it what you want. We do not care. May God help us all. Ireland for victory.”
Tommy Robinson, founder of the English Defence League and only recently reinstated to Twitter/X after he was banned for hateful conduct, has also recently heaped praise on the fighter. “I’m so happy Conor is standing up for the people of Ireland,” he said.
Micheál Martin, the deputy prime minister, called McGregor’s comments “disgraceful”.
A spokesman for Eddie Hearn, the sports promoter behind the event, declined to comment on what McGregor had said.
McGregor, who has not fought since breaking his leg in a fight in 2021, has previously been convicted of assault, including punching an elderly man in Dublin who refused a shot of whiskey. Now an entrepreneur with his own stout and whiskey brands, he was expected to miss a boxing match in Dublin on Saturday night between Ireland’s Katie Taylor and Chantelle Cameron despite the event being sponsored by his brand.
In a statement last night, McGregor said: “There is no place for the violence and acts of hate we’ve seen in Ireland over the last few days, I am praying that the streets will remain calm and peaceful. We Irish are known for our beautiful hearts, and we have a proud history of not accepting racism.
“I do strongly believe our leaders must address this issue head-on with serious policy reforms regarding Ireland’s immigration and refugee processes. This is not a time for debate and posturing, our elected leaders must act in the best interest of Ireland’s citizens and our beloved country’s future.”
Dublin, one of Europe’s most popular tourist destinations, fell quiet on Friday. Pubs kept their shutters down, and even large institutions including McDonald’s and Burger King shut their doors.
Security guards stood watch at hotels, vetting all guests attempting to enter. At Murray’s in O’Connell Street, one worker said colleagues, particularly foreign-born staff, had said they were too afraid to work. “It was kids, rampaging. We’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. A large police presence remained in the city, particularly at the Irish parliament and O’Connell Street.
Meanwhile, fresh details have emerged about the knife attack. Witnesses say the alleged attacker, who appeared to be in a psychotic state, approached the children as they lined up outside the school and stabbed the five-year-old repeatedly. He then stabbed another two children before plunging his knife into the creche worker, who risked her life to save them.
“It all happened in the space of a few minutes,” said one witness. “When she saw this man produce the knife and try to take one of the children, she tried to fight him off but she physically couldn’t.”
The woman received multiple wounds to her abdomen and chest and collapsed almost immediately. The five-year old girl sustained catastrophic and life-changing injuries.
On Friday night, the Late Late Toy Show, an Irish television institution focused on Christmas gifts and games, opened with its host, Patrick Kielty, saying: “After the events of the last 24 hours we … will be thinking of every family that needs an extra hug.”
Almost £300,000 has been raised for a delivery driver who intervened in the attack, on an online donation page called Buy Caio Benicio a Pint. Brazilian Benicio was on his motorbike when he saw what was happening and used his helmet to hit the attacker “with all my power”.
The suspect arrived in Ireland in 2003 and applied for asylum. His application was rejected and his deportation ordered but he successfully challenged it and now has full residency rights. There were suggestions that his mental health had deteriorated after he was diagnosed with a brain tumour about two years ago. His friends told gardai his behaviour changed radically afterwards.
He was arrested in possession of a knife in Dublin last May and appeared before the district court in June, but the outcome is unclear.
The stabbing became the centre of the riot. Large crowds began to gather there almost immediately. Mixing among onlookers were teenagers and drug dealers who sell crack, cannabis and cocaine outside the nearby flat complexes.
At the start, they were rowdy and abusive towards the gardai. The taunts became more vitriolic when news of the attacker’s ethnicity began to spread online.
Reji Yohannan, 52, who runs the Gala newsagents on Abbey Street, was forced to hide in the basement of his shop for two hours awaiting police as rioters looted the store, causing at least £50,000 damage and stealing everything, from cigarettes and alcohol to the coffee machine. Standing in the debris left by the violence, surrounded by empty shelves and smashed glass, he believes he and his staff, who are of Indian origin, may have been targeted.
“We are not Irish nationals, though we have been here for 20 years and are Irish citizens, so we could have been targeted for that,” he said.
Yohannan believes it will take at least a week to clear up the damage before they can open again.
CCTV footage captured the mob breaking into his store and loading bin bags with stolen items. “It was terrifying,” he said. “Really terrible. They had masks on and smashed our window through with a hammer. When they came in we ran away. We had no choice. This was our wages. This was our food. All gone.”
