March 21, 2025 - 5:50pm
The Irish presidency is a largely ceremonial role. But the office does carry soft power, with the incumbent able to use it to highlight issues they consider important. Current President Michael D. Higgins, for instance, has decided to use the office as a soapbox to promote his socialist view of the world. With an election due towards the end of this year, someone else who would like to use the soft power of the presidency is ex-mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor, who this week announced his intention to run for the office.
McGregor’s fame is such that Donald Trump invited him to the White House to mark St Patrick’s Day earlier in the week. Like Trump, the former fighter believes immigration is too high — which, in the case of Ireland, isn’t wrong. Net migration into the country was 80,000 in the year to April 2024, equivalent to 1.2 million people migrating to Britain in a single year.
McGregor took the opportunity to address the issue of immigration and in particular the sheer volume of asylum seekers entering Ireland. Per capita, it is one of the highest figures in Europe. Many of those asylum seekers are accommodated by the state in small Irish towns, sometimes sparking local protests and even violence.
The former MMA fighter also accuses political parties of ignoring the concerns of ordinary voters, and it is true that a majority of the electorate believes immigration is too high and that the rules around asylum need to be tightened. But while McGregor would like to run for the presidency, he first needs to be nominated by 20 members of the Oireachtas — as Ireland’s parliament is known — or by four local councils, and there is no chance of either of these things happening.
For the sake of argument, what would happen if he did run? Last year McGregor was found liable by a civil jury for sexually assaulting a woman, and was ordered to pay her almost €250,000 in damages. He has appealed the verdict, but it confirmed his image as a thug in the minds of most Irish people.
However, there is a sizeable protest vote in Ireland. If McGregor did somehow manage to get his name on the ballot paper later this year, at a rough guess he might attract up to 20% support, especially in working-class areas and those rural regions which are most directly affected by high immigration and intense competition for housing.
In the 2018 presidential election, businessman Peter Casey appeared out of nowhere to win almost a quarter of the vote, much of it in rural areas. He had generated controversy when he described Irish Travellers, who often live a semi-nomadic life, as “basically people camping in someone else’s land”. He also said they were “not paying their fair share of taxes in society”.
Casey was accused of racism and hate speech, but his comments made him stand out from the pack and struck many voters as plain-speaking. As a result, he attracted a large, floating protest vote.
Could another figure break out from the pack the way Casey did? None did so in the general election last November. Despite public concerns about influxes into the country, Right-wing anti-immigration candidates struck the vast majority of voters as too extreme and eccentric.
Curiously, the party probably best placed to tap into public misgivings about immigration is Sinn Féin, which has broad working-class support. Yet its politicians remain reluctant to address the issue, which is likely one reason why they underperformed in November. Many working-class voters simply stayed at home, deprived of a champion.
The real effect of McGregor’s recent appearance in the White House and the announcement of his wish to run for the presidency will probably be to make it even harder to discuss immigration, in the short term at least. For example, an Irish comedian and musician by the name of Garron Noone, who has 1.7 million followers on TikTok, deactivated his social media accounts yesterday because he was roundly attacked online after posting a short video in which he said there are legitimate concerns about high immigration. This was despite distancing himself from McGregor first.
In due course, McGregor’s visit to the White House will have faded into the background for most people. But if he somehow manages in the meantime to make himself a leading voice in the immigration debate, a sort of Irish Tommy Robinson, the main effect will be to make it almost impossible for sensible criticisms of Ireland’s immigration policy to be heard. Currently, that is the last thing the country needs.
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Subscribe“equivalent to 1.2 million people migrating to Britain in a single year.”
I’m sorry, calling these numbers ‘migration’ is like calling an alcoholic on 1,000+ units a week, a ‘drinker’.
When you have an existential crisis, you need dramatic events and characters to turn the tide. What’s happening to the Irish people is fundamentally evil. They are clearly being demographically replaced, on purpose. There’s nothing organic about what’s happening.
What’s happening to Ireland is so unbelievably extreme, so toxic and monstrous. You simply can’t moan or nitpick in times like this.
Well said. As far as I am concerned, those not mincing their words or running scared of the vile and toxic reaction to their justified concerns are heroes.
But Britain’s gross immigration is well over a million a year. Net was 900000, , with 500000 possibly indigenousleaving, the silent diaspora.
””Conor McGregor is toxifying Ireland’s immigration debate””
haha, agenda headline anyone? Robinson and McGregor are Patriots and heroes – but the MSM (and seemingly the ones like this here too) are out to achieve something very harmful to the West by branding patriotism as racism. One wonders why…. but so it is.
I often wonder if the writers here have ever picked up a copy of Gibbon, or is he way too much a ‘Dead White Male’ for their dainty tastes – and I wonder if asked, ‘So, why did Rome fall?’ what they would say….
My guess would be: The Patriarchy, Racism, Social Welfare Austerity, lack of Diversity, Lack of Inclusion, Conservatism/Right Wing wickedness, Religion, and so on. Basically the complete opposite of reality.
No – it was democracy coupled with immigration which killed Rome after 700 years. Let’s look to Gibbon for a good line on why Rome fell:
”Under a Democratic government the powers of citizens exercise the powers of sovereignty; and those powers will first be abused and afterwards lost if they are committed to an unwieldly multitude.”
He is saying once the Patriot no longer ruled for the Nation, the citizen did not wish to serv the Nation’s Military, nor in its petty government positions as duty, but as an easy living (and corruption). Once the people were diluted till Patriotism was replaced by self interest – the end is come, as the voters will no longer devote themselves to the National wellbeing, but to self interest and base feelings and to cultural fashion and demagoguery.
As they do not put Nation first then can be made to put anything first instead, and this is what the captured education system and media does now, twists their honourable thoughts to dishonourable thinking. Decadence, degeneracy, lack of belief in something of ultimate importance, reduce the ideal to seeking ‘Pig Satisfaction’. (nod to Kant)
Macgregor would be a true citizen, and so he is derided and censored.
Thanks for that, with which i largely agree. It’s good to read a contribution in Comments from a non-regular contributor, but which sets out an argument with historical and literary perspective as a foundation.
The only point i don’t agree on is the inclusion of Unherd within the msm. The very fact that your comment can become part of the discourse indicates there’s something going on via this platform that is absent from msm. In that context, the articles themselves become merely the starting point for discussion, with the headers designed to draw people in. It works!
Great comment.
My lack of education sent me to chatgpt, who had this to say in response to your Gibbon reference:
Gibbon wasn’t a fan of democracy as we understand it today — he was writing in the 18th century, a time when monarchy and aristocracy were still dominant in Europe, and he often associated democracy with instability and mob rule. His quote about the “unwieldy multitude” reflects a fear common among elites: that the masses, given power, will act irresponsibly or selfishly.
But while Gibbon did mention decadence, loss of civic virtue, and internal corruption, he didn’t blame immigration per se — nor did he define Rome as ever having been a “democracy” in the modern sense.
Rome wasn’t a single, static thing for 700 years. It evolved from Kingdom to Republic to Empire. During the Republic, there was an ideal of shared civic responsibility (especially among elites), but even then, power was mostly concentrated in the hands of a few wealthy families.
Immigration, broadly defined, was constant in Rome. The empire expanded through conquest, and people from all over the Mediterranean and beyond became Roman subjects — often voluntarily. By the later stages, many of the Empire’s best soldiers, generals, and even emperors were not born in Italy — they came from the provinces: Spain, the Balkans, Syria, Africa. Far from weakening Rome, this diverse integration arguably prolonged its power.
That said, some historians argue that by the 4th and 5th centuries, the influx of so-called “barbarians” (Goths, Vandals, etc.) — combined with economic pressures, military overreach, and internal decay — led to fragmentation and collapse in the West. But again, these people were often invited in as allies or workers. It wasn’t “immigration” as in open borders; it was state-led resettlement and political compromise.
And our ‘barbarians’ are often invited in as well. The result will be the same – collapse and destruction of the current society and a dark age.
Replace democracy with majoritarian and he is spot on.
I stopped reading Decline and Fall when I realized Gibbon was a homosexual and anti-Christian as a result.
Our elites are still not fans of democracy. They simply call it “populism,” these days.
Yes, but to get Roman citizenship, you needed to have served Rome in some capacity, not merely show up on a boat and claim the benefits.
Once people become convinced that a particular viewpoint is the only one acceptable then you see what you might once have not believed possible the young creating their own attempt at a “judenfrei” future on their college
campus and Democrats fire bombing Tesla.
“For example, an Irish comedian and musician by the name of Garron Noone, who has 1.7 million followers on TikTok, deactivated his social media accounts yesterday because he was roundly attacked online after posting a short video in which he said there are legitimate concerns about high immigration. This was despite distancing himself from McGregor first.”
Almost everyone, with a few notable exceptions, runs scared of the mob. Who the mob is or who directs it we don’t really know but none the less we appear to have rule by unseen and unaccountable mobs that are eerily reminiscent of Maoist maniacs, but that’s alright so long as they’re not “racist” or “Far Right”.
The mob in question consists of leftists who are racist (anti-white), fascistic, and very violent. It’s no surprise that some people feel cowed, given how extreme leftist politics is. Look at their behavior—how they whip themselves into a frenzy of hate and violence over obviously fake footage of Musk giving a Nazi salute, for example. They are obsessed with hate. They have to hate people. They have already declared war on ordinary people, long ago, and we should keep fighting until we are free of them,
Young Garron learnt a valuable lesson. He spent the first half of his video heavily qualifying what he was about to say, including his dislike of McGregor – “He is not a good man”. In such heated debates, you can qualify till your pen runs dry and it will do you no good. The truest lyric ever written was Paul Simon’s ‘A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.’
Two of the three heads of the parties heading up the last Irish coalition government were homosexual men with no children of their own and therefore, no long term fears in their wellbeing. We have one of the most craven, bootlicking, globalist, communist political spectrums in the world, yet truly we have the politicians we deserve, for anyone who tries to stand up and speak out on behalf of Irish people and their legitimate concerns is branded a mouth breathing racist by the terminally online laptop classes that ever increasingly make up the majority of the Irish born population under 40.
Conor McGregor is most definitely not the answer, but after having a Jew hating socialist sociopath in office for over a decade, fitness of character obviously isn’t too high up the list of requirements.
I’m not sure being homosexual with no children means you don’t care about the world or other people. Surely, on your logic, you’d have to arrive at the same conclusion with regards to heterosexuals with no children, of which there are many more than in the former category.
The logic here utterly fails me. McGregor is running for president because mainstream parties refuse to address the issue. Yet we can’t vote for McGregor, because if he wins the mainstream parties will refuse to address the issue. Make this make sense.
We have seen it across Europe. It is the current modus operandi. Any country that votes for an anti-mass and illegal immigration party will be denied the right to have their democratic choice honoured. This is the new democracy. This is the era of 2+2=5
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“ the main effect will be to make it almost impossible for sensible criticisms of Ireland’s immigration policy to be heard.”
Really? And where will these sensible criticisms be coming from?
There is no debate on immigration in Ireland.
We plebs are just expected to endure it.
Exactly. Agree or else.
Anyone who cares to listen to Mr McGregor’s statement at the White House on St Patrick’s day will quickly understand why he’s not a good fit for President of Ireland. I understand what David’s saying, we need someone who is willing and ABLE to represent the voiceless Irish, but CMcG is not the man.
But currently he’s the ONLY man…
Would he actually be any worse than the current incumbent?
I found it itmoving, as well as surprising.
Immigration is completely out of control in Ireland. Three bed semi-detached houses needing work are going for €600k in Cork city. Immigrants are living 10 to a room in some properties. Being nice is getting the Irish people a lot of grief and displacement. And this is just the beginning. The population is booming and this economy cannot support it and the Irish are being evicted. This is not exaggeration.
Were there no immigrants, do you think that Cork city house would be £100k?
Easy to believe CMG is not a great candidate for President. However where is the better alternative? Only needs to not be a traitor to be better than the current politicians.
Even if Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael (the Government parties) agree on a credible candidate (Heather Humphreys, who would be a strong favourite), Sinn Fein will also run a candidate as will, probably, Labour, the Social Democrats and the Greens (an agreed candidate). Which means that the parties opposed to an immigration debate will see their vote divided thereby opening the door for Peter Casey (if Conor McGregor remains silent) to secure 30%+ of the first preference vote and have a real chance of finishing in second place. The MSM will strongly oppose him (which is why second place is the best he can hope for) but in an election campaign they won’t be able to keep him off the airwaves or out of the papers. So he could secure a very respectable second place.
Unwanted and undemocratic immigration is not something to be debated, it is something to be halted and reversed. It needs a comprehensive referendum.
Unherd – who is it for?
Immigration is from a) europe – every european has the right to come here and work and/or get benefits , it used to be more for work but now skews more towards benefits. Hard to know whatbto do about this but surely irish residents should have a preferential right to housing above more recently arrived – havent heard any politician push for this
B) work visas and student visas – this should be easy to reduce but too mush cushy rental income/ cheap labour for the well connected who dominate political parties – havent heard a single politician mention this
C) international protection applicants – the system takes ages to assess people and then hardly ever enforces returns, they just deny the application and hope the applicants disappears to another ru country. But millions been made by guest owners , hoteliers and supplierss in to this grim trade.
I think the average middle class irish have a bad attitude towards the the “working class” for want of a better word and the subconscious snobbery plays a huge role in muting conversation. To be concerned about immigration marks you out as of this poorer class. That is another reason we dont really talk about it
Problem with Casey is that he only said what many people in Ireland think
Ireland is headed down the tubes and the immigration surge means it’s gonna go faster.
Time to reactivate the IRA
Sinn Fein – the one-time “political wing of the IRA” – are firmly in the open doors immigration camp.
I’ll vote for Connor. I’m not a citizen of Ireland, but per standard globalist operating procedure, that is irrelevant.