{"id":352128,"date":"2026-03-18T06:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T06:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/352128\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T06:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T06:26:12","slug":"conor-mcgregor-told-he-represents-the-very-worst-of-irish-society-by-tanaiste-simon-harris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/352128\/","title":{"rendered":"Conor McGregor told he ‘represents the very worst of Irish society’ by T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris"},"content":{"rendered":"

It comes amid reports Conor McGregor is in Washington DC for St Patrick’s Day celebrations\"Conor<\/p>\n

Conor McGregor(Image: JIM WATSON\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Conor McGregor has been told he \u201crepresents the very worst of Irish society\u201d by T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris.<\/p>\n

Mr Harris<\/a> was speaking amid reports that the MMA fighter<\/a> was in Washington DC for St Patrick’s Day<\/a>. Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> is set to meet US President Donald Trump<\/a> at the White House.<\/p>\n

Asked about the reports, Mr Harris, speaking following a meeting with the UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves in London on Monday, said: \u201cIt\u2019s a matter for the United States of America who they let into their country.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut my view of Conor McGregor is well known, he represents the very worst of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

In November 2024, the Dublin <\/a>fighter was found civilly liable in a High Court damages case in Dublin brought by a woman who accused him of rape.<\/p>\n

Nikita Hand<\/a>, also known as Nikita Ni Laimhin, won her claim against Mr McGregor after accusing the professional fighter of raping her in a Dublin hotel in December 2018.<\/p>\n

A few months later, he met with US President Donald Trump in the White House on St Patrick’s Day and criticised the Irish Government on various issues during the meeting.<\/p>\n

Mr Harris, speaking on Monday, insisted that the focus of the day should be on Jessie Buckley<\/a>, who clinched the Academy Award for best actress for her role in Hamnet during Sunday night’s ceremony.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tanaiste and Finance Minister Simon Harris<\/p>\n

He stated: “Today we’re celebrating Jessie Buckley, someone who represents the best of Ireland, an incredible person who’s shattered a glass ceiling, the first Irish woman to win best actress at the Oscars, an incredible ambassador for our country.<\/p>\n

“Conor McGregor represents the very worst of Irish society.<\/p>\n

“Nobody needs any advice from me, but you know, tomorrow is a celebration of Irishness, of our values, of inclusion, of the best of us and when I think of the best of us, I don’t think of Conor McGregor.”<\/p>\n

The Tanaiste lauded Buckley’s “amazing humanity and compassion”, saying her achievement is “a moment of great joy and great delight at a very difficult and uncertain time in the world”.<\/p>\n

He also extended his congratulations to Richard Baneham, who bagged his third visual effects Oscar for his work on Avatar: Fire And Ash.<\/p>\n

Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It comes amid reports Conor McGregor is in Washington DC for St Patrick’s Day celebrations Conor McGregor(Image: JIM…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1714,93,61,60,312,1843,1717,70,63762,15152,548],"class_list":["post-352128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-conor-mcgregor","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jessie-buckley","tag-micheal-martin","tag-nikita-hand","tag-simon-harris","tag-st-patricks-day","tag-taoiseach","tag-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}