{"id":516421,"date":"2026-06-24T19:08:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T19:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/516421\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T19:08:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T19:08:35","slug":"dave-hannigan-why-was-conor-mcgregor-cheered-whereas-a-world-cup-star-was-jeered-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/516421\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave Hannigan: Why was Conor McGregor cheered whereas a World Cup star was jeered? \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conor McGregor<\/a> strolled on to the set of the Jimmy Fallon<\/a> Show in Rockefeller Plaza to the soundtrack of the house band playing Saturday Night\u2019s Alright For Fighting. He was greeted with rousing cheers by the audience and offered a hero\u2019s welcome by the eponymous host. After handing over a pair of his own-brand Unapologetic cigars as a gift, he cleverly name-dropped the New York Knicks winning the NBA title<\/a>, and his every cackle and utterance thereafter was met by sustained whooping and hollering. <\/p>\n

Even by usual, unctuous chatshow standards, Fallon came across less as an interviewer and more as a giddy puppy slobbering all over his owner desperately seeking approval and attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast time we were here, you remember?\u201d asked Fallon in the excited tone of a teen looking up to some miscreant uncle. \u201cWe went out drinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fanboying continued in trademark breathless fashion. What\u2019s it like to win a bout in 13 seconds? What do you feel when you step into the octagon? How\u2019s it been getting back into the routine in advance of your first fight for five years? So many questions, yet, bizarrely, none about him recently, conveniently, finding God. No mention either of the other enormous elephant in the room. <\/p>\n

McGregor dispatched all the softballs thrown his way in the clipped, staccato speech and faux-profound aphorisms he deploys so effectively to woo gullible Americans. Fallon, the original of that species, even asked the obligatory \u201cHow\u2019s the family doing?\u201d before whipping out a photograph of the Dubliner\u2019s youngest son in fighting gear to draw a chorus of oohs and awws.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat would you say to 2015 Conor McGregor?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe game is yours, kid,\u201d said his guest. \u201cThe game is yours.\u201d<\/p>\n

What a tawdry game it is. Eighteen months have passed since a jury of his Dublin peers found the former UFC champion civilly liable for sexually assaulting Nikita Hand at the Beacon Hotel. A verdict later upheld<\/a> by a three-judge Court of Appeal. None of that seems to bother NBC, Fallon, his audience or many people across this country. The stains on his character somehow disappear when he crosses the Atlantic, blown away in the slipstream of his private jet.<\/p>\n

American supplicants falling at his feet \u2013 check out the Ariel Helwani Show online for another masterclass in nauseating obsequiousness \u2013 cannot plead ignorance of the Dubliner\u2019s extensive blotter. The first amendment of the US constitution gives news outlets here the right to publish just about anything. This means somebody living in New York has had freer access than any Irish person to detailed and disturbing accounts of every police investigation of incidents involving McGregor from Ibiza to Dublin to Miami.<\/p>\n

\"AchrafAchraf Hakimi after Morocco’s World Cup win over Scotland in Boston. Photograph: Nick Potts\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

Three days after McGregor\u2019s warm and cuddly media tour in Manhattan, Achraf Hakimi captained Morocco against Scotland at Foxborough, his 12th World Cup match of a storied career. The vaunted Paris Saint-Germain right-back played his part in his nation\u2019s 1-0 victory, his performance hailed by his coach Mohamed Ouahbi as \u201cextraordinary\u201d and \u201cvery relaxed\u201d. Ouahbi was answering specific postgame questions about the team leader because Hakimi was booed almost every time he touched the ball. Apart from the splendidly ignorant Ally McCoist on ITV, everybody else watching around the world knew exactly why.<\/p>\n

Hours before kick-off, a Versailles court of appeal ordered that Hakimi must stand trial on a charge of rape, and that news quickly went viral. A woman alleges he sexually assaulted her at his home in the Val-de-Marne region southeast of Paris back in March 2023 when she was 24. Upon reviewing the case, French judges decided there was enough evidence to proceed. Hakimi responded by complaining he was being persecuted for being rich, and his accuser gave an interview, using the pseudonym Jeanne, saying she wanted the chance \u201cto defend myself, to be heard\u201d. The football fans in Massachusetts voiced their opinions by expressing loud disgust at his presence on the field. As is their right. <\/p>\n

Of course, Hakimi is innocent until proven guilty. But how strange that in one state a man found civilly liable of sexual assault is cheered to the rafters while up the road an athlete awaiting trial gets jeered? Is outrage selective? Based on nationality? Just an attempt to influence his performance? There doesn\u2019t seem to be any uniform standard. Then again, this World Cup has also offered us a new spin of the Thomas Partey paradox, a previous version of which involved Arsenal playing the midfielder while he was being investigated following rape accusations from multiple women in London starting in 2022.<\/p>\n

That Partey will finally go on trial in a court in Southwark, London, next year didn\u2019t prevent Ghana\u2019s coach Carlos Queiroz selecting him for this tournament. However, he missed out on their opener with Panama in Toronto because he was refused entry into Canada for lying on his visa application about his legal troubles. Yet, he\u2019s allowed into the USA and played against England<\/a> in Boston on Tuesday and seems likely to feature against Croatia in Philadelphia. Should Ghana finish second in Group L, they will have to head north of the border again and their number five will remain stateside if they do so. Potentially freeing him up for the chatshow circuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere did you get the nickname \u2018Notorious\u2019?\u201d asked Fallon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt actually came because I had a habit of getting into trouble,\u201d said McGregor, \u201cwhen I was younger.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he was younger. Awww.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conor McGregor strolled on to the set of the Jimmy Fallon Show in Rockefeller Plaza to the soundtrack…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[15133,1714,93,2956,61,60,3721,4442,4018],"class_list":["post-516421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-arsenal","tag-conor-mcgregor","tag-entertainment","tag-fifa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jimmy-fallon","tag-paris-saint-germain","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516421","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=516421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}