'Not welcome here': Westmeath councillors' advice to McGregor

“Don’t come knocking on our door” is the message that Westmeath County Council members intend sending to controversial MMA fighter Conor McGregor.

Not alone are the councillors resolved not to support his bid to run in this autumn’s presidential election, they don’t even want him to turn up canvassing their support.

In order to have a tilt at the presidency, McGregor will either need to be nominated by twenty members of the Oireachtas, or by four local authorities. It is likely he would need to directly address local councils in any bid for their support.

The councillors who spoke on a motion proposed by Cllr Vinnie McCormack at Monday’s meeting of the council were fully in support of Cllr McCormack’s proposal that the council to write to the American Ambassador to Ireland to outline Westmeath County Council’s “frustration and disappointment that Conor McGregor was invited to the White House on St Patrick's Day and afforded the opportunity to address the world media, purporting to be a spokesperson of the Irish people."

They also backed a call from Cllr Aengus O’Rourke that they write to Mr McGregor, saying he is not welcome to the council chamber.

Cllr McCormack said the decision to invite McGregor to the White House on St Patrick’s Day was “wholly inappropriate”.

“It was a slap in the face to Irish democracy and Irish diplomacy,” Cllr McCormack said.

The Ballymore man said his motion did not represent an opinion on the comments made by Mr McGregor during a press briefing that day – but did represent his opinion that a character such as Mr McGregor – “who has at least 18 previous convictions should not be given such a platform by the president of the United States on Saint Patrick's Day, the day when Irishness and Irish heritage are embraced and celebrated right throughout the world”.

Cllr McCormack noted that Mr McGregor had recently been found culpable in a civil action for rape, had a conviction for assaulting an elderly man in a pub in Dublin and had convictions for several motoring offences including driving while suspended and driving without insurance.

“The US administration should be embarrassed to have given this person a platform on St Patrick's Day and we should make our feelings known to the ambassador to Ireland that this invitation was completely unacceptable and a slight to the Taoiseach who was there just a few days earlier,” he said.

“Mr McGregor is not a representative of the Irish people; he does not speak on behalf of me or the people who I am privileged to represent and I'm confident that the other members in this room will be of a similar opinion.

“I hope we can collectively make it clear to the ambassador and the Trump administration that McGregor is not someone who should be portrayed as a representative of this country nor is he someone who should be held aloft as a role model to young Irish people.”

Cllr McCormack said if President Trump felt the need to issue an invite to a well-known Irish figure, there were so many who had had hugely positive impacts across society, in sport, literature, entertainment or science.

Cllr McCormack went on to say he dearly hoped Mr McGregor came seeking a nomination from Westmeath County Council: “I have no issue in telling him the type of person he is and why he has no business seeking the highest office in our land.”

Support came from Cllr John Dolan, who said the invitation had been “totally inappropriate”.

“I think, in all seriousness, we're in pretty uncharted territory with the White House at the moment and I think it's just a symptom of really what's going on,” he said, remarking that since Mr McGregor has convictions, in normal circumstances he probably wouldn't have been allowed entry into the US.

He was also somewhat looking forward to seeing Mr McGregor show up looking for a nomination: “He might find out exactly what democracy is like when he comes here,” he said, adding that the fighter was likely to get the answer that he deserved.

Also in support of the motion was Cllr Denis Leonard, who believed most people were “horrified” that the Taoiseach’s invitation was for March 12 while America’s choice for St Patrick’s Day itself was Conor McGregor.

“[He is] probably the worst representative of the Irish people that you could have trawled the country to find,” he said.

Cllr Leonard went on to describe it as “concerning” how some people credited Mr McGregor for raising immigration, stating it was a big issue: “I don't care what the issue is: he has not ever been elected by anyone to represent anyone. In any shape or form,” he said, adding that while the American ambassador would likely say that the White House was Mr Trump’s for the next four years and that, therefore, he can invite who he likes, what was more concerning was affording him the opportunity to address the world media purporting to be a spokesman for the Irish people.

“That's where we have to draw a line,” he said, stating that when, like so many in groups as diverse as far right supporters or terrorist groups, McGregor drapes himself in the Irish flag and says “I represent you”, he needed to get the same answer that those people got: “They don't represent us nor does Conor McGregor. He can go into a ring; he can play The Foggy Dew and he can wear an Irish flag around him but he does not represent the Irish people and to be put in that position by the president of the United States when so many people have trouble getting access…”

Cllr Aengus O’Rourke also felt strongly on the subject, describing McGregor as “delinquent”.

“That’s why I disagree with my colleague Cllr McCormack. I wouldn't want him addressing us in the same way I didn't want him addressing the world.

“We're too busy here anyway: we have too much to discuss; we've important business to get on with and I certainly wouldn't like to give him any further oxygen; I wouldn't like to facilitate him here whereby the paparazzi circle him as he walks through the doors of the county buildings in Mullingar.”

That was why, he said, he was proposing that the council write to Conor McGregor telling him if he was considering coming here he was not welcome.

Cllr Frankie Keena remarked that the current president of the US loves “stirring” things: “He has no regard for anybody, or any nationality or any country”.

He said inviting Mr McGregor to The White House as he had done was an insult to the Irish people.

Cllr David Jones said his party does not support Conor McGregor’s presidential bid.

“He does not represent me; he does not represent the values of Sinn Fein; he represents the complete opposite of Michael D Higgins who I have a huge amount of respect for and who did a fantastic job in his term in office and represented the Irish people very well and was very fair over the past few years.