‘Voices like that are inciting hate’ – Micheál Martin reacts to Conor McGregor’s comments about Dublin riots

Leo Varadkar and Michael Martin responds to questions regarding Conor McGregor’s tweets

MMA star Conor McGregor’s comments have been branded “absolutely disgraceful” by Tánaiste Micheál Martin.

Mr McGregor wrote on social media in recent days that Ireland was at war and said the Irish Government was reaping what it had sown.

He made other comments about the riots in Dublin yesterday as well as immigration, urging for political leaders to act to restrict Ireland’s migration strategy.

The Tánaiste hit back when asked to comment on the posts from the star, even though he did not name him directly.

“There’s been many comments online I’ve watched of that type which are absolutely disgraceful and we have a parliamentary democracy and we value that. The Irish people do as well.

“Isolated voices like that and voices that are essentially inciting hate and a degree to some extent incitement, are unacceptable.”

McGregor wrote on X, formerly Twitter, last night: “You reap what you sow.”

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Several days ago, he posted: “Ireland, we are at war.”

McGregor hit back this afternoon at the Tánaiste’s earlier commentssaying the Government was “blaming anyone but yourselves”, adding Mr Martin was “worthless and spineless”.

The MMA fighter wrote: “We are not stopping here until real change is implemented. We need safety. We need security. We need leadership.”

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar declined to comment on individuals and said the passing of new hate speech laws had to be put in place.

“I’m not going to get into any individual at this stage, I’ve seen that and I’ve seen what preceded it in the coming weeks. We have laws and we’re going to need stronger laws.

“I’m not going to get into any individual but incitement to hatred and incitement to violence is a reality within our society and we need to have the strongest laws possible so we can hold those who incite hatred to violence to account.”