{"id":45932,"date":"2025-09-05T20:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T20:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/45932\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T20:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T20:06:08","slug":"conor-mcgregor-has-negligible-chance-of-securing-presidential-nomination-tanaiste-says-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/45932\/","title":{"rendered":"Conor McGregor has \u2018negligible chance\u2019 of securing presidential nomination, T\u00e1naiste says \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conor McGregor<\/a> \u201crepresents the very worst of us\u201d and has \u201ca negligible chance\u201d of getting a presidential election nomination, T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris<\/a> has said. <\/p>\n

The Fine Gael<\/a> leader on Friday criticised former mixed martial arts champion who has said he will attempt to get a nomination to contest next month\u2019s election from county councillors.<\/p>\n

Mr McGregor, who last year lost a civil rape case<\/a>, on Thursday urged his online supporters to lobby councillors as the backing of four local authorities could get him on to the ballot.<\/p>\n

People who wish to enter the presidential election<\/a> must get nominations from 20 Oireachtas members or four local authorities. <\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters during a visit to Britain on Friday, Mr Harris said Mr McGregor \u201crepresents the very worst of us\u201d and is \u201ca very bad person\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cConor McGregor is a person who has been found responsible for rape in a civil court in Ireland. That\u2019s a statement of fact,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe certainly doesn\u2019t represent what a majority of people, in my view, would like to see embodied in a president of Ireland\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Harris added: \u201cWe live in a democracy. We have a nomination process that\u2019s clear, that\u2019s transparent, that\u2019s set out in our Constitution and anybody\u2019s entitled to seek a nomination. I believe the chances of him getting one are negligible.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, Mr McGregor said Mr Harris \u201cknows full well my campaign is addressing the issues that resonate with most Irish people\u201d. <\/p>\n

He accused the T\u00e1naiste of attempting \u201cto smear\u201d him by referencing the civil trial and said it would not distract from his own record of broken promises and failures. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s completely out of touch and will be remembered as a failed leader. He must resign, and when I take the presidency, I\u2019ll ensure accountability.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"TheThe Fine Gael leader on Friday said Conor McGregor had ‘a negligible chance’ of getting a presidential election nomination.
\nPhotograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill\/ The Irish Times <\/p>\n

Last year, Mr McGregor was ordered to pay Nikita Hand \u20ac250,000 damages<\/a> after a High Court jury found he had assaulted her in a Dublin hotel. <\/p>\n

In July, he lost his appeal against the jury finding<\/a> in favour of Ms Hand, who sued him for alleged rape at the Beacon hotel on December 9th, 2018.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, former TD Marc MacSharry<\/a> has been contacting councillors regarding a potential presidential election bid by musician and activist Bob Geldof<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mr MacSharry, who set up a consultancy company, Pontis Advisory Ltd, after he left politics at the last general election, has been surveying councillors about a possible run by the Boomtown Rats singer and Live Aid organiser.<\/p>\n

Some councillors in Kerry \u2013 where the local authority will hold the first special meeting where presidential hopefuls can pitch for support to secure a place on the ballot paper \u2013 were among those contacted by Mr MacSharry.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Is there still a path to the \u00c1ras for an Independent?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The Irish Times understands that the nature of the contact between Mr MacSharry and the councillors was research to gauge interest in a possible presidential run by Mr Geldof and whether local representatives\u2019 were open to supporting him rather than actively canvassing or advocating on his behalf. <\/p>\n

Businessman Gareth Sheridan<\/a> and former solicitor Nick Delehanty are among several independent hopefuls who are expected to address Kerry County Council on Monday.<\/p>\n

Geldof has not appeared on a list of people seeking to address councillors in Kerry. However, he has been linked with a bid for the presidency after it emerged he spoke to Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin about the possibility last week. <\/p>\n

Mr Martin, who wants former Dublin GAA manager Jim Gavin<\/a> to be Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s candidate, told Geldof he was not in a position to nominate him as a candidate.<\/p>\n

Attempts by The Irish Times to contact Geldof have been unsuccessful. <\/p>\n

One Independent councillor in Kerry, Charlie Farrelly, confirmed he had been contacted by Mr MacSharry. <\/p>\n

\u201cI also got a call from Marc MacSharry asking if Bob Geldof was looking for council support, would I support him. I said no.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others councillors Mr MacSharry was in touch with said the nature of the contact was to gauge support for Mr Geldof with one saying: \u201cI was never asked to nominate or support him [Mr Geldof.]\u201d<\/p>\n

The Irish Times asked Mr MacSharry about his contacts with councillors and who commissioned the research.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou will respect that Pontis Advisory Limited do not comment on our clients\u2019 details or specific services being provided to them,\u201d Mr MacSharry said. <\/p>\n

Former Sligo-Leitrim TD Mr MacSharry announced in 2023 that he would step down from politics when the next election was held. The outspoken TD, who left Fianna F\u00e1il in 2022 after an internal row, was a vocal critic of party leader Miche\u00e1l Martin and had resigned from the parliamentary party a year earlier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conor McGregor \u201crepresents the very worst of us\u201d and has \u201ca negligible chance\u201d of getting a presidential election…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[21088,9,10,4003,18,13,14,25,6,19,17,19487,11,12,15,16,34366,5,59,44,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-45932","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-bob-geldof","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-conor-mcgregor","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-gareth-sheridan","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-jim-gavin","20":"tag-latest-news","21":"tag-latestnews","22":"tag-main-news","23":"tag-mainnews","24":"tag-marc-macsharry","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-presidential-election","27":"tag-simon-harris","28":"tag-top-stories","29":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}