Conor McGregor was found by a jury of his peers, fortunately in the legal sense only, of having raped Nikita Hand and she was awarded €250,000. I say his peers in the legal sense as McGregor’s real peers are people like Andrew Tate, tweeting from Romania in support of him. Fortunately, twelve honest men and women were his legal peers and came to a just decision.
The court decision has led to a slew of companies deserting him and trying to put distance between them and him and any product he is associated with, even if he doesn’t actually own it. What took them so long? The rape was reported in the media at the time. I have argued elsewhere against #Me Too style trials and in favour of due process. But there were lots of opportunities to break with McGregor’s toxic brand long before Nikita Hand took him on, on her own. She received no support from the virtuous companies now abandoning him, nor the media and not even that much support from feminist groups.
He was lauded and feted by the media, given an indulgent interview by Ryan Tubridy on the Late Late Show, whilst all the time he came out with the racist comments about dancing monkeys, telling Floyd Mayweather “Dance for me, boy” and saying he would love to turn José Aldo’s favela into a Reebok sweatshop.[1] But the great and good in Irish society would brook no criticism and Tubridy even called him the Irish Muhammad Ali. Ali was witty, quick and sharp tongued, funny and thoughtful and a supporter of progressive causes. McGregor was a mouth, a thug and as sharp as a bowl of jelly who lent his support to race riots with his “We are at war tweet”.[2]
He was fined a miserly €1,000 in 2019 for the assault of an elderly man in a pub he owned who had refused a glass of whiskey from him.[3] The video is available here . Following the assault, an Irish bar in Florida in a video that went viral filmed themselves pouring his whiskey down the toilet.[4] Why did the virtuous not do the same at the time? The answer is simple. There was still a lot of money to be made from the McGregor brand. It wasn’t an isolated incident either. McGregor has repeatedly shown himself to be little more than a thug who is handy with his fists in a lucrative professional setting and also outside of it. There have been a string of incidents, assaults, racial abuse and even one involving whiskey where he pushed a glass of his own brand whiskey into Khabib Nurmagomedov’s face, and called him a “backwards cunt” when he politely refused. As the Turkish proverb goes “When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.”
Why wasn’t Proper No. 12 taken off the shelves then? Money is the simple reason and his brand wasn’t quite yet toxic enough for these people. There are other questions to be asked about the virtuous in this case. Lisa Hand has been lauded now for her courageous battle against a powerful, wealthy man who had the Irish establishment and media in thrall to him. I have written about #Me Too style public convictions before and the lack of any due process. I described it as a middle and upper class movement that had absolutely no regard for working class women.[5] Many of the allegations against Hollywood moguls have over the course of time been proven, others have not. At the time some of the #Me Too campaigners claimed they stood for all women. Oprah Winfrey even claimed at the 2018 Golden Globe Awards that she and #Me Too stood by working class women.[6] Yet we were expected to believe that monsters such as Harvey Weinstein and others had never abused their domestic staff. They were never mentioned. Two years previously black working-class women in Baltimore had won a civil case against the city for the sexual acts that city employees demanded from women in exchange for repairs to social housing.[7] Neither Oprah nor #Me Too mentioned them, ever.
People were entitled to keep their silence over the rape allegations at the time. It would have been prudent. However, when the Director of Public Prosecutions refused to take a criminal case against McGregor it was an opportune moment to speak out. Feminists often point out correctly that most rape victims never get their day in court. So why wasn’t this an issue? Nikita Hand, like the working-class women of Baltimore, got her day in civil court due to her own determination, tenacity and courage. She won. No thanks to the virtuous running from the McGregor sinking ship. Hopefully, that ship will sink, never to float again. But history says otherwise. Mike Tyson recovered from his time in jail for rape. His victim did not.
It would have been better if all the virtuous had turned their backs on McGregor a long time ago. It would have been better if he had actually done time for his assaults. It would have been better if he had been charged for his We are at war comments on the racist riots in Dublin. Maybe a few salutary lessons in time would have taught McGregor that he could not do what he wanted and get away with it. But he did get away with it. The virtuous let him, enabled him, even encouraged him. Only Nikita Hand put a stop to his gallop and may his cocky gait remain a crawl forever more.
References
[1] USA Today (13/07/2017) Conor McGregor faces more criticism after his 'dancing monkeys' comment. A.J. Perez.
[2] See.
[3] The Guardian (01/11/2019) MMA fighter Conor McGregor fined €1,000 over Dublin pub assault. Rory Carroll.
[4] Irish Independent (18/98/2019) 'That's where it belongs' - Irish bar staff in US film themselves pouring Conor McGregor's whiskey down the toilet. Niamh Lynch.
[5] Ó Loingsigh, G. (20/08/2019) #Me Too, Race, Class and Due Process.
[6] Oprah Winfrey's Golden Globes Speech.
[7] NBC News (08/01/2016) Baltimore Sex-For-Repairs Victims Win $8 Million Settlement.
⏩ Gearóid Ó Loingsigh is a political and human rights activist with extensive experience in Latin America.
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