Mick Clifford: Conor McGregor abandons presidential tilt without ever facing the public

The former MMA fighter left just one positive in wake of his ridiculous non-campaign: Now, surely, Irish people will never take for granted the guardrails of our democracy

Conor McGregor fled every opportunity to address the people who can actually vote in Ireland's presidential nomination process and subsequent election.

Appropriately, it was on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Conor McGregor announced he was no longer interested in being president.

The social media platform was where his so-called campaign had originated and been fought.

McGregor has 10.7m followers on X, most of them based in the US.

His campaign was directed not at voters in this country but at his followers, primarily stateside.

It was to that extent the first effort to run for elected office in a democracy where the candidate appealed not to voters but to followers, and not in the country where he intended to run for office, but in another one 3,000 miles away.

“Following careful reflection, and after consulting with my family, I am withdrawing my candidacy from this presidential race,” said McGregor, who had never been a candidate in any sort of meaning of that word.

McGregor determined not to meet voters 

In a novel approach to wooing voters, he was determined never to meet any of them in person.

One obvious example was an anti-immigrant march in Dublin in April, which was billed as a major event.

McGregor was already making noises about running for president.

Here was, in effect, a gathering made for him and his alleged politics, where he would be lauded, he could mingle with voters, he could create a media event and expand his chest even further.

The march would have been for this self-styled candidate what the Ploughing Championships is for those who are campaigning in the real world this week.

But instead of marching down O’Connell St with the other participants, he recorded a message for them all in Parnell Square, a few hours ahead of the marchers assembling there.

Can you imagine Jim Gavin, Catherine Connolly, or Heather Humphreys recording a message for the Ploughing?

Good reasons to avoid the electorate

There was some good reason for McGregor’s reluctance to meet those he claimed he wanted to woo.

Even at a gathering where the chant of “get them out” was roared out about asylum seekers, there was every possibility that somebody could burst his ego by asking him a question about being found liable in a civil court for the sexual assault of a woman.

McGregor’s hero, Donald Trump, can deal with that kind of question, but McGregor is no Trump.

He did have plenty going for him, but it all related to money rather voters.

He is immensely wealthy and could fund his own campaign.

Apart from that, Elon Musk — who donated $288m (€245m) to Trump’s election war chest last November — was willing to bankroll the cage fighter.

Thankfully, campaign finance rules in this State prevented that possibility ever arising.

Potential candidates face council members 

It was no coincidence that McGregor’s declaration to the nation in the early hours of Monday morning came on a day when he would have had to finally transpose his campaign from X into the real world.

On Monday evening, he was scheduled to make his pitch before Dublin city councillors.

It would have been the first time he would publicly appear as an alleged candidate and the first time he would have to answer questions about his views, his politics, his recent history of being deemed liable in a civil court for sexual assault, and whether or not that rendered him to be unfit for any kind of public office.

So he did a runner, this world champion cage fighter who wanted to hold the highest office but was afraid to submit himself to a bunch of councillors or run the gauntlet of any protestors outside Dublin City Hall.

'An important conversation about democracy' 

In his announcement on X that he was going to deprive the Irish people of the greatest president we never had, there was one element that was on the button, albeit not in the manner he intended.

“This campaign has sparked an important conversation about democracy in Ireland, about who gets to stand, who gets to choose, and how we can ensure that the presidency truly belongs to the people,” he tweeted.

“That conversation will not end with my withdrawal.”

Who could argue with that?

McGregor’s ridiculous dalliance has ensured that at least for a while to come we won’t take for granted the guardrails of democracy designed to ensure that money and celebrity alone, retained on the prefabricated universe that is social media, will never be enough to cod the Irish people.