U MIGHT NOT KNOW HIM YET...

From dole queue to prime time, a lot of Irish twentysomethings can relate to the former if not the latter. Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) sensation Conor McGregor explains the fairytale transition from one to the other.

A giddy, teenage voice crackles and is blown out across the car park.

“Ma, ma, that’s your man from the telly isn’t it?” Conor McGregor turns, momentarily dazed, looking for someone else to take those words on the chin before he remembers his appearance on The Late Late Show and the world he’s now moved in to. Yet his initial reaction is completely understandable. After all, as recently as last month the only strangers who bellowed out at him were those behind the counter in the Clondalkin social welfare office as they called “next” in his direction.