Irish mixed-martial arts star Conor McGregor promotes “toxic masculinity,” according to People Before Profit TD Mick Barry.
Speaking in the Dáil during a debate on immigration on Wednesday, Barry slammed some of the recent comments regarding migration by the UFC two-division world champion McGregor.
“McGregor has 1.7 million followers on X, formerly Twitter, very many of them young men,” said Barry.
“McGregor has been demanding that immigrants who commit crimes should be deported. If enforced in the United States, by the way, this would lead to the deportation of McGregor himself. In 2018, he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in New York after being filmed throwing a trolley through a window of a bus.”
The Cork South-Central TD went on to slam McGregor’s “ultra-macho image” in the context of the Dublin riots that followed the stabbing of a woman and several children in late October, adding that such machismo “imprisons” young men in a “rigid gender stereotype.”
“What image does McGregor promote to his young male followers?” Barry asked rhetorically.
“It is an ultra-macho image, and an image of toxic masculinity. It is bad news for women, for LGBTQ people, and for society. It is also bad news for young men, imprisoning them in a rigid gender stereotype.
“The multimillionaire tweeter, who told his huge young male following that they were at war, did not go out on the streets to fight himself. Presumably, he stayed at home and tweeted. Many of those young men who went out are the ones who got arrested, who will come before the courts and who will have their futures jeopardised.”
Notably, McGregor was not present for the riots, and publicly stated he was opposed to rioting, “any attacks on our first responders in their line of duty” or the looting and damaging of shops. However, the athlete said he understood people’s “frustrations.”
Earlier this week Barry said that a “law and order” response to the Dublin riot “won’t work,” because “you cannot use water cannons to wash away a culture of toxic masculinity,” and condemned “the unjust social system of capitalism.”
People Before Profit TD Mick Barry says that a "law and order" response to the Dublin riot "won't work," because "you cannot use water cannons to wash away a culture of toxic masculinity," and condemns "the unjust social system of capitalism." #gript pic.twitter.com/WiWD4pP9y8
— gript (@griptmedia) December 6, 2023