MMA fighter-turned-politician Paddy Holohan has opened up to Gript in an exclusive interview about his come-up in the world of politics.
Sitting down with Ben Scallan, the independent councillor said his interest in political issues far predated his decision to run for election.
“People thought I was this token cage fighter – you get me? But I wasn’t,” he said.
“My grandfather died when I was 15, but he served in the 35th Battalion in the Irish Army. He had fought the Battle of the Tunnel, right after Jadotville. For many years he would have taught me about politics.”
He added: “And the sad part about it is, the people that he taught me about are still there. And [the political system] is still broken. If anything it’s more broken.”
Holohan said he felt his grandfather had prepared him for “a role he never knew.”
“Even when I was going into the council thing, I could see people underestimate me. And I know from the field that I come from, underestimating someone is the worst thing that you can ever do.”
He smiled: “I mean, I would be frustrated too if I was other councillors. I walked into an election and I topped the poll. And that was my first time ever running an election. Not only that, but my surplus brought some other people across the line.”
Asked what initially attracted him to Sinn Féin, Holohan described growing up between a nationalist Lenadoon housing estate in Belfast, and Dublin’s Jobstown.
“I saw a lot of crazy stuff,” he said, recounting his childhood during the Troubles. He even recalled riots he had witnessed.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have seen some of that stuff as a kid,” he said.
“I saw the division.”
This upbringing is what initially attracted him to Sinn Féin.
“At that time, Sinn Féin would have been the only ones that represented my community up there, and they would have been the ones I saw around,” he said.
“Down here I would have gotten on with some of the councillors as well.”
However, he added: “To be honest, the Sinn Féin that’s going now…I don’t recognise that Sinn Féin as the Sinn Féin that I thought I joined.”
Holohan split with the party last year after the party moved to discipline him for several comments he had made on his “No Shame” Podcast, which resulted in significant media controversy at the time.
Holohan said at the time he believed his treatment by the party during the drama was “highly unfair.”
“You don’t get to defend yourself in public,” he said.
“If you come out defending yourself you’re just going to get slaughtered and add fuel to the fire. And that’s what [the media] want.”
He claims that an internal Sinn Féin investigation into his comments found that he had not said or done anything wrong, but the results of that investigation weren’t published.
“There was a full formal investigation taken into this, and let me tell you: when it broke in the newspapers, my phone was never stopping,” he said.
“When the investigation was complete, I didn’t get any phonecalls.”
He added: “Nobody cares. They only want to hear the splash in the water – they don’t care who’s drowning.”
The councillor explained why the experience was disappointing.
“I joined for freedom, being able to speak your mind – these type of things,” he said.
“That’s what I thought I was joining when I joined Sinn Féin. And I was proud to represent. But, when I joined Sinn Féin, even when Mary Lou was here in the gym, I said to her: I represent the Holohans first.
“‘Holohan’ means ‘Proud.’ We’ve been here since the year 200 A.D. – Ó hUallacháin. And then I represent Sinn Féin after that.”
He said he believed that he did Sinn Féin “a favour” by running for them.
“It wasn’t a great local election at the time,” he said, referring to the 2019 locals, in which Sinn Féin lost many of its most valuable seats. At the time Pearse Doherty described the result as “disappointing.”
#Elections2019: Pearse Doherty: Sinn Féin lost 'valuable councillors' in 'disappointing election' https://t.co/TkGJfHtvkC pic.twitter.com/KRqbsx7ViX
— Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) May 27, 2019
However, Holohan ended up topping the poll.
“Mary Lou came up to me and said ‘I need you to share some of your wisdom with me,’” he said.
“So I said ‘No problem.’…but then obviously things went the way they went.”
The Jobstown native went on to say that so-called “cancel culture” on the part of the media is “the most cowardly form of bullying.”
“I spent a lot of money and time with solicitors talking through this, and they were shocked,” he said.
“They said ‘Wow, the way this is written is professional.’ They put a question mark beside something, they put an asterisk beside a word – they didn’t say it. They were just saying it might have been said. Even opinion comes into it.
“As a journalist, you don’t have to be good at journalism,” he said.
“You just have to be good at the dark side of journalism – “taking out contracts” on people and their livelihood,” alluding to character assassination.
“Journalists can’t only take out good people, but they can keep bad people hidden as well.”
In the wide-ranging interview, Holohan spoke about his combat sports career, being a father, Irish military neutrality, the Covid lockdown, Conor McGregor’s return to MMA, and much more. Be sure to check out the full conversation only on Gript.
“That’s why I’m here. I’m not sitting on my couch. I can’t have my kids looking at me in 20 years and going “Da, what were you doing when that was all going on?” – “I just sat on my hands son.” I can’t. I had to put my jacket on and I have to do this.
“To me, whenever I enter into a situation, I am putting my integrity on the line. I’m putting my own family’s name on the line. I am a good person [chuckle] – I’m an honestly good person. I don’t try to be a good person for political gain. I’ve been doing what I do for many, many years. I ran for my community – that was the most important thing. Because my community means a lot to me. There are a lot of special people in there, and they probably get the worst side of the news sometimes, you know? It doesn’t get the good parts.”
To me, I knew I could probably get elected because as I said I’ve been working in my community in areas where people probably don’t want to work – working quietly, as they say – for a long, long time. So I was proud to run and represent my area. That was the biggest reason why I ran.
Asked if he thought classism played a role in him being underestimated, he said “Absolutely.”
“There was an interview done about me on Joe.ie that created a big media storm. It was highly taken out of context. If someone goes back and listens to that, and replaces how they are talking about me about, I don’t know…another culture, another skin colour, something like that. That would not be allowed.
They talk about me as representing a certain cohort, a certain people like me…they say these things, you know?
It’s all good, I’m bulletproof.
I’m pretty mentally strong when it comes to things. I’ve been in situations where a lot of people would crumble – both in life, and in my sport world. If I strip you down to your jocks and walk you into a stadium to fight somebody, you’re going to learn to be a little bit tough.
Politically, the right and left are “two wings of the same bird.”
“To be honest, these words – right and left – I don’t think people even know what that means.
“These parties that you’re talking about there – they’ve had a hundred years. And I’m talking about Sinn Féin too. Sinn Féin won the 1919 election as well, and now they’re looking like they’re going to win this one. Show us your plans. When Sinn Féin ran at the last election, they didn’t run enough candidates to make even half of the majority. So for the next one, that’s what I’ll be looking for – are Sinn Féin going to run 82 candidates and bank on 81 getting in. Or are they and the government going to be honest and say “We’re looking for a coalition.”
They all run their horses, and then make their decisions behind closed doors and tell us what they’re doing after. That’s what they did the last time. Micheál Martin is recorded as saying “That [going into coalition with Fine Gael] is some Jekyll and Hyde stuff – I’d never go in with them.” And then he went in with them. So to me, seeing that, there’s no integrity in government.
