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Irish Garda reportedly investigating Conor McGregor for 'hate speech' after riot tweets

Conor McGregor may be in hot water over tweets surrounding the riot in Dublin over the weekend.
ByAmy Kaplan|
Conor McGregor
Conor McGregor | Justin Setterfield/GettyImages

Over the weekend a riot took place in Dublin. The whole thing started on Thursday when "three children and a woman were wounded in a knife attack outside a Dublin school" the New York Times reported. The man alleged to have carried out the attack was rumored to be an Algerian migrant and anti-immigration and far-right groups began protesting "a stand against crime and in defense of Irish children."

When that protest took place things got out of hand quickly and an all-out riot occurred after "rioters clashed with the police, set vehicles alight and looted stores."

“We have not seen a public disorder situation like this before,” Drew Harris, the Gardai’s commissioner said. A group of people had taken “a thimbleful of facts” and added “a bathful of assumptions — hateful assumptions,” he said.

While all of this was occurring former UFC double champion Conor McGregor took to Twitter to voice his opinions on the matter, many of which can be seen below.

Several of the tweets appear to call for people to riot, including two that say, "Ireland, we are at war" and "Do not let any irish property be took over unannounced. Evaporate said property. It’s a war."

Now, according to The Telegraph, McGregor is under investigation for those tweets. According to the outlet, it may fall into the "hate speech" category.

His tweets even got the attention of Ireland’s deputy PM, Micheál Martin, who said his messages were “absolutely disgraceful.”

“Isolated voices like that and voices that are essentially inciting hate and a degree to some extent incitement, are unacceptable,” Martin said.

Some experts even believe that McGregor may be aligning himself to be a figurehead of the "hard-right" in Ireland.

“He fits into the myth of the alpha male using violence to get his way, and he’s a multimillionaire. He’s saying what they like to hear,” Bryan Wall, editor of The Beacon, told the Telegraph.

So far, McGregor has not commented on the investigation and at press time, his tweets remain on his official Twitter account.

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