16 October-November 2025
Conor cons immigration
authorities
I signed a paper, but
they didn’t ask for my
documents. Just sign a
paper
U
FC hardman Conor McGreor
boasts a colourful criminal
history. In , he pleaded
uilty to assault after punchin
a man in a Dublin pub, receivin
a €, fine.  convictions for trac
violations culminated in July  with a
five-month suspended sentence and a two-
year drivin ban. In , McGreor
admitted to disorderly conduct in New York
after an incident involvin a metal trolley
and damae to a bus. In September ,
he was arrested on Corsica on suspicion of
attempted sexual assault and indecent
exposure but the investiation was dropped
due to insucient evidence. inJanuary it
wasreportedthat McGregor is being sued
by a woman who accused the fighter of
sexually assaulting her in a bathroom of the
Kaseya Center, home arena of the Miami
Heat, in June  durin the NBA finals.
She was reportedly unsuccessful in ettin
criminal chares filed. McGreor made
headlines aain in June  when
American rapper Azealia Banks publicly
accused him of intimidation andsendin
her unsolicited nude photos.
Last year, he was successfully sued by
Nikita Hand in a civil case for sexual assault.
He tapped out with an order to pay €,
as well as an estimated €.m in leal
costs. Accordin to the website,
CelebrityNetWorth, McGreor is estimated
to be worth $m, It was this cocktail
reputation that he, inexplicably, decided
made him a ood fit for the President of
Ireland.
Durin his Presidential year, he
unsurprisinly allied himself to the lobal
far riht, receivin an endorsement from
Elon Musk on X and visitin the Trump White
House. He had lon been vocal in anti-
immiration xenophobia – “understandin
the frustrations” of the riht-win mob
durin the  Dublin riots and declarin
that “Ireland is at war”. More recently, in an
April interview with Tucker Carlson, he
claimed that the overnment is tryin to
enact a “enocide” aainst the Irish people
and that the Garda reularly overlooks
crimes committed by immirants, while
oin after citizens. Both (thorouhly
disproven) claims are often seen in racist
roups such as the Make Ireland Great
Aain movement which has been
prominently showin up, just as McGreor
Immigrant-student
employees at Conor
McGregor’s pub speak out
about dubious legality of
their employment and being
allowed to work more than
20 hours in term time
By Jes Paluchowska
has, at public protests throuhout Ireland.
And yet, when his own profits are
involved, McGreor seems more willin to
turn a blind eye to the ‘Immiration racket’
he rebukes so fiercely in public discussion.
McGreor owns The Black Fore pub in
Crumlin — where he famously hosted Tucker
Carlson and which was the taret of a recent
arson attack by Abdullah Khan, with an
address in north Dublin, who is also accused
of stabbin a Garda on Capel St in Dublin in
July. A former employee of the pub has
spoken to Village, choosin to remain
anonymous out of fear of retaliations on
social media. We will call him K.
K was an immirant from outside the EU,
here on a study visa. The workin restriction
of his stay allowed employment for up to 
hours a week throuhout the teachin term
and up to  hours a week durin the
holidays. These hours are maximums, not
averaes. Even if you have multiple
NEWS
Night out t the Blck Forge
October-November 2025 17
employers, you cannot exceed the cap in
any week. K worked in the Black Fore from
 to  and, in that time, claims to
have worked an averae of  hours a week.
“Ocially, I was part time, but, you know,
I did more hours most of the weeks. Averae
of  I uess”.
Accordin to K, he was not the only one.
When asked about how many immirants
were employed at McGreor’s pub he
replied:
“Well, at the time almost half of the sta.
But, actually, at the time I didn’t see so
much of these ideas aainst immiration
comin from him. Or I just didn’t hear”.
While he did not mention any names, K
thinks other sta members were also there
on student visas. Village asked K whether
he had been, at the time, a member of any
workers’ union. He was not familiar with the
term. After it was explained, he replied:
“I see, well I didn’t really know about
them, but from their [employers’] parts they
never told about them”. He added: “I sined
a paper, but they didn’t ask for my
documents. Just sin a paper”.
K has since returned to his home country,
and is, in eneral terms, not critical about
his time workin for McGreor.
“It was okay, it’s a ood place, little too
demandin but ood. It’s a really fancy pub
and restaurant, so it’s understandable”. He
recalls a lot of pressure to always dress
impeccably, while also puttin out drinks
and food of a hih standard. “They try to put
a really hih-standard look to the pub I
think”.
K vauely recalled hearin rumours of
McGreor’s anti-immirant statements at
the time, but his impression of the ex-UFC
champion is based more stronly on the
way everyone was expected to act when he
visited the pub.
“When he’s there, that chanes a lot. I
When his own profits
are involved, McGregor
seems more willing to
turn a blind eye to the
‘immigration racket’
mean, the most famous person on the
island is comin to his pub. It’s like an
operation onoin, it’s funny. Liam, the
former owner [Liam Flynn, manaer and
former co-owner of the Black Fore], would
do everythin to please Conor, and we have
to follow. It’s really tense”.
For this article, Village manaed to speak
to multiple current employees at the Black
Fore. They corroborated K’s account,
confirmin that both rouhly half the sta
currently employed is immirants and that
it is still possible to for workers on student
visas to et “extra hours on top of the ”
durin term time.
That McGreor’s moral character is not
perfect is not a surprise, but it’s still worth
havin a look at the double standard at
hand since it reveals an imae of McGreor
perhaps shrewder than is enerally
perceived.
Like other businesses in Ireland, Black
Fore is responsible for filin its employees’
taxes via the Revenue portal. K has
reassured Village that this was done on his
behalf, with all of his hours declared
properly and taxes deducted. This,
combined with the reported lack of checkin
of documents at the point of employment
would rant the people runnin McGreor’s
business plausible deniability, allowin
them to, if challened, arue they were not
at the time aware of the visa statuses of
their employees. Of course, the “almost half
the staff” reported by K and current
employees makes it dicult to imaine this
as an oversiht.
As the cost of livin crisis wreaks havoc
all over Dublin, it is very dicult for most
part-time workin students without
financial support from home to provide for
themselves. K, and others in his position,
are lad to find a job that allows more hours,
more money. No point lookin the ift horse
in the mouth.
Workers like K, whose job prospects are
limited and who are extremely unlikely to
complain in cases of mistreatment, or to
neotiate their contracts and pay, are easy
prey for employers to exploit. Be it
financially or otherwise, there is much more
for them at stake when it comes to refusin
employers’ requests than for unionised
workers and others whose employment is
officially reistered. Accordin to the
Mirant Rihts Centre of Ireland, the
number of workplace abuses aainst
immirant workers has more than doubled
since .
It is not dicult to see why Black Fore
manaement miht have desired to cut
corners. Althouh the company which runs
it, Jemi Ventures, does not make its records
public and is not required to, in  it had
been reported that the pub has accumulated
€m in profits in the three years since
McGreor acquired it.
For all that McGreor rants about the
“replacement” of Irish workers by
immirants, he is still far on the riht, and
does not campain for means that would
actually help the Irish workin class, such
as rent freezes, minimum-pay rises or
enhancedl employee protections.
Perhaps his concern for Irish workers is
empty talk. If we take him at his word that
he wants all immirants one from the
country, it leaves the question just what he
would then do to Irish people in order to
force them into the same disenfranchised
position the system is forcin immirants
to occupy now.
Conor McGreor and The Black Fore Inn
did not reply for request for comments.
Politicl hnd out
Tpping out

Loading

© 2015 Village Magazine

Back to Top