It may be the week of Conor McGregor’s UFC return, but Paddy Holohan has been receiving more column inches in Irish mainstream media.
Holohan, who is now an elected local government representative to South Dublin county council, has been suspended by his political party, Sinn Fein, over comments he allegedly made during an episode of his ‘No Shame’ podcast.
The former UFC flyweight said, ‘there are some fucking scum women out there’ on the episode in which he was interviewing Irish film-maker Terry McMahon.
Holohan said that if he ran an all-women MMA class, he would be supported whereas an all-male class would be criticised.
McMahon said he could understand why some women would want female only MMA classes if they have been attacked in the past.
“This is the problem. There are fucking scum men out there, real scum, and they need to be literally stopped,” said McMahon.
In response, Holohan said,“Now saying that, I just want to stop you on that. There is some fucking scum women out there as well. I just wan’t to say to you, a situation I heard during the week where somebody heard somebody was underage, the person didn’t know they were underage, the girl had pursued the guy, got whatever she needed, had pictures, had videos, and then said, ‘I want ten grand.”
“And that wasn’t the first person, there were loads of them. What kind of situation is that that is going on in society now? I have two sons, it petrifies me that somebody can turn around and say, ‘I’m literally going to say you attacked me if you don’t give me ten grand’.”
“And people will go, ‘No, that doesn’t happen… I’m putting my hand on my heart and telling you it does happen: and it is happening out there.”
This news comes just one day after Holohan was forced to issue an apology over his remarks about Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) Leo Varadkar on two separate episodes of the podcast. Holohan questioned the ability of Varadkar, who is the son of an Indian immigrant, to run the country while citing his Indian heritage.
“He’s so separated not even from society now, but he’s so separated from the history of this country,”
“Leo Varadkar’s blood obviously runs to India. His great-grandfather is not part of the history of this country. Now Leo obviously is. He’s an Irish citizen but his passion doesn’t go back to the times when our passion goes back to.”
On a separate podcast published this week, Holohan said he wanted a “family man” to run the country. Varadkar publicly came out as gay in 2015.
“We need people running the country and, not against Leo or anything like that, but to me I want a family man running the country.”
“Someone that knows what it’s like to have kids, maybe hopefully boys and girls, so when you’re creating the policies and stuff that’s going to go on, that you’re like right, it makes sense.”
In a tweet, Holohan said his remarks about Varadkar had been misinterpreted and apologised “as my comments may have offended people as I of course did not intend to do so.” He thanked his supporters before reiterating, ‘I would never make such remarks.’
The apology was accepted by Varadkar and Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald.
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