THE FREEMASONS’ HALL in Dublin has said that if it had known that Conor McGregor and Tucker Carlson were going to use the space, they would not have accepted the booking.

The pair used the Molesworth Street venue for an hour-long interview in which they discussed a wide range of topics – from running for president to immigration – uninhibited by fact checking.

Disgraced former Fox News host Carlson gave McGregor free rein to parrot far-right talking points and blatant disinformation.

Carlson was welcomed to Dublin by McGregor, who even brought him to his pub The Black Forge ahead of the big interview, which was uploaded to YouTube on Friday night.

The Freemasons is a predominantly-male social club and its inner-workings are somewhat of a mystery to the outside world. The wealthy society owns many historic buildings, known as Grand Lodges, where they hold meetings and sometimes welcome the public.

Philip A.J. Daley, the Grand Secretary of the Freemasons, said in a statement: “The Historic Freemasons’ Hall venue is available for private hire.

“The Freemasons of Ireland accepted the booking from a media company and if the participants and content had been known, the booking would not have been accepted.”

McGregor made a controversial visit to the White House on St Patrick’s Day this year, a few months after a jury found he was liable for sexually assaulting Nikita Hand. 

Despite McGregor’s claims that the government seeks to unfairly “tarnish” his reputation, the fighter is still very popular among the far-right.

McGregor said Ireland, as well as other countries in the Western sphere, are being governed by people “with ill-intent”.

Carlson, from his few days in Dublin, claimed “not one advertisement on any public place has Irish people on it”.

He called this a “propaganda campaign” that seeks to “make white people hate themselves”.

McGregor said it’s because in recent years politicians “take their orders from above”. He did not explain what or who is “above”.

“They are being ordered and the orders are coming down on the people, and the people have no say.”

Both men repeated baseless claims that Irish people are being “replaced” and that there is a “war on Christianity”.

Carlson compared national broadcaster RTÉ to North Korea’s state-run media.

With reporting by Eoghan Dalton