Conor McGregor has issued a passionate plea for a full lockdown in Ireland.
McGregor took to the YouTube page of his own company, The Mac Life, to vent his thoughts on the Covid-19 crisis.
The former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion begged for a full lockdown of the country in the hopes of halting the spread of coronavirus in Ireland.
He said: "Hello everyone, hello Ireland. I would like to address my nation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyFFZmb1ZPE
"To the people of Ireland, to our President Michael D. Higgins, to Vice-Admiral Mark Mellett, to Garda Commissioner Drew Harris, Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan, Leo, the two Simons, Mary and Micheál, I respect you all greatly and I would like to put forth some of my thinking.
"I want to say that while we are all currently debating a full lockdown, I feel that we must. Any time spent debating this is needless time from the clock. I know a good, tough fight when I see one and we have one on our hands now.
"I want to call upon my people - the great people of Ireland - this fight needs us all. We are all in the red corner together awaiting the bell. So let's gather together and ring the bell ourselves. Including the people of the rest of the world, true lockdown must begin and it must begin now. A lockdown together. A lockdown united.
"We must close our airports, we must close all non-essential business, we must cut all non-essential travel. Commissioner Harris and Vice-Admiral Mellett, we must prepare and deploy our units to all and any non-built up areas across our country.
"Now, President Higgins, you must give these great men and women the power to enforce this task if necessary. However, I know that when the true seriousness of this is understood as it is becoming now, our great nation will oblige and will impeccably do so.
"It is time for a full lockdown and we are ready! Powers that be, I am calling to you all. The fate of our great island depends on it.
"This is my proposal and I pray that we can make this happen. We need to take the same measures as some of the heavier-affected countries, only we must do it in quicker time. We have the advantage here in that we can see this coming. We can see this coming! But if we do not act on our advantage then we cannot expect different results.
"We are not adhering to social distancing, at least not to the extent required to halt exponential growth. A lockdown will facilitate this. It will reduce transmissions, it will take the pressure off of our frontline staff and it will allow us to identify all of our cases.
"These methods are stringent but necessary and have worked in China and Hong Kong.
"Ireland, we have got this. Not only do we have the formula but we have it ahead of time. Let's go Ireland. Let's go, rest of the world. Lockdown! United! Together we stand. God bless us all."
