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The Freemasons of Ireland are making a €2,500 (£2,130) donation to charity to address the fallout after their Dublin premises were used for a controversial interview between Conor McGregor and Tucker Carlson. The 55-minute interview, which has amassed over 1.4 million views on Carlson's YouTube channel since its posting last Friday, has been criticized as "grossly inappropriate."
It featured discussion about McGregor's intention to run for the Irish presidency, immigration and Donald Trump.
The Freemasons subsequently apologised and said the booking would have not been accepted if it had known what the venue was being used for.
Now, the organisation has decided it will make an anonymous donation of €2,500 to "an appropriate non-political charity" and investigate the use of the Grand Lodge Room, as reported by the Irish Independent.
The Freemasons' grand master elect told members in an email that the interview had caused "incalculable" damage and that the venue had been used for "grossly inappropriate purposes".
"The Grand Lodge of Ireland does not comment on any political matter and so regrets letting our premises facilitate any political discussion," Richard S G Ensor wrote.
Earlier this week, the grand secretary of the Grand Lodge of Freemasons of Ireland, Philip Daley, told Irish broadcaster RTÉ that they regularly take bookings from media organisations but "insist" on knowing the interviewer, guests and topics of discussion to ensure this aligns with the organisation's "morals and principles".
However, he said in the case of McGregor and Carlson, the information was only received an hour before the interview. The organisation decided to "let it go" as the media company assured all backgrounds would be blurred and no reference would be made to the Freemasons' Hall.
In the almost hour-long interview, the pair discussed the Irish economy, the government and McGregor's announcement that he intends to run for the Irish presidency.
McGregor said he wanted "a democratic process" to play out in advance of the presidential election and that the era of the politician had been "unfruitful" and should come to an end.
They also spoke about immigration, Donald Trump, US Tariffs and the housing crisis.
