Life of cartel mobster who was VIP visitor at Conor McGregor’s sister’s wedding ceremony

Conor McGregor recently celebrated his sister’s wedding – alongside a VIP guest with an even more ‘notorious’ past than his own.

During the fancy ceremony the UFC star was seated in front of Graham ‘The Wig’ Whelan who was once described as a former senior figure in the Kinahan drugs cartel.

The Kinahan gang in Ireland is infamous for its bloody feud with the Hutch family that resulted in 18 murders.

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McGregor’s sister meanwhile – panto star Erin McGergor – got married to Terry Kavanagh at the five-star Cashel Palace Hotel in County Tipperary earlier this month.

The former double weight world champion spent an estimated €1.5million renting out the entire hotel for the day and below we look at the murky past of one of the key guests.

Who is Graham ‘The Wig’ Whelan?

Graham Whelan, 42, was pictured in a black tie sitting directly behind McGregor at the bash, with the Sunday World capturing exclusive images.

He is a mobster from Dublin with previous convictions – and he is also pals with McGregor who he reportedly shares some of the same childhood friends with.

Whelan has also been pictured with the MMA fighter on multiple occasions and has kitted out for his Black Forge Inn football team in the past.

And he was at the recent McGregor wedding because his believed-to-be girlfriend, Aoife McGregor, was one of the bridesmaids.

Whelan embraced a life of crime from a young age and when he was just 17 he was jailed for six years after a €1.6million drug seizure at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Dublin in 2000.

After another arrest years later, he told cops he was a “dangerous criminal” and to “look me up”.

He left Ireland nine years after the hotel drugs seizure and he lived in the UK from 2009 until 2016.

The gangster was said to be a close associate of leading Kinahan drug cartel member Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh.

Whelan was also pals with David Byrne, who was shot dead in the Regency Hotel in 2016, which was one of the most notorious gangland murders in Irish history and the defining moment in the Hutch-Kinahan feud.

The Dubliner recently became a free man after serving time for money laundering offences, including possession of a €28,000 watch, for the Kinahans.

Whelan pleaded guilty to the offences in 2021 after being caught in possession of proceeds of crime including the watch and €1,200 in cash at a hotel in the Irish capital in January 2019.

Aoife McGregor

Whelan was caged for 18 months for the above and during his time inside he was visited by Aoife McGregor.

The influencer, who once worked for a mini digger hire company, was later pictured with her hands draped around Whelan just days after he was released in December 2022.

She reportedly used the snap as her WhatsApp profile photo and it was taken inside her brother’s pub in Crumlin called the Black Forge Inn.

At the time a source told the Sunday World: “It wasn’t exactly a secret that the two of them were close. But posting a picture of them together as her profile picture would suggest she’s fairly serious about him.”

When Whelan was being sentenced in 2021 for money laundering charges, his defence counsel said he became the primary carer for his four children after his partner died. He also said his client had undergone drug and alcohol counselling for the benefit of his kids.

His current partner Aoife meanwhile is previously married, having wed Mark Elliot in 2016, before the marriage collapsed four years later.

Mark is a decade older and had twin daughters from a previous relationship. He is also a former cannabis drug dealer who was convicted after €40,000 worth of the herb was found at his home in 2009.

He later turned his life around after being jailed and speaking to the Sunday World about his breakup with Aoife, he said: “It was basically to do with kids – she wanted a baby and I didn’t.”