Deirdre Reynolds: Conor McGregor is now Notorious by name and nature

That time is well and truly gone.

Bootstrapping it all the way from Crumlin Boxing Club to the dizzying heights of UFC stardom, with fiancée Dee Devlin, the mother of his four children in his corner all the way, the mixed martial arts fighter was proudly regarded as proof that, with just the right balance of hard graft and grandiosity, anyone from anywhere could turn their dream of greatness into a reality.

What a let down, then, to his family, his Dublin 12 community and, for that matter, his country that his ‘Notorious’ alter ego should, all these years later, turn out to be more than just a moniker.

Multi-weight champion, fashion designer, whiskey entrepreneur, Hollywood actor… by now, McGregor has plenty of descriptors to his name.

On Friday, the sportsman added another to his CV after he was found to have assaulted a woman in a Dublin hotel.

It’s thanks to the courage of Nikita Hand - the woman that said he raped her in December 2018 - that his name can finally be linked to the brutal assault after years of being one of the worst kept secrets in Ireland.

Key to the defence in the civil case was CCTV footage which lawyers for McGregor claimed showed Ms Hand acting in a way that did not make it look like she had just been attacked.

Would they have preferred her to have been sobbing - as she did with relief when she urged others to “speak up” after the High Court action ended on Friday - in the footage?

Thankfully, the notion of some kind of ‘perfect victim’, which has also been weaponised against mass rape survivor Gisèle Pelicot in France, after her husband’s lawyers demanded to know why she hadn’t “cried in court”, was rejected by the jury of eight women and four men.

Of course, not everyone in the court of public opinion agrees, with suggestions that the mum-of-one is nothing but a “gold digger.”

Anyone who thinks it was ever about money has clearly never had to take the stand, let alone have a tampon removed by forceps at a hospital sexual assault treatment unit.

Not even if you quadrupled the €248,000 damages awarded in the case could it ever compensate for the stress and sleepless nights of taking on a world-famous sporting legend with half the online ‘bro-sphere’ behind him, and an estimated €200m fortune with which to fight the case.

Money, on the other hand, like his ‘coinage’ obsessed dad who once famously moaned that his Hugo Boss suit was too tight to keep loose change for the train, seems to be the only language that McGregor speaks.

Will the people lauding mum-of-one Nikita’s bravery in standing up to the UFC (‘Ultimate F***ing Creep) now stop drinking his Proper No Twelve whiskey or frequenting his pub The Black Forge?

Or like rapist Iron Mike Tyson, who recently came out of retirement to be hugged for eight rounds by erstwhile influencer Jake Paul in a massive Netflix payday, given enough time, will memories prove short?

In the meantime, McGregor has chosen an interesting time to play the family man card, as he took to X to thank his “support worldwide”, adding: “I am with my family now, focused on my future.”

As for his vow to appeal the outcome, his own words spring to mind: Sit back down. You’ll do nothing.