When Irish-language rap trio Kneecap took the stage at Coachella in April, they displayed their familiar message: “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people” and “Fuck Israel. Free Palestine.” Mo Chara told the crowd: “The Palestinians have nowhere to go. It’s their fucking home and they’re bombing them from the skies. If you’re not calling it a genocide, what the fuck are you calling it?”
Within a week, their US booking agent had dropped them, Fox News was comparing their statements to “Nazi Germany,” and old videos from 2023 and 2024 had resurfaced showing the band saying “The only good Tory is a dead Tory” and “Up Hezbollah, up Hamas.” The families of murdered MPs Jo Cox and David Amess criticized the “dead Tory” comment, prompting an apology from the band, though they described the video recirculation as a “smear campaign” with footage “deliberately taken out of all context.”
British counter-terrorism police charged Mo Chara with terror offences for allegedly brandishing a Hezbollah flag after someone from the crowd handed it to him during a November 2024 London show. Artists including Massive Attack, Paul Weller, and Primal Scream signed a letter alleging Kneecap were victims of a “campaign of intimidation.”
Preparing for Glastonbury despite criticism from Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the band remained defiant. “Maybe visas get revoked, you’re not allowed in America again, it’s not ideal but Jesus Christ, there’s people being bombed from the fucking skies,” says Mo Chara, also known as Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh. He dismisses the terror charges: “It’s a joke. I’m a character. Shit is thrown on stage all the time. If I’m supposed to know every fucking thing that’s thrown on stage, I’d be in Mensa.”
As for the “dead Tory” comments, he’s equally unapologetic: “Why should I regret it? It was a joke – we’re playing characters, it’s satirical. The point is, that video wasn’t an issue until we said ‘Free Palestine’ at Coachella. That stuff happened 18 months ago, and nobody batted an eyelid.” He argues their opponents “went and combed through eight years of a career” and “took those videos out of context.”
The trio insist the controversy is a deliberate distraction. “We’re a distraction, to take away attention from what’s happening in Palestine,” says Naoise Ó Cairealláin (Móglaí Bap). “It’s all being livestreamed – you can never say you didn’t know what’s happening in Palestine, and that’s why they want to bog us down and go through old videos.”
For KNEECAP, resistance runs deeper than current politics. The trio – Ó hAnnaidh and Ó Cairealláin from west Belfast, and JJ Ó Dochartaigh (DJ Próvai) from Derry – rap in Irish as a reclamation of identity that British rule attempted to erase. While they satirically self-identify as “Republican hoods” in their provocative music, their message transcends traditional republican politics, embracing anticolonial themes and advocating peace between unionists and republicans.
Last year, then-UK business secretary Kemi Badenoch attempted to block Kneecap from receiving a government grant because they “oppose the United Kingdom.” The band won their discrimination lawsuit and donated the money to Protestant and Catholic youth organizations. This week, they released THE RECAP, a furious diss track aimed at Badenoch, describing the grant money as reparations.
Kneecap refuses to separate their art from their politics or their local struggles from global injustices. Their 2024 has been defined by controversy and legal battles, but they’ve emerged with their message intact. For a band that sees resistance as their birthright, perhaps that’s exactly where they want to be.
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