Kneecap fans raise £20k for legal battle amid terror charge
Yesterday, the trio were cheered by hundreds of supporters as they arrived in 'Free Mo Chara' T-shirts at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.
Dozens surged around the entrance of the court building as they made their way inside, with some also entering the lobby before the hearing, trying to get close to the Belfast trio.
READ MORE: 'Israel has weaponised food': IDF kill 72 Palestinians, 29 waiting for aid trucks
O hAnnaidh was released on unconditional bail until his next hearing at the same court on August 20.
At the time of writing, more than £20,000 has been raised from 819 pledges.
Organisers have set a target of raising £30,000 on CrowdJustice, which the campaign states 'will help cover legal fees and experts skilled in handling complex cases sensitive to artistic and free speech rights'.
The CrowdJustice page states: "Kneecap's music and performances are premised on satire and absurdity. They are by their very existence bold and provocative, prompting necessary conversations around political and social issues.
"The charges brought against him could set a chilling precedent that stifles creative freedom and dissuades artists from speaking out. Your support will help cover legal fees and experts skilled in handling complex cases sensitive to artistic and free speech rights."
The trio are due to perform at festivals in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Hungary, Wales, Belgium and France, as well putting in a support slot at a high-profile show by Irish band Fontaines DC in Manchester, festivals in Europe in September, and a mostly sold-out American tour in autumn.
The band were axed from Scotland's TRNSMT amid concerns raised by police over safety.
They were due to perform at the festival on July 11 but organisers said the band would not be part of the line-up after concerns were expressed by police about safety at the event.
Police Scotland said any decision on the line-up is for TRNSMT organisers, and that no prior consultation with the force was made before acts were booked.
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Spectator
42 minutes ago
- Spectator
How Ireland became a haven for Hezbollah's cocaine
In the end, it was a combination of the Irish weather, European maritime intelligence and engine trouble that scuppered a massive Hezbollah-cartel drugs shipment. The Irish government's failure to patrol the coastline has made Ireland a safe harbour for the fast-evolving drug trafficking network merging terror and narco finance. Hezbollah's involvement in the transnational drugs trade to fund its war against Israel is well documented, with the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam its main conduit into Europe. But evidence from an Irish court last month revealing 'a major Iranian nexus' in a cocaine ship off Ireland's coast indicates that Hezbollah now sees Ireland's under patrolled coastline as a 'point of least resistance' into the lucrative European market. One security expert is reported as saying Ireland was being targeted for 'tonnage loads by Iranian Hezbollah.' In September 2023, a Panamanian registered cargo ship, MV Matthew, set sail from Venezuela heading for Irish waters. It had 2.2 tonnes of pure cocaine on board, funded by an alliance of Hezbollah, the Dubai-based Irish Kinahan crime gang and a South American cartel. The ship was to rendezvous at sea with a fishing trawler, the Castlemore, which would drop the drugs ashore at isolated coves for onward transport to the UK and Europe. Unknown to the Iranian captain, Soheil Jelveh, the European Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre (MAOC), was tracking the ship across the Atlantic and tipped off the Irish authorities. But with just one large vessel to actively patrol a coastline ten times the size of Ireland's land mass and depleted navy personnel, monitoring and intercepting both ships was always going to be challenging. So many things could have gone wrong. Luckily, the Irish weather lent a hand. A raging storm hit Ireland the day the Castlemore was due to rendezvous with MV Matthew anchored 13 nautical miles off the east coast. After two failed attempts in storm force winds and swelling seas, the Castlemore ran aground. Its crew put in a distress call to the Irish coastguard, setting a train of action in motion. The eventual capture of the Matthew was like a scene from an action movie. Over the course of two days the ship played a game of cat and mouse with the Navy ship, LE William Butler Yeats, engaging in evasive manoeuvres in lashing winds and swelling seas. The Iranian captain, Soheil Jelveh refused to comply with orders from the Yeats, saying the ship had developed engine trouble. In reality, he was receiving orders from a Dubai-based individual, 'Captain Noah,' a shadowy figure linked to Hezbollah, to change course and head for Sierra Leone. The Matthew was successfully captured after Army Rangers were lowered onto the deck from a rope suspended by a helicopter hovering overhead and the ship was stormed. The 2.2 tonnes of pure cocaine was valued at £136 million, rising to £650 million when cut, making it the largest drugs seizure in the history of the state. Jelveh, Iranian crewman, Saeid Hassani, and six other crewmen were jailed for a total of 129 years at the non-jury Special Criminal Court last month. It was a stunning success for the defence forces, thanks to the skill and bravery of the individual members involved. But it could have gone badly wrong. Just two of eight Irish navy vessels are currently in operation; the rest are tied up at Cork harbour because of insufficient personal. A former officer in the Army Ranger Wing, Cathal Berry, has said: 'By not resourcing our Navy we have handed the keys of the country over to the drugs cartels to do with us as they wish. It is painful to see €250 million of naval vessels tied up at Cork Harbour unable to be put at sea due to a lack of crew.' Irish and international law agencies are now examining the ship's telecommunication equipment to access the extent of the Iranian-Hezbollah involvement. There is little doubt Hezbollah is trying to increase its drug activity because it is under financial pressure. As one international law enforcement official put it: 'When you are getting hit the way Hezbollah is getting hit right now by the Israelis, the only way you can make money exponentially fast is with drugs.' It is extremely unlikely that the Hezbollah-cartel alliance would have risked such a massive investment on the first run. It is a safe bet that Matthew was not the first or the last shipment to use Ireland as a gateway to the lucrative European market. Former head of MAOC, Michael O'Sullivan, said: 'The Irish Navy is very strapped and that has not gone unnoticed. We cover an area almost ten times the size of Ireland. And time is of the essence. If you find where a vessel has left and you're trying to track where it is, it's not gonna stay in one place, it's not going to go in the one direction… You have got to get somebody out there to get a sighting of it. If you don't find it, it's gone.' The implication is clear: Ireland is not just a strategic waypoint, but an exposed hub in a fast-evolving trafficking network merging terror and narco finance for which the depleted Irish Navy is ill equipped to deal with.
The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
- The Herald Scotland
Step up to the Mike - Scottish Waterboys star is a vision of integrity
Folk might be the first genre applied to the Waterboys, but you could bung in punk, rock and roll, country, rhythm and blues and, er, chamber music. Eclectic, ken? The man himself, son of a college lecturer, is right literary, making a show and album aboot yon W.B. Yeats, and spending much time at Findhorn, the New Age (getting on a bit now, mind) community in the northeast of Scottishland. He formed the Waterboys in 1983, taking the name from a line in a Lou Reed song. The band's first single was A Girl Called Johnny, and their first group appearance on the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test. Discernible inlfuences on their imaginatively titled debut, The Waterboys, included Patti Smith, Dylan, Bowie, Van Morrison and U2. Still, nobody's perfect. Their first tour began in Frankfurt, with Eddi Reader providing backing vocals for the first two gigs. She also guested on second album, A Pagan Place, still a favourite of many ('early is best', ken?), which was preceded by the single The Big Music. This became the label attached to the band's musical style. (Image: Newsquest Media Group) For God's Sake IT has been described as 'a mystical celebration of paganism' and by Scott as 'a metaphor for seeing God's signature in the world'. I see. And, without being pedantic, musically? Oh, it's a big, shimmering wall of sound thang that also encompasses U2, Simple Minds, Big Country, Bruce Springsteen. Best known example is probably The Whole of the Moon, from third album, This Is the Sea, which reached 26 in the singles chart. Commendably, Scott poo-pooed further market potential by refusing to perform on Top of the Pops, which insisted on miming. Here are some words: 'I was grounded/While you filled the skies/I was dumbfounded by truth/You cut through lies/I saw the rain dirty valley/You saw Brigadoon/I saw the crescent/You saw the whole of the moon.' Good stuff, what? Ignoring pop, and stadium rock expectations, Scott decamped to Galway, immersing himself in Irish music and culture. A folky album, Fisherman's Blues, followed and featured Yeats's The Stolen Child with traditional Gaelic singer Tomas McKeown: 'Come away, O human child!/To the waters and the wild/With a faery, hand in hand/For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.' Some said Scott had gone doolally and accused him sarcastically of giving 'Irish music back to the Irish'. But his love for the land and the many musicians befriended there was real, and the album became a classic. Alas, next album, Room to Roam, supposedly 'merging trad and pop in a rootsy Sgt Pepper', fell flat and Scott left for New York, there embracing a harder rock sound. Although resultant album Dream Harder produced two top 30 singles, some fans thought it 'disappointingly mainstream' and, disombobulated by his own drift from Celtica, Scott fetched up at the aforementioned Findhorn, seeking solace in esoteric spirituality. Here, not unnaturally, he found himself 'playing the Monty Python theme with the Findhorn Ceilidh band at a Burns Supper in the Community Centre while people from five continents danced the Gay Gordons'. It happens. Actually, it happened during one of his many stop-overs, including working there for a year. His first experience of communal meditation had hooked him: 'Wave upon wave of electrifying inspiration passed through me … [and] I walked out of the Sanctuary dazed and thrilled.' Aye. READ MORE Rab McNeil: Get your Boots on, we're going shopping for unicorn hair gel Rab McNeil: No wonder the whole Scottish nation loves Nicola (no, not that one) Scottish Icons: William McGonagall - The poet who right bad verses wrote still floats some folk's vessel or boat Scottish Icons: There is a lot of tripe talked about haggis – so here's the truth Burning Ambition SCOTT'S first solo album Bring 'Em All In was recorded at Findorn, and was followed by the rockier, soulier Still Burning. Next, he began experimenting with a 'psychedelic elemental roar' – yikes! – the result of which, with the Waterboys name resurrected, was the critically acclaimed A Rock in the Weary Land. The eighth Waterboys studio album, Universal Hall, came in 2003. Mellow and mostly acoustic, it showcased Celtic, New Age and dance electronica influences. Other influences cited by Scott included Neil Young, Elvis Presley, C.S. Lewis, Oprah and Winston Churchill. Obviously. But the big influence was always Yeats. For a fortnight in 2005, Scott read through his collected works over and over until certain words sparked the glimmer of a song. After two weeks, he had 10, later doubled to 20 and, with fiver more years' work, forming the basis for An Appointment With Mr Yeats. In 2010, this show had its world premiere in Dublin's Abbey Theatre, which Yeats had co-founded. Featuring a 13-piece lineup, the five-night show of 'psychedelic, intense, kaleidescopic … rock, folk and faery music' quickly sold out, receiving standing ovations and rave reviews. An album version, released in 2011, reached the top 30. As well as Yeats, Waterboys' concerts and albums have also featured the works of Burns, George MacDonald (Room to Roam), and Sufi poet Hafez. Greek god Pan has also made an apperance, as has Native American spirituality. After a couple of blues-ish albums, Where the Action Is came next, with Scott furthering his musical influences again by incorporating hippety-hop, if that is the expression. For his 14th album as a Waterboy, 2020's Good Luck, Seeker, Scott claimed to have channelled the Rolling Stones, Kate Bush, Sly Stone and Kendrick Lamar. Well, one out of four isn't bad. Devil's Music THE Irish Times described one track, Postcard from the Celtic Dream Time as, arguably, 'an insufferable Celtic Twilight circle of hell'. However, it acknowledged that opening track My Wanderings in the Weary Land featured fab lyrics: 'I witnessed the birth and funeral of Laddism/I heard the Great Unspoken/Saw cruelty masquerade as humour.' The Waterboys' 16th album (a double), Life, Death And Dennis Hopper, was released in April. An audio-biography described as the band's 'most audacious' offering yet, it was inspired by the colourful actor-director's lesser-known talents as a photographer, after Scott saw an exhibition of his work. Mike Scott comes out of posterity hitherto as a fine example of integrity, staying true to his artistic vision, ploughing his own furrow. "I never thought in terms of celebrity,' he has said. Ach, well, ye're an Icon noo, son.
Spectator
2 hours ago
- Spectator
The pensioner Intifada
To anyone brought up in the seventies and eighties, the fact that so many Palestine Action protestors are themselves in their seventies and eighties is the least surprising fact of the year. These people were the original 'Boring Old Hippies,' those dreary teachers and lecturers whom so many of us had to suffer the first time round. Since age confers a harmlessness on everyone, it was rather sweet to see them again, enjoying one last stab at rebellion before marching off to that Great Student Demo in the Sky. And yet when I was growing up, these 'rebels' were the very people we rebelled against. Musically, we couldn't bear their Pink Floyd, their early Genesis and those heavy slabs of prog rock inspired by the Hobbit-y tosh of Tolkien. No wonder we embraced the rhythm of reggae, the joy of disco and (initially at least) the rebellion of punk. Punk was very much the middle-class, minority interest successor to prog. It started well, but it was almost instantly colonised and gentrified by the hippies themselves. Long hair sheared, they quickly replaced the Sex Pistols with the Clash, who were more aligned with their values. The Clash's third LP was a triple album and was so pompous and overblown it made Pink Floyd sound like Paul McCartney. Sandinista! was dedicated to the Sandinistas, whose cause in Nicaragua was viewed not dissimilarly from the cause of the Palestinians in Gaza. They would have done well to remember John Lydon snarling: 'You're too old and your hair's too long.' That was exactly how we felt about hippy teachers who tried too hard to be groovy. I'll always remember one flared-trousered example asking us to 'Call me Tony'. As soon as he said this, that vital wall between pupils and teachers – the one that separates respect from ridicule – started to crumble. It's only in recent years that the wall has been re-pointed. You may be aware of the resurgence of school uniforms in state schools. Apparently this is the result of the Call Me Tonys, who'd always decried them, finally shuffling off into retirement. And now, with generous public sector pensions providing free time and disposable income, they're back. And what could be more fun than taking up a cause and a placard? Trouble is, it's invariably the same sort of cause, isn't it? Whether they realise it or not, much of their worldview is still rooted in The Authoritarian Personality, a political and philosophical treatise written in the aftermath of the second world war. Its central tenet was that, because the Nazis were evil and were also right-wing, then everything right-wing is bad and everything left-wing is good. This may explain why our OAP protestors turned a blind eye to mass murder in China and the Soviet Union to embrace the shaky shibboleths of Marx and Mao. And it's why they now condemn the mass slaughter of Palestinians but remain shamefully silent on the mass slaughter of Israelis. The Boring Old Hippies have mostly been a bit quiet since the miners' strike and the end of the Greenham Common protests. I imagine those vintage 'Nuclear Power? No Thanks' badges now fetch quite a price on eBay. Those who wore them vanished from view around 1997, when Tony Blair moved into No. 10. What was there to protest against? His new government may have been nominally Labour, but when Peter Mandelson declared that he was 'intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich', the hippies had the permission they needed to become breadheads. And now, money made and mortgages paid, they can afford a bit of geriatric insurrection. They haven't had a cause like this for years. Extinction Rebellion was a bit fanatical; the People's March a bit 'Waitrose' – but Palestine is perfect. It must have been lovely for them to once again feel the insurgent thrill of being 'busted by the fuzz'. So let them have their fun. They won't be doing this for much longer.
