Rock legend supports KNEECAP amid Glastonbury ban calls
The Smiths legend Johnny Marr has expressed his support for KNEECAP following calls for their Glastonbury performance to be censored.
KNEECAP'S Glastonbury controversy follows footage from the past gigs coming to light after the trios Coachella performance, where they unveiled messages saying: 'Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people' and 'Fuck Israel, Free Palestine.'
Trio founder Mo Chara, Liam g hAnnaidh, was charged by the Metropolitan Police with a terror offence, and numerous live shows cancelled.
He is set to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court this Wednesday, June 18. The charge relates to two on-stage incidents from shows in London in 2024 and 2023, respectively.
KNEECAP have vehemently denied supporting either Hamas or Hezbollah, and said that they do not condone violence, and have also condemned the terror charge, calling it a carnival of distraction'.
Yesterday evening, Marr took to X to express his supprt for the group in a statement which read: After learning that calls have been made for KNEECAP to be censored during their Glastonbury set, I think its important that I make my own position clear he wrote. Ive played Glastonbury many times and the festival has always had a political aspect.
It was founded as a place of free expression and political activism and its a fact that I agreed to play there with The Smiths in 1984 purely because to do so at the time was a political act. We are living through very troubling times, but for anyone whos been interested in me or my music over the last 40 years, I feel like my political stance has always been very clear.
pic.twitter.com/aQrSz7AWgW — Johnny Marr (@Johnny_Marr) June 16, 2025
Marr concluded by expressing his support for Palestine: Oppression fears artistic expression. I respect all musicians who use their platform to speak out against injustice, who promote compassion and equality and give voice to the voiceless. I stand with my audience and fellow musicians who call for an immediate end to the atrocities and a free Palestine.
Other artists have previously expressed their support for KNEECAP, including Fontaines D.C.s Grian Chatten, Pulp, Brian Eno, Massive Attack, CMAT and more.,
The trio also received public backing from anti-racism campaigners Love Music Hate Racism, after a 'private and confidential' letter was sent to the bookers of Glastonbury Festival urging them to drop the trio from its 2025 lineup.
Last week, the trio unveiled the legal team which will represent g hAnnaidh at the Westminster court this week, which includes Gareth Peirce, who was the solicitor for Gerry Conlon and the Guildford Four and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during his fight against US extradition, and Rosalind Comyn, who represented Extinction Rebellion protesters in court.
His legal team also includes Darragh Mackin from Phoenix Law, Brenda Campbell KC, Jude Bunting KC and Blinne N Ghrlaigh KC.
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Irish Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Kneecap's Mo Chara due in London court today on terrorism charges
Kneecap will dash from London on Wednesday to their gig in Dublin as member Mo Chara faces terrorism charges. The rapper, whose real name is Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court over the alleged displaying of a flag in support of Hezbollah. It is alleged that Mo Chara waved the flag at the Belfast group's gig in London last November. The rap trio - which also consists of Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvaí - have denied any wrongdoing and said Ó hAnnaidh intends on defending the charge. After the court appearance, the group will have to dash back to Ireland as they take to the stage at Dublin's Fairview Park on Thursday. It will be one of the group's biggest solo gigs yet, as the outdoor venue has capacity for 8,000 people. The event has long been sold-out as Dublin singer Gemma Dunleavy and post-punk band Gurriers will support the Irish-language rappers. Speaking about the terrorism charges, Ó hAnnaidh said it is "political policing" and its intention is to stifle criticism of Israel's actions in Gaza. At a London gig last month, the rapper said on-stage: "There's a reason why what's happened to me, happened before Glastonbury. There's a reason they're trying to f**king stop me speaking at Glastonbury in front of the UK." Despite calls for the group to be censored at the festival, organisers have confirmed that Kneecap will be playing Glastonbury on June 28. The Smiths musician Johnny Marr took to Instagram on Monday showing his support for the Belfast group. He wrote: "After learning that calls have been made for Kneecap to be censored during their Glastonbury set, I think it's important to make my own position clear. "I've played Glastonbury many times and the festival has always had a political aspect. It was founded as a place of free expression and political activism. I stand with my audience and fellow musicians who call for an immediate end to the atrocities and a free Palestine."
Sunday World
4 hours ago
- Sunday World
Billboard appears in support of Kneecap ahead of court appearance
Johnny Marr also weighed in on the group's Glastonbury set hitting out at idea of censorship Kneecap member Liam Og O hAnnaidh outside the 100 Club in Oxford Street, central London, last month. Pic: PA/PA Wire A billboard has appeared in London supporting the west Belfast band Kneecap, as one of its members prepares to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on Wednesday on an alleged terror offence. The billboard was snapped in the Lambeth area of the city and shared by a number of users online, including Sinn Féin MP Chris Hazzard. The band's own account also shared the image of the billboard, which includes the phrase: 'More Blacks, More Dogs, More Irish, Mo Chara' set in the colours of the Irish Tricolour. The phrase included in the billboard appears to be a parody of the historical racist slogan seen across parts of England in the 1960s which included the phrase 'no blacks, no dogs, no Irish'. Mr Hazard shared an image of the billboard on his Facebook account, captioning the photo: 'Spotted in London.' It comes as Kneecap member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh prepares to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on Wednesday on an alleged terror offence. The 27-year-old, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged over the alleged display of a flag in support of Hezbollah at a gig at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, north London, in November last year. We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review your details and accept them to load the content Meanwhile, a former guitarist from 1980s rock band The Smiths backed Kneecap amid calls for their set at the Glastonbury Festival to be censored. There had previously been calls for the controversial Irish language rap group's set at the famous festival to be cancelled amid a furore sparked by their pro-Palestine display at US festival Coachella in April. During the gig, the band – made up of Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh (Mo Chara), JJ Ó Dochartaigh (DJ Próvaí) and Naoise Ó Cairealláin (Moghlaí Bap) – led the crowd in chants of 'free, free Palestine'. A message reading: 'F**k Israel. Free Palestine' was also unveiled. The billboard in Lambeth News in 90 Seconds - June 17 Soon after the gig, footage emerged allegedly showing a band member calling for the deaths of MPs and shouting 'up Hamas, up Hezbollah'. The group subsequently apologised to the families of murdered MPs but said footage of the incident had been 'exploited and weaponised'. Posting a message on his social media channels, former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr said calls for Kneecap's Glastonbury set to be cancelled were not in keeping with the festival's 'free expression'. "After learning that calls have been made for Kneecap to be censored during their Glastonbury set, I think it's important that I make my own position clear,' he said. We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review your details and accept them to load the content "I've played Glastonbury many times and the festival has always had a political aspect. "It was founded as a place of free expression and political activism and it's a fact that I agreed to play there with The Smiths in 1984 purely because to do so at the time was a political act. "We are living through very troubling times, but for anyone who's been interested in me or my music over the last 40 years, I feel like my political stance has always been very clear. "Oppression fears artistic expression. I respect all musicians who use their platform to speak out against injustice, who promote compassion and equality and give voice to the voiceless. "I stand with my audience and fellow musicians who call for an immediate end to the atrocities and a free Palestine.' Last week, the band announced details of the high-profile legal team that will represent Mo Chara over the alleged terror offence, referring to them as 'An Scothfhoireann – The Dream Team'. Kneecap member Liam Og O hAnnaidh outside the 100 Club in Oxford Street, central London, last month. Pic: PA/PA Wire Darragh Mackin of Phoenix Law heads up the team alongside Gareth Peirce of Binberg Peirce, who has previously defended the Birmingham Six and the Guilford Four, as well as appearing for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. The team also includes Brenda Campbell KC, who represented the families of the Hillsborough Stadium disaster, and freedom of expression expert Jude Bunting KC. Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, who appeared before the International Court of Justice on behalf of South Africa against Israel in relation to the genocide in Gaza, is also in the ranks, with free speech, national security and crime expert Rosalyn Comyn completing the line-up. In an Instagram post the group added: 'The British establishment is conducting a campaign against Kneecap which is to be fought in Westminster Magistrates Court. "We are ready for this fight. We are proud to have such a strong legal team with us.'
Irish Examiner
9 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
'It shares the Palestinian experience of displacement': Basel Zaraa on his Cork Midsummer installation
Can you describe what Dear Laila involves? Dear Laila is an intimate, interactive installation experienced by one audience member at a time, which shares the Palestinian experience of displacement and resistance, through the story of one family. I created it in response to my daughter Laila, who was then five, asking where I grew up, and why we couldn't go there. As I couldn't take her to Yarmouk, the Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus where I grew up, I tried to bring it to her by making a model of our now destroyed family home. The audience member sits in Laila's shoes and learns the story of the house, through the miniature, an audio piece, objects and photos. The story of the house is the story of our family, which in turn is the story of millions of Palestinians. What do you hope an Irish audience will get from it? I hope that this personal approach makes audiences feel more connected to the experience. As Palestinians, our individual experiences tell political stories. And this is not something we have chosen, but something that has been forced upon us by history. I wanted to show how these historical events are experienced in the everyday lives of ordinary people. Can you tell us about your family history? We are from a village called Tantura in the north of Palestine. My grandparents used be a farmers, and in 1948, the year of the Nakba, a Zionist armed group attacked my village and carried out a massacre, killing more than 200 people from my village. Those who survived, were forced to leave, and my great-grandparents were among them. They went to Syria, thinking they would stay for a bit and go back, but that never happened as Israel didn't allow anyone to go back to their homes and towns. More than 750,000 Palestinian forced to leave their homes that year. Now I am one of the third generation to be born and grow up as a refugee in Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, which is one of 12 Palestinian camps in Syria. Did your parents/grandparents continue to hope they would return home to Palestine? Most of the Palestinians I know still have keys to their homes, or title deeds to prove that they owned a home in Palestine. As you say, I am one of the third generation that was born and grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp, and there are hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees still living as refugees today without any other nationality, in refugee camps in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, West Bank and Gaza. They are waiting to go back home, as is our right recognised by the UN resolution 194, which states that 'Refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date'. Dear Laila was inspired by Basel Zaraa's desire to show his daughter their home in a Syrian refugee camp. For you, Yarmouk seems to have really been a home – albeit with a desire to return to Palestine. What were the circumstances of when you had to leave? Like all refugee camps, Yarmouk meant to be temporary, somewhere to stay until we returned to our villages and homes, but the tents became 'cement tents', and we got stuck there, generation after generation. So it's strange to say that Yarmouk, a refugee camp, was our home, but it was, and when we lost it, it felt like losing a home again. I left just before the uprising began, on a spouse visa, expecting to be able to return to visit. But after the uprising started in Syria, Yarmouk became one of the worst hit places by the war, following a pattern of destruction of Palestinian camps that we often see in the region. Most of the camp got destroyed and most of its residents got displaced and were forced to leave their homes again, which brought back the trauma of our first exile, when my grandparents were forced to leave Palestine. Are there particular possessions that were important for you to take to the UK? When I left I didn't know I'd be unable to return for a long time, or that when I returned the camp would be destroyed. The thing that has been most important for me is how we could rescue photos from Yarmouk, to preserve memories of happy moments in the camp, so our visual memory was not only of its destruction. When my father went back to see the camp after the siege was lifted, he was able to get some of the photos from rubble, and I use these photos in Dear Laila. Obviously, what's happening in Gaza and beyond recently has reached whole new levels of horror. How has that affected you, both personally and in terms your art? We as Palestinians have been living in trauma for 77 years - the wars haven't stopped, from 1948 to 1967, Black October in the 1970s, the siege of Beirut in 1982, the first and second Intifada, military and settler attacks in the West Bank, and the siege and continued attacks on Gaza over the last 20 years... Personally, to witness what happened to my camp, Yarmouk, and to my neighbours and family and people, was a big trauma, which affected me, and most of us from the camp, deeply. It took time for us to be able to comprehend what was happening to us. Art is a way of understanding this trauma and healing our wounds by facing what has happened, and telling our story. My works try to tell the story of my community, in the face of the occupation's attempt to create a false narrative about what they have done to us. I feel this is my responsibility, as a Palestinian, as an artist and as a human. Art always plays a big role in defending the oppressed and defending truth, and this is clear when you see how the occupation tries to suppress these expressions, whether that's the assassination of the writer Ghassan Kanafani, or the killing of journalists and intellectuals in Gaza today. What do you think of the boycott movement (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) against Israel, particularly in an arts context? BDS is an essential and effective tool for people around the world to show solidarity with Palestine and put pressure on the occupation, now more than ever. As witnesses to the ongoing genocide, we must put pressure on Israel with all the tools available to us, and the example of South Africa shows us that boycotts work. Obviously, the situation in Syria is fluid, but what are your thoughts on returning to Yarmouk, possibly bringing Laila? I returned to Syria after the fall of the regime. I wanted to witness this important moment in Syria's history, and was able to go a month after the dictatorship fell. The dictatorship had been there for half a century, and, particularly in recent years, it felt like it would never fall, but it did, which is a reminder that although the road to freedom can be long, nothing lasts forever. It was incredible to witness Syrians celebrating these first moments of freedom, and when I was there my mind was in Palestine and imagining when this moment will come for us too. I didn't take my daughter Laila or my son Ibrahim with me this time, but I hope to in the future. It was hard to see Yarmouk destroyed, we had always seen it on the news so much, but in real life it affects you much more strongly. But it was also nice to see the first time they had Eid in Yarmouk, with swings and children playing in the streets. It gave a feeling of hope for the future. Dear Laila is on June 20-22 at MicroGALLERY, on Grand Parade, Cork. Tickets: €8. See
