‘They are turning him into a hero': Kneecap solidarity gig held in Dublin

Leader Live

8 hours ago

Kneecap flags and logos hung from the windows in Connolly Books, which dubs itself Ireland's oldest radical bookshop, in solidarity with O hAnnaidh, Kneecap, and the people of Palestine.
Pro-Palestine supporters criticised the decision by British authorities to bring a charge against the performer instead of focusing on the Israeli government's actions against the Palestinian people.
O hAnnaidh, 27, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, is accused of displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah at a gig in November last year.
Hundreds of Kneecap supporters greeted O hAnnaidh as he arrived at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on Wednesday morning, alongside fellow Kneecap rappers Naoise O Caireallain and JJ O Dochartaigh.
During the hearing, his defence team argued the case should be thrown out, citing a technical error in the way the charge against him was brought.
The case has been adjourned until September 26, when the judge will rule on whether he has the jurisdiction to try the case.
At the protest session at Connolly Books on Wednesday afternoon, several artists played Irish traditional music in solidarity with the rappers and Palestine.
Musician Ru O'Shea, who performed at the demonstration, said charging O hAnnaidh had turned him into 'a hero'.
'I think it's been a huge misstep by the powers that be to go after him in the first place,' he told the PA news agency.
'I reckon that they don't have a thing on him, and I think they are turning him into a hero, and I think we need a hero.
'What's happening in Palestine right now, it's gotten to such an extreme that it's waking a lot of people up, including the British who might not have ever seen it otherwise and stayed in that bubble forever.'
O'Shea's friend John Feehan said: 'I think people are maybe starting to look up a little bit in Britain, and I think things like what's happening with Kneecap is a catalyst for people to be like 'Oh, wait a minute, what's actually happening here?'. So I hope there's momentum, but I really don't know.'
Dubliner Aoife Powell, 19, said she came out to protest because she is 'angry' at the decision to charge an artist rather than focus on what is happening to the people of Gaza.
'I'm here because it just worries me that the fact that governments are focused on artists expressing themselves rather than the actual problem, which is obviously the genocide in Gaza,' she told PA.
'It's a little bit disheartening to see there's so much pressure being put on these artists to stop saying what they truly think and to stop standing on the right side of history.
'I feel like it's a distraction from what's actually happening.
'When a government tries to silence people, they should learn that they can never silence people. I feel like the public would get more angry at that.'
Sean O'Grady is from Coleraine in Northern Ireland but has lived in Dublin for almost 70 years.
'I'm delighted with them (Kneecap), that they've done what they're doing, and they're getting plenty of publicity.
'The British government are crazy, I mean, what are they at?
'They're supplying a lot of the bombs, and a lot of the arms and ammunition to Israel to do what they're doing. So they should be ashamed of themselves instead of bringing in these people (to court) for stupid reasons.
'It's getting good publicity over there for the cause of the Palestinians.'
Dubliner Dermot Nolan said he attended his first Palestine protest in 1967, and while he remembers horrific events such as the Vietnam War, the scale of death and injuries in Gaza is the worst he has ever lived through.
'I'm here because it's important to for two reasons – first of all, to show our intolerance of the genocide and slaughter that's being carried out by the US, Nato and Israel.
'The second reason is the question of civil rights. We're protesting about the indictment of a member of the Irish group Kneecap.
'It is a sign of creeping authoritarianism which is happening in all the western countries and most clearly in Britain.'