UK rapper's song slammed for blaming gardai and migrants for ‘trouble and violence'

Sunday World

a day ago

'Like all genres of music rap can be used to benefit social conscience or it can be used to attack it, and we would see this as an attack'
One of the scenes featured in the video
One of the scenes shot at Johnnie Foxes in Dublin
A song released by an infamous UK gangster turned rapper calling for Ireland's freedom from 'guards and migrants' has been slammed by an anti-racist group.
Jordan McCann who wrote a hit song while on parole from prison has racked up millions of views on social media and says he is making six-figures from his new career.
While previous songs have been about the danger and lure of the gangster lifestyle his latest offering suggests Ireland is troubled by violence due to migrants.
Also featuring on the song 'Free Ireland' which this week already had nearly 500,000 views on YouTube, is Dublin singer Conor McLoughlin.
One of the lines in the song reads: 'Free, free, free Ireland from all the trouble and the violence. Free, free, free Ireland from all guards and the migrants.'
The video for the song that was posted on YouTube starts with a man in Dublin shouting at a line of gardai in riot gear: 'The batterings will continue until the plantation is complete.'
The idea that people in European countries are being replaced and their countries 'planted' is an international far-right conspiracy theory.
The introduction also features clip from the November riots in Dublin in the wake of a young child and others being stabbed in Parnell Square.
Convicted crminal turned rapper Jordan McCann (black hat) in Dublin
News in 90 Seconds - August 16th
The video was filmed in several well-known tourist site in Dublin including Merchant's Arch, the GPO, O'Connell Street, the city quays as well as in Jobstown and at Johnnie Fox's pub in the Dublin Mountains.
McCann also alludes to his Irish roots in the track and how his 'grandfather left on a boat for England' and 'Irish to the core, so it's Guinness that I'm drinking.'
Other lyrics are less sympathetic to immigrants: 'Heroes got blasted and died for these bastards so open the floodgates, swear that is backwards.'
Gardai are seen intervening as McCann filmed on O'Connell Street last month where a crowd gathered around him.
The video also features Conor McLoughlin
The music video finishes with a photograph of Michael Collins and a quote from the revolutionary leader on Irish nationality.
Damian Farrell of Dublin Communities Against Racism (DCAR) said that while he was not aware of McCann's video specifically, he believes they are not representative of the majority of people.
'Generally speaking, rap artists like this have a media platform and inherit a space where the person who is the loudest is heard the most.
'They are able to broadcast and amplify what is after all just their opinion.
'So, a lot of the work we do is in dispelling the narrative that these videos are the only message out there. They're not.
McCann and McLoughlin in the video
'It is the hidden voices that Dublin Communities Against Racism represent that we are trying to encourage.
'We work with a wide range of ethnic minorities in doing more to make those voices heard without putting themselves in physical danger.
'People like rap music', Mr Farrell added, 'and like all genres of music it can be used to benefit social conscience or it can be used to attack it, and we would see this as an attack.
'And the exploitation of fake sense of nationalism that is promoted through the anti-immigration campaign and elected representatives who should know better creates a society that is of no use to anyone.
One of the scenes shot at Johnnie Foxes in Dublin
'The people who are involved in these kinds of videos are not being empowered, they are being used and exploited in a way that, ironically, is the same as they use immigrants to blame for all the ills in our society that we are endeavouring to combat.'
The music clip also features Conor McLoughlin who last year won the approval of five judges during an episode of The Voice on ITV.
He appeared at the blind auditions and won the attention from each of the celebrity judges with his rendition of Ed Sheeran's 'I See Fire'.
Tom Jones, will.i.am, Leann Rimes, Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones hit their button to turn their chairs around.
He previously took part in BBC's Let It Shine in 2017.
While in west Dublin Jordan McCann stopped to pose for pics with Lee McDonnell a notorious violent criminal.
McDonnell has 133 previous convictions, including for robbery, aggravated burglary and escaping from lawful custody.
He was part of a group of young west Dublin criminals who were causing havoc in their late teens and early 20s who had been mentored by older criminals with links to veteran gangster Derek 'Dee Dee' O'Driscoll.
McDonnell previously hit the headlines going on the run for five weeks after escaping from a prison van in Inchicore after prison officers stopped at a chipper.
Compared to O'Loughlin McCann's route to showbiz has been a lot tougher who has said interviews that he grew up in jail.
In 2016 he was among 13 people subject to court orders sought by police in Manchester and Salford to stop a gang feud after a series of shootings.
One of the scenes featured in the video
He belonged to a well-known criminal family in Salford, Greater Manchester, and has been convicted of violent crime, armed robbery, gang affiliations and drug dealing.
He was in prison when his breakthrough moment came as his Lifestyle track was released and proved to be a big success.
In an interview with the Manchester Evening News in 2023 he said he realised he had to turn away from crime after being sentenced to six and a half years aged 19.
'I was just thinking, 'I'm not coming home now for years, I'm living around all these same people, I lived by this f***ing code, I've been the [most loyal] guy, I've been the realest guy' and it does get you nowhere.
'I just realised, 'bang' this life is the fakest life in the world'.'
'After growing up in prison and seeing so many scenarios and people I've looked up to and seeing some of the moves that they pull themselves, I realised it's inevitable in this life bad things are gonna come.'
'Nothing good's gonna come, when money gets involved, when girls get involved people are gonna f*** people over.'