Tom Dunne: When Kneecap's 'exciting fun world' strayed into the 'real, no craic at all' world

Irish Examiner

04-06-2025

Kneecap, over the course of the last six months, became our 'family band'... the most requested on long drives, the one band we all agreed on. They and Fontaines DC. But the Fontaines weren't teaching my children Irish, so Mo Chara & Co nudged it.
Hence, when they caught the world's attention at Coachella, my reaction was one of almost parental discomfort. 'What have those young bucks done now?' I exclaimed.
'It'll be doom they bring upon themselves,' I cautioned.
And it had all been going so well. I'd been the one who introduced them to the family. 'It's political, it's exciting, its hip hop and, incredibly, unbelievably, it's in Irish,' I told them. 'What's not to like?'
Slight concerns about the historical discrepancies, the juxtaposition of eras, a character being called Bobby Sandals, the IRA as bumbling incompetent drug dealers, I kept to myself.
'This is what freedom looks like,' I thought. 'This is post Good Friday. It's Kneecap's Norn Iron now.'
My young music fans took to it with an enthusiasm I haven't seen since we secured a supply of In The Night Garden toys in 2010. In the week before her oral Irish exam, the older one memorised most of the album. We'll find out in autumn if she performed 3CAG in the exam.
Then Coachella happened. I was consulted. 'What do you make of this, Da?' asked the local fanbase.
'It would have been better for them if they hadn't,' I said, dad-like. 'Gigs might get cancelled, tours ruined. And reducing a complex thing to a slogan is never good.' We all nodded sagely.
Kneecap at City hall, Cork City on February 12, 2025. Pic Larry Cummins
But I knew Kneecap's 'exciting, fun world' had just strayed into the 'real, no craic at all' world.
Antennae were twitching, sleeping dogs awakening. It was that moment in a John Connolly book where the evil guy opens one eye.
I then gave lengthy explanations of history to help set Kneecap's comments in context. 'This didn't start on October 7,' I said. I may have lost them around the 1947 UN resolution 181 but I think, by then, they had appreciated how complex it all was.
Then the doom arrived. The clear-eyed certainty, the venom of their accusers was startling. It had been a while since so many, mostly British, politicians, with little or no say in anything important in their own constituencies, had seen something they could be so self-righteous about.
Informed commentators were soon pointing out the worst offenders. Like those arguing against Kneecap's songs who, at the same time, were lobbying for the return of loyalist marches to Catholic areas; lobbying for the rights of loyalists to sing about marching 'in Fenian blood' outside Catholic homes.
Soon police in Britain were trawling through footage of old Kneecap gigs with a level of urgency not seen since the 9/11 attacks. Oh, damn this mobile phone age.
Kneecap, high on adrenalin and the energy of such sudden success, playing to ever-increasing audiences, had at times gotten carried away. Who'd have thunk?
Members of Kneecap, Liam Og O Hannaidh (Mo Chara), JJ O Dochartaigh (DJ Provai), and Naoise O Caireallain (Moglai Bap) attending the Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA) Awards Ceremony at the Dublin Royal Convention Centre.
Some of what they said was stupid and crass. Apologies were made but a Hezbollah flag at a gig last November saw them charged with a terrorism offence by the Metropolitan Police.
They have described this as 'political policing'. Mo Chara will appear before magistrates on June 18.
As the witch-hunt continued, the news from Gaza grew ever more grim. And any kind of dissenting voice was greeted with ever more hysterical claims of antisemitism. As the horrors worsened, the discussion tightened. It is sickening.
But one part of my doom prediction has proven spectacularly wrong. Some gigs have been cancelled but Kneecap's popularity is surging. They will play the West Holts stage at Glastonbury on June 28 and the AVO Arena Wembley on September 18 — their biggest show yet.
Here, there is a gig in Fairview in June and one in Belfast on August 29 at Boucher Road Fields with Fontaines DC. At the Belfast gig, they will play to an estimated 40,000 people. That's 40,000 people in Northern Ireland singing 'Get your Brits out', as Gaeilge. Be still my beating heart.
My younger daughter also loves Kneecap. She and her friends were in my car after the Rewind gig in Dublin. 'So, Kneecap can get put on trial,' I heard one of them say, 'but a government that kills 19,000 children isn't. How is that right?'
Go on, you answer the girl. I'm all out.
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