Mo Chara (Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh), Móglaí Bap (Naoise Ó Cairealláin), and DJ Próvaí (J.J. Ó Dochartaigh) are putting Ireland and the world on notice, breaking new ground as the first artists to ever bring the Irish language to the world of hip-hop. Rapping in Irish and English, the Belfast trio address divisive topics, such as drug use, Irish reunification and the expulsion of British rule of Northern Ireland.
The group’s entire identity is laced with highly charged satire, from their lyrics to the name itself – a reference to a common act of violence used during the Troubles. Ó Cairealláin’s explanation of the name typifies their brazen defiance, saying they are “talking about things that would get us kneecapped.”
Their championing of anti-British ideology, a sentiment which has divided Belfast for decades, has provoked many a clenched fist both on the unionist (British sympathizing) side of the city and across the Irish Sea on the British mainland. The group was recently awarded a grant of £14,250 from the Music Export Growth Scheme, which was subsequently blocked by the British Department for Business and Trade, with business secretary Kemi Badenoch claiming that the grant should not be awarded to people who “oppose the UK itself.” Kneecap filed a case for discrimination, won, and donated the proceeds of the grant to two youth organizations who work with Protestant and Catholic children in Belfast – the two religious groups at the heart of Northern Ireland’s history of civil unrest.
The group have succeeded in raising condescending eyebrows on their own island to boot, as their first single C.E.A.R.T.A. (meaning rights in Irish) was banned from Irish language radio station RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta for “drug references and cursing”, before a petition which garnered rapid popularity forced the station to reverse their decision.
Their greatest success to date is undoubtedly the impact they have had on the revival of Irish as a language. Ever since British colonization, the true language of Ireland has been dying, almost entirely due to deliberate British action to snuff it out. In its prime, Irish was spoken fluently by the entire population of Ireland, some 4 million people at it’s peak. Nowadays, that number has dwindled to just 40,000-80,000, yet the future of the language has never looked brighter among the country’s young people.
Kneecap’s emergence has made Irish “cool” again, helping to overcome years of apathy brought on by an ill-designed education system and a lack of cultural representation. Their music has paved a way into mainstream media for the language, with their first full length studio album Fine Art a hallmark of the great things that are to come from these “low-life scum.”
While their music has earned plaudits the world over, it is the release of their self-titled biopic that has propelled the trio into the global eye. Directed by Rich Peppiatt and starring the three members of the band as themselves with support from Michael Fassbender, the film became the first-ever Irish language production to feature at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival and has cleaned up the award scene since.
The film is a flamboyant, supercharged portrayal of the group’s rise to stardom, and hopefully marks the first of many representations of the Irish language in popular culture.
Support for their cause is surging the world over, with venues across the US and beyond selling out as crowds flock to see one of the hottest upcoming acts in music. Whether you like it or not, tá Kneecap anseo chun fanacht.
