Kneecap's Freedom of Speech

By Deputy Entertainment Editor Darren Keogh

There is a sense of freedom stirring in the ‘Six Counties’, also known as Northern Ireland, or the Ulster Province to some. For the first time in Stormont’s history the Nationalist party, Sinn Féin, have been voted into power. Michelle O’Neill has been appointed as First Minister for the first time in Sinn Fein’s history.  This came about after a two year hiatus in government due to a veto from the DUP and former leader Jeffrey Donaldson. More and more Catholic and Nationalist artists and writers from ‘ the peace process generation’ are appearing from the north of Ireland. Michael Magee, from Belfast, has released his first novel Close to Home, which won the Nero Book Awards for Debut Fiction in 2023 and the Waterstones Irish Book of the Year 2023. The book is about growing up in Belfast after the1998 peace deal, how his generation dealt with  the fall out of the peace process and how, therefore, not all is what it seems. Louise Kennedy, from Co. Down, has also released her debut novel Tresspasses, which is about a young Catholic girl falling in love with an older protestant man during the heights of The Troubles. 

Kneecap, with their cultural music ability, emerged on the scene in 2018, bringing an Irish voice with them by rapping in both Irish and English. Their members are rappers, Mo Chara (Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh), Móglaí Bap (Naoise Ó Cairealláin), and DJ Próvaí (JJ Ó Dochartaigh). Their debut album 3CAG has trinkets of humor and some obvious drug use along with some quality lashings of slagging towards the British establishment (And yes you guessed it Kneecap is a quip on paramilitary punishment). This already has been argued as unwarranted in certain areas of the north but look at it their way. If you were living on a street where your family were questioned and beaten by British forces, would you rather go out and act violently in response to this or would you sit down, roll a fat one and put your pen to paper and let the establishment have it your way by writing some heavy songs about them instead? It could be agreed the latter would be better. Instead of wallowing in their affliction they have become masters at transforming their pain into ‘fine art’, whether it be as Béarla or as Gaeilge. This is what Kneecap have done with their second album Fine Art, released this year.

This track, Better Way to Live, jumps between the Irish and English language and gives listeners an insight into the lives of our young singers on a daily basis in West Belfast. It speaks of topics like anxiety, catastrophizing, and drinking to keep the mental ‘chattering’ at bay, which seems to stem from post traumatic stress disorder. This then would explain where their lyrical anguish is coming from. Is it that intergenerational trauma has played a part in their writing and drug use? 

There is more talk of generational trauma with songs like Sick in the Head, where class consciousness and mental health become a topic of conversation throughout with lyrics like: ‘live your fantasy before they eat you up and spit you out’ and ‘Tá mé tinn de bheith ag glacadh comhairle stráinséara’, which translates to ‘I'm sick of taking a stranger's advice’. These lyrics speak to the youth of Ireland and give a sense of individualism, freedom and unity – all factors of what could be to come from Northern Ireland if the Belfast agreement gets some sort of reform now that Stormeont is back. As Móglaí Bap and Mó Chára tell us, it is even more important now for something to be done about the suicide rate in Belfast. 

This seems to be one of the biggest fallouts from the Peace Process. Reports have emerged in recent times that more people have died by suicide since the Good Friday Agreement than people that were killed during The Troubles. 

Kneecap show their ability to poke fun at the Unionist community with songs like Get your Brits Out, which they released in 2019. The track tells the tale of a fabricated night out the group had with members of the DUP as they get smashed on yokes with Christy Salford and Jeffrey Donaldson. In a dream world this is the kind of song that could bond Unionists and Nationalists together as they all get off their faces and dance and have the craic. Kneecap are trying to say something here, maybe it is unity for all, maybe it is freedom, but it is up to the listeners to take note or stay on their one way street forever. 

Their freedom of speech is channeled through the use of the Irish language. It's something prisoners learned while locked in their cells during the Troubles to communicate so the British officers could not understand them when they spoke and so, when they got released, some of them went on to open Irish national schools in their areas to keep the language alive. These teachers  only got paid through collections until state funding arrived in 2022. 

Kneecap are not afraid of controversy either. They unveiled a mural depicting a PSNI land rover on fire in 2022. This received heavy criticism from leaders of the DUP but Kneecap  defended it as “fine art.” Again transforming their anguish into something artistic rather than violent. Kneecap are using their technique to create something that is both legal and talented. Maybe this is an area that can now be looked at in Stormont on the back heel of a fresh government in Northern Ireland. 

With all this mentioned they have a semi-autobiographical movie which was just released in cinemas in August, also called Kneecap. The band members play an amplified version of themselves to tell their tale of the band's inception, growing up in West Belfast and showing the life of the communities that these lads have come from in a post Good Friday Agreement environment. The movie has already won the Audience Award at the Sundance film Festival. 

It could be said that Kneecap's main argument is that measures need to be taken to rebuild communities in Northern Ireland just like they would be in any post-conflict society.. To this day the peace wall gates in Belfast are still locked at 10pm every night and so fully grown adults are closed in, thus creating a vacuum of mental health issues and there are not enough services there to deal with the high rate of suicide and poverty. Now that Stormont is back up and running, surely there is an urgency for the Belfast Agreement to be looked at as it is clearly showing signs of age. A new agreement could be put in place, maybe even a citizens assembly, and instead of First Ministers and Deputy First Ministers they could be retitled as Joint First Ministers, this could prevent future veto by either party. Whatever it is going to be, it must be done with haste so new thinkers can pave the way for the working class. This then could lead to unity as it was originally agreed in the Good Friday Agreement. As Árlo Ó Cairealláin, played by Michael Fassbender in the movie put it, ‘And you know what that shite smelt like? Freedom.’