Naoise Ó Cairealláin, aka Móglaí Bap of Kneecap, is waiting to board a plane from Belfast to London early on Tuesday evening.
“I keep having people coming up to me asking for photos and asking, ‘Where are you going?’ To a court case! They’re all going to Magaluf or something. I wish I was going to Magaluf,” he says.
A week in the life of Kneecap is unlike that of any other group right now. It’s the eve of the second day in court for Ó Cairealláin’s bandmate Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, aka Mo Chara, on a terror-related charge for allegedly displaying a flag of a proscribed organisation – Hizbullah, in this case ‐ at a gig they played in London in November 2024.
Ó hAnnaidh’s first court appearance was in June, not long before Kneecap played Glastonbury, in one of the most anticipated performances of this year’s festival. In response to the controversy, the BBC, which broadcast 90 hours of Glastonbury coverage, decided not to stream the gig live, only heightening a charged atmosphere.
It has all contributed to a seismic year for the Belfast punk-rap group, who have been amassing an ever-growing number of fans since the release of their debut album, Fine Art, and their equally well-received semi-autobiographical film in 2024.
“Yes, Kneecap’s tectonic plates have shifted again,” Móglaí Bap says. “There’s always something on the horizon. Hopefully [the court hearing] will be the culmination of that there, and we can go back to releasing music.”
Whatever happens, 10 days after the court appearance they’re due to perform on the main stage at Electric Picnic – a Saturday slot the band are “really buzzing” about, as they first appeared at the festival in the tiny Puball Gaeilge, or Irish Tent, in 2018, and have been working their way up the bill ever since.
It will be a weekend of high-profile gigs: the night before Electric Picnic they’ll be supporting Fontaines DC at a sold-out open-air show in Belfast; 48 hours later they’ll be performing in Warsaw. Kneecap had been due to play in Vienna that day, but organisers cancelled the concert earlier this month because of “acute safety concerns”.
The band have consistently spoken out against genocide and in solidarity with the Palestinian people; they characterise the charge against Ó hAnnaidh, which he denies, as political policing, a distraction from Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and from the British government’s complicity.
Their stance has drawn the ire of pro-Israel groups and of politicians in the UK, including Keir Starmer, the prime minister – and has been polarising opinion in parts of the United States, too, since the group projected the words “Free Palestine” and “F**k Israel” during their appearances at the Coachella festival, in California, in April. (The crowd cheered at the messages – common chants at any Palestine solidarity protest in the United States.)
Ó hAnnaidh has been spending part of the day preparing for court. As Mo Chara he performs with raucous energy on stage, and is gregarious in interviews, but that’s his public persona; offstage he is a more muted figure who avoids social media.
“I mean, he doesn’t like too much attention on the best of days,” Móglaí Bap says. “So I think this here is quite a lot of heat for him. He’s not worried or anything. It’s just a bit of a pain in the arse ... I think tomorrow we’ll find out.”
Later on Tuesday evening the Metropolitan Police impose “Public Order Act conditions” to “prevent serious disruption being caused” by Kneecap supporters outside Westminster magistrates’ court the next day: any protest in support of Mo Chara “and aligned causes” must remain within a set area outside the building.
The band post on social media in response: “We know all of our supporters will be, but please go out of your way to be compliant with all instructions issued, irrespective of how pitiful.”
By 8.30am on Wednesday a large crowd has assembled outside the courthouse, on Marylebone Road. Supporters wave “Free Mo Chara” signs and Irish and Palestine flags to welcome Ó hAnnaidh when he arrives, his face partially hidden by a keffiyeh scarf. He has to fight his way through a knot of photographers.
In court, the judge, Paul Goldspring, has arranged for an interpreter for Ó hAnnaidh, whom he allows out of the dock to sit beside her, so she can relay proceedings to him in Irish.
“JJ put in for it!” Móglaí Bap tells me on Tuesday about an unsuccessful attempt to take on the interpreting role by his bandmate DJ Próvaí. “Did you hear what happened?”
What happened at the first hearing, in June, was that the judge flagged the need for an Irish-language interpreter seemingly not realising that, to the amusement of the public gallery, he was re-enacting a scene in Kneecap’s Bafta-winning film where DJ Próvaí’s character is called into a police station late at night to interpret for a young man who turns out to be Mo Chara.
“That’s how much of a circus this is, everyone laughing,” Móglaí Bap says. He calls it An Scáthán Dubh, meaning it’s an Irish version of Black Mirror, Charlie Brooker’s dystopian television satire. He makes a point about fiction imitating real life and vice versa.
The case against Ó hAnnaidh in court on Wednesday rests on whether the criminal charge was issued within the six-month time limit. But, it turns out, it’s not an issue that will be settled today: after three hours of legal argument the judge adjourns the case until September 26th – which means that Kneecap won’t know until a few days before they’re set to play the opening show of their North American tour, in New York City, whether Mo Chara is to stand trial.
“We will return on September 26th in confidence that our position is correct,” Daniel Lambert, their manager (who is also chief operating officer of Bohemian FC), says after the adjournment. “The support we have received not just in London, outside the court, but in Belfast, Dublin and across the rest of Ireland and the world is staggering and hugely appreciated. We know that the majority of people stand with Kneecap and against blatant and harrowing Israeli war crimes which are supported by the British government.”
The group would take a significant financial hit if the North American tour was cancelled. These are big shows, all but one sold out, that will see Kneecap play to tens of thousands of fans across the United States and Canada. Wildly, in other words, an Irish-language rap act is returning hip-hop to its home via Belfast and Derry. Some tickets are being offered for $700 on resale sites.
They’ve managed to keep the show on the road, Móglaí Bap says, because of their team. “Honestly, it’s a lot to do with the people around us ... We’ve had so much support. It has really carried us through all of this. Dan especially: he has taken on board a lot of the pressure, the questions, going on RTÉ.”
The band put this down to Lambert’s political knowledge: a decade or so ago he was part of Ireland’s permanent mission to the United Nations. “If we had a manager who didn’t know anything about politics, I’d say we’d nearly be gone. We’d already be sunken,” Móglaí Bap says. “We would have fallen to the Israeli lobby without Dan.”
In April, after British counterterror police first said they were reviewing footage of two Kneecap concerts, and politicians began to call for the group to be dropped from festival line-ups, other artists rallied behind them: Massive Attack, Pulp, Paul Weller, Brian Eno and many more signed an open letter supporting their right to freedom of expression; more recently Tom Morello, of Rage Against the Machine, and Macklemore, who they met last weekend, have praised the group.
The political pressure and criticism, Kneecap believe, have backfired.
“We had this at the start of our career, when the DUP would come out and criticise us,” Móglaí Bap says. “It seems it’s part of a politician’s job to be seen to be outraged about stuff, because it makes them have this kind of moral superiority – for example, Keir Starmer coming out against us for Glastonbury and having an interview with the Sun newspaper.
“He knows – I’m sure he knows – talking to the Sun about us and condemning us isn’t going to stop us playing Glastonbury. But it appeases the people he wants to appease. He wants to be seen opposing us, and maybe appeasing a certain sector of society.
“So politicians have been doing this a long time. People are quite wise to it ... The main point here is what’s happening in Gaza. People ask us in interviews how we’re doing, and whether we’re coping well. We are. Whatever is happening to us is a fraction of what’s happening in Gaza.”
He is acutely aware of the times he is living in and of the moral lines that are being drawn. “There are historic moments happening all the time now, in a sense. People are stepping up. People are taking positions.”
One is the author Sally Rooney, who wrote in The Irish Times last weekend that she will continue to support Palestine Action despite the UK government having proscribed it as a terrorist group.
“Massive, massive respect to Sally Rooney. She is just taking these hard-core positions that no one is asking her to take. She’s so cool. She’s really challenging the status quo,” Móglaí Bap says. “They’ll definitely try to take her down, I’d say.
“But she’s not doing it not knowing what are the consequences. She knows what the consequences are, potentially. And I think acts like that really give confidence to people to speak out.”
With court adjourned for another month, Kneecap can at least focus on their next performances. “There was 50 people there, maybe 60,” for that first Electric Picnic set, in 2018. “In 2019 we did Terminus” – another stage at the festival – “and jumped up to maybe 6,000 people ... Last year we did Electric Arena; this year the main stage. EP has always been a staple for us and of our progression. It’s a place where you know how you’re getting on…
“I don’t think there’s many bands that started at the Puball Gaeilge and ended up on the main stage. Maybe there’s none – I must check that fact. I love that for us. I love having that connection and that trajectory. It does mean a lot to us to be on the main stage this year.”
As for encouraging other artists to speak out, “We’ll all have each other’s backs,” Móglaí Bap says. “I can’t deny that there are repercussions, because there are repercussions in taking a stand, but there are loads of people who will stand by you. Standing up for the right thing is something your older self will be proud of.”
Kneecap support Fontaines DC at Boucher Road Playing Fields, as part of Belfast Vital, on Friday, August 29th, then play at Electric Picnic, in Stradbally, Co Laois, on Saturday, August 30th
