The West Belfast rappers were on the defensive this week over on-stage comments about Hamas and killing Tory MPs. Amid calls for their gigs to be cancelled, John Meagher asks how much of the group’s rabble-rousing image is for real
Early controversy: Kneecap’s first single CEARTA, which was banned by RTÉ Raidió Na Gaeltachta, was released ‘just for the craic’
Anyone who reckoned musicians had lost their power to cause outrage will have had second thoughts this week. Forty-eight years since the Sex Pistols provoked heated debate in the Houses of Parliament, Britain’s leading politicians were up in arms about the actions of another provocative, uncompromising band.
Belfast rap trio Kneecap got more attention than they bargained for in recent days with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch among those calling for them to be prosecuted after allegedly calling for the death of Tory MPs. And here, politicians across the island of Ireland, including Taoiseach Micheál Martin, condemned them for resurfaced comments, including chants purportedly in support of terrorist organisations Hamas and Hezbollah.
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