In my working life, over the past 35+ years, the vast majority of it has been spent in the community sector, and much of that in the small, dingy corridor which contains the Irish language community, next door to Same-sex Marriage and across from Equality.
I was also, in an earlier incarnation, a fair-to-middling musician, playing drums and song-writing for a number of different bands.
I’m also a huge supporter of the Arts in general – I’m currently actively involved in a number of projects, involving – among others – local traditional musicians, rock bands, the Ulster Orchestra, Irish poets, Chinese musicians and a couple of international animators.
And, anyone who reads here on a regular basis, will know that my politics lean more towards the Nationalist/Republican side, rather than the Unionist/Loyalist inclination.
So, given my love for the Irish language, politics, Arts and music, it should come as no surprise that I absolutely love KNEECAP, the Irish language rap band from West Belfast (DJs Móglaí Bap. Mo Chara & Próvaí to be exact).
Everything about them is designed to rock almost any boat you happen to sit in. They appear to be anti-anything you happen to believe in. Marlon Brando’s line from The Wild Ones might have been written with KNEECAP in mind:
“Hey Johnny, what are you rebelling against?”
“Whaddya got?”
And this ‘fuck you’ attitude is exactly what attracts many to them. They are the knee-jerk reaction we all fight to control. They are that inner voice, that we all struggle to suppress, yelling loudly – “No! We don’t like the shit you spout, and we’re gonna tell you so!”
They are also – and I do have to cast my mind back a few years here – the voice of a younger generation: smart enough to recognise how much we, their elders, have messed up, and articulate enough to realise that they have a very creative way of, well, articulating that.
They are Art. And bloody good Art at that.
Their songs are catchy. Their videos are uncomfortably watchable and funny. Their attitude is vaguely reminiscent of the devil-may-care attitude of the Punk movement of the late 70s and early 80s in Belfast.
And they are, in a still-divided society, cross-community. Their gigs are filled with young people from both sides of the divide here. Young people who, regardless of their political & religious backgrounds, revel in – and sing along to – songs about being hassled by the police, buying and using drugs, kicking back against a system that doesn’t seem to care about them, and generally having a good time.
Their gigs are almost always sold-out affairs, and not just here, in the troubled North from which they hail. They sell out all over the USA, Europe and – perhaps surprisingly to some – all over the UK. Their music speaks to people. And not just to their own generation. KNEECAP’s audiences comprise of a fairly hefty amount of people of my age too: people who remember when Stiff Little Fingers, Stalag 17 and The Outcasts were in their early hey-days, and politically and socially aware music was a rarity here.
KNEECAP evidently also occupy (perhaps taken by force!) a higher social strata, with their semi-autobiographical film having recently won the prestigious Audience Award at the Sundance Festival. The film, starring the three band members, also features Hollywood star Michael Fassbender, and is expected to win many more accolades (My own disappointment at not being asked to appear will be a small footnote in cinematic history). I can’t wait to see the movie.
But – and there’s always a but: KNEECAP have now been refused funding for their next musical project, despite having been initially approved. The organisation who blocked them? The British government.
And the reason?
‘A spokesperson for UK Business/Trade Secretary, Kemi Badenoch: “We fully support freedom of speech, but it’s hardly surprising that we don’t want to hand out UK tax money to people that oppose the United Kingdom itself.”’
So, if you express – through Art – an objection to the Union, the government can intervene and block a legal application for funding? Does that sound right?
Some media outlets have been gloating over this decision, claiming that the band had ‘made a plea’ for the money. No. They applied for a grant, just as any other artist is entitled to do. Their only fault here is that they openly advocate the end of the United Kingdom. That isn’t a crime, it’s an aspiration. And it shouldn’t automatically exclude them from a funding application – which it didn’t. It took government intervention to do that.
Freedom of speech is something we often debate and, whilst we may disagree about its parameters and its meaning, we all seem to agree that government censorship is wrong.
You may not like their music. You may not like their message(s). But you surely can’t deny them their right to express either?
Enjoy a bit of KNEECAP, and fuck the haters.
Whistling In The Wind 
Even more than the free speech arguments, it drives a horse and carriage through the Good Friday Agreement.
The British Government, in their administration of the North, must ensure just and equal treatment for the aspirations of both communities. That means just and equal treatment for those “that oppose the United Kingdom itself”.
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The UK government is under no obligation to use taxpayers money to fund an obscure “Up the RA!” band in Belfast. Let its supporters chip in to support it. That’s free speech in action. Put your money where your mouth is guys.
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“The UK government is under no obligation to use taxpayers money to fund an obscure “Up the RA!” band in Belfast.”
No, it isn’t. But it also shouldn’t have the power to deny funding already approved by the funding body itself, just because it doesn’t agree with the applicant’s point of view.
“Let its supporters chip in to support it. That’s free speech in action. Put your money where your mouth is guys.”
Their supporters already do that, by paying to see them, buying their music and buying their merchandise. As with many acts, they need funding to produce their music. And, as with many other artists, they will be used to being declined for funding. But to be denied funding by the government, using the excuse, “…we don’t want to hand out UK tax money to people that oppose the United Kingdom itself.”’ is ludicrous, considering they are UK taxpayers themselves. Part of that ‘freedom of speech’ you mentioned is the freedom to proclaim that you oppose the government. Do you oppose freedom of speech? Or only when it suits you?
As a bit of Whataboutery: how much money has the Orange Order and various Loyalist marching bands received from the Irish government? Considering that they are neither Irish citizens or tax-payers in that country, and that they are openly hostile to the Republic and it citizens, then the figure should be zero, shouldn’t it? Going by your own logic, surely?
No. They have applied for, and received millions of pounds over the years.
Perhaps the Irish government should claim it all back? They won’t though, because as bad as they are, they’re not Tories.
But perhaps from now on, the OO should be denied funding too. Let its supporters put their money where their mouth is.
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But you have to admit, Seamus, that there’s something almost satirical about an anarcho rock/punk band complaining that it isn’t getting government funding when they and their music are all about “rocking almost any boat you happen to sit in, a ‘fuck you’ attitude, “No! We don’t like the shit you spout, and we’re gonna tell you so!”, buying and using drugs and kicking back against the system.
They can hardly complain when someone else says ‘fuck you’ and “We don’t like the shit you spout” to them.
No self-respecting anarchist could complain about that. It’s hard to imagine – without laughing – genuine iconoclasts of their day, like the Stones in the 60’s or the Sex Pistols in the 70’s, complaining that they are aren’t getting funded by the state.
I also don’t see what it’s got to do with freedom of speech. There are several countries where you aren’t allowed, or will be jailed if you attempted, to say the state should be dismembered. The UK isn’t one of them.
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‘There’s something almost satirical about an anarcho rock/punk band [….]
They’re not ‘an anarcho rock/punk band’ though, Crass were an anarcho rock/punk band, Conflict were an anarcho rock/punk band, Discharge were an anarcho rock/punk band.
Kneecap are a trio of Irish speaking rappers who perform an act of an over-exaggerated caricature that young people can relate to which unfortunately is all too common on Belfast streets and further afield.
‘They can hardly complain when someone else says ‘fuck you’ and “We don’t like the shit you spout” to them’
They can when they are obligated by law to contribute to the same system that’s denying them funding.
In terms of anarchic rebelliousness, I think three young Turks taking on the system denying them funding to express their art is pretty reflective of the subject.
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The dead arose and appeared to many. Nice to see you again, Hugh. 👍
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BTW:
= But you have to admit, SEIMI,
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Finding a voice is everything , so good luck to KNEECAP
That Kemi MP is a slag , she’s in more trouble for failing
to raise Horizon scandal when she met Fujitsu at Davos
An opportunist , who will come to ruin
just a question of how much harm they will do before that !
Limerick produced the rubberbandits and they were a great craic
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“That Kemi MP is a slag”
I wouldn’t use that word, but she is certainly on the make, and she sees the culture war as her strongest point of appeal to the rightwing Tories who might elect her to succeed Sunak. As I’ve posted before, I still expect the Tories to ditch their stuffed-shirt technocrat before the election, in which case it will be left to Tory MPs. The front runners will be Badenoch, Braverman and possibly Jenrick. The One Nation Tories will put up a candidate – maybe Tugenhadt – but he will have no chance. My money will be on Badenoch.
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