‘Terrorism’ charge won’t silence Kneecap

Outrage has greeted a decision by the London Metropolitan Police to charge a member of Irish language hip hop group Kneecap with an offence over the display of a flag at a gig last year.

‘Mo Chara’, whose real name in Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, was accused of displaying the flag of Hezbollah, a party of government in Lebanon which was declared illegal by Britain in 2001.

Referring to Mr Ó hAnnaidh by an English version of his name, the Met said he had been charged under the Terrorism Act 2000 with displaying a flag in support of a proscribed organisation at a gig in London last November (pictured, right).

It referred to a social media clip which surfaced amid a right-wing reaction to the band’s outspoken support for Palestine at the Coachella music festival in California last month as well as its strong anti-colonial statements on the Irish language and indigenous rights.

It is understood Mr Ó hAnnaidh is to appear in court on June 18th.

The band has previously said that the footage of them was deliberately taken out of context with the express purpose of silencing them, and have denied supporting either Hezbollah or Hamas.

They pointed out that “hundreds of hours of footage and interviews” had been searched through with the goal of “manufactur[ing] moral hysteria”.

In a statement following the charges, they said they would vehemently defend themselves, and denounced what they said was “political policing” and a “carnival of distraction” from the situation in Gaza.

“14,000 babies are about to die of starvation in Gaza, with food sent by the world sitting on the other side of a wall, and once again the British establishment is focused on us,” they said.

“We are not the story. Genocide is.

“As they profit from genocide, they use an ‘anti-terror law’ against us for displaying a flag thrown on stage.

“A charge not serious enough to even warrant their ‘crown court’, instead a court that doesn’t have a jury. What’s the objective?

“To restrict our ability to travel. To prevent us speaking to young people across the world. To silence voices of compassion.

“To prosecute artists who dare speak out. Instead of defending innocent people, or the principles of international law they claim to uphold, the powerful in Britain have abetted slaughter and famine in Gaza, just as they did in Ireland for centuries. Then, like now, they claim justification. The IDF units they arm and fly spy plane missions for are the real terrorists, the whole world can see it.

“We stand proudly with the people. You stand complicit with the war criminals.

“We are on the right side of history. You are not.

“We will fight you in your court. We will win.

“Fee Palestine”

There was incredulity at the move in the north of Ireland, where loyalists have already begun erecting paramilitary flags for the proscribed UVF and UDA ahead of the anti-Catholic marching season, with their traditional impunity from police action.

The charges also come in the same week senior UVF figure Winston Irvine inexplicably escaped a far more serious ‘terrorism’ charge over a cache of weapons found by police in his possession in 2022.

Sinn Féin has not commented on the development, but in a tweet its South Down MP Chris Hazzard noted that a complaint was lodged by human rights lawyers in London regarding 10 British citizens who fought with Israeli forces in Gaza.

“240 pages of evidence submitted, detailing alleged involvement in horrendous war crimes - no charges have been brought. But Kneecap waved a flag,” he wrote.

People Before Profit MP Gerry Carroll called for the charges against Mr Ó hAnnaidh to be dropped.

“This is the British government deliberately and unashamedly trying to make an example of Kneecap for shining a light on the West’s complicity in genocide. Lock up Keir Starmer for arming genocide, not Liam Óg.”

Éire Nua said it stood in solidarity with M Ó hAnnaidh against a politically motivated “act of persecution” aimed at “silencing resistance, censoring art, and intimidating a new generation of Irish cultural revolutionaries”.

“Let us be absolutely clear, Kneecap are not criminals,” they said.

“They are artists. They are educators. They are cultural agitators breathing new life into a language the British Crown spent centuries trying to eradicate. Through rhyme, rhythm, and unapologetic expression, these young men have rejuvenated Irish identity, Irish language, and Irish defiance, and for that, they are being victimised.”

They said the charge was being used as a pretext to silence political commentary from a band it described as “the vanguard of a cultural awakening”.

“This is a deeply sinister turn. Political expression, especially in the arts, is a cornerstone of any society that claims to be democratic. What Mo Chara did was not terrorism, it was protest. And protest is not a threat to society; it is the beating heart of a free one, which clearly Ireland is not.”

They said it was not lost on them that the charge comes at a time when Britain continues to arm and support an Israeli regime responsible for war crimes:

“The very same establishment charging an Irish rapper under terrorism legislation makes this establishment complicit, politically, militarily, and morally in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

“The consequences of Britain’s colonial legacy are not confined to dusty history books, they are playing out in real-time in Palestine and in Ireland.

“The partition of nations, the arming of proxy states, and the denial of indigenous identity are hallmarks of a British foreign policy soaked in centuries of blood. In speaking out through lyrics, symbols, and satire, Kneecap has simply held up a mirror to the U.K. And what the British establishment sees in that mirror is its own rotten society.

“The charge against Mo Chara is also emblematic of the deep anxiety within the British state when it is confronted by young Irish voices refusing to bow to the Orange statelet in the Six Counties. From banning Irish language road signs to suppressing Gaelic education, the British state has always feared the power of cultural resistance. Kneecap have exposed those fault lines and in doing so, inspired a renewed renaissance of pride among working class Irish youth.”

Urgent Appeal