Kneecap are speaking out about an incident at one of their shows that led to a member of the group being charged with a terror offence.
The West Belfast band have long maintained that they’ve been the victims of a “witchhunt” and “smear campaign” ever since their set at the Coachella music festival in April, where they expressed solidarity with Palestine amid the current conflict in the Middle East, leading the crowd in a chant of “free Palestine’ and projecting the message “fuck Israel” onto the screens behind them.
Days after Coachella, it was first reported that counter-terrorism officers were assessing a resurfaced video from five months earlier, during which the group reportedly declared “up Hamas, up Hezbollah” at a gig in London.
It was later confirmed that band member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – better known to Kneecap fans under his stage name Mo Chara – had been charged with a terror offence, for allegedly brandishing the flag of the proscribed terrorist group Hezbollah, after being handed the flag at a gig in London in November 2024.
Responding to Ó hAnnaidh being charged with a terror offence, Kneecap said: “We deny this ‘offence’ and will vehemently defend ourselves. This is political policing. This is a carnival of distraction. We are not the story. Genocide is.
They previously insisted: “Let us be unequivocal. We do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hezbollah. We condemn all attacks on civilians, always. It is never okay.”
Asked about the resurfaced videos in a new interview with The Guardian, Ó hAnnaidh said: “Shit is thrown on stage all the time. If I’m supposed to know every fucking thing that’s thrown on stage […] I’d be in Mensa…
“I don’t know every proscribed organisation – I’ve got enough shit to worry about up there,” he insisted.
Ó hAnnaidh later added: “The point is, and the context is, it all [resurfaced] because of Coachella. That’s what we should be questioning, not whether I regret things.”
“Those videos [were taken] out of context. If you believe that what a satirical band who play characters on stage do is more outrageous than the murdering of innocent Palestinians, then you need to give your head a fucking wobble,” he then claimed.
Earlier this month, Ó hAnnaidh made his first appearance at Westminster magistrates court, where he was released unconditionally on bail until his next hearing in August.
The hip-hop trio are now gearing up for their set at Glastonbury, where they’ll be performing on the West Holts stage on Saturday afternoon.
UK prime minister Keir Starmer recently called for Kneecap to be dropped from Glastonbury in light of Ó hAnnaidh’s terror charge, suggesting that the band remaining on the line-up was not “appropriate”.
“You know what’s ‘not appropriate’ Keir?!” Kneecap wrote back in a joint statement on Instagram. “Arming a fucking genocide…”
Read Kneecap’s full interview in The Guardian here.
