Kneecap’s performance at a concert series in Cornwall, England has been cancelled, while the British government has warned Glastonbury festival organisers to “think carefully” about allowing the Belfast rap trio to perform.
A spokesperson for the Eden Sessions, which are scheduled to be held the Cornwall botanical gardens in July, confirmed the band will not be performing and ticket purchasers will be refunded.
Dan Jarvis, a minister of state at the home office, told MPs that while it is for festival organisers to decide which bands played, they should consider that Kneecap, a republican group that performs in the Irish language, is now under police investigation for some of its members’ past comments.
“The [UK] government urges the organisers of Glastonbury to think very carefully about who would be invited to perform there later this year,” said Mr Jarvis.
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The developments follow criticism of the group by all sides in the House of Commons over comments made by one of its members about Tory MPs and another apparently shouting “up Hamas, up Hizbullah” in historical gig footage.
In a statement on Monday night, Kneecap said its members do not support Hamas or Hizbullah, or condone violence. Taoiseach Micheál Martin had earlier called on them to “urgently clarify” their stance.
It emerged that police in the UK were examining footage of two of their concerts.
A video from a November 2023 gig in London appeared to show one member of the group saying: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”
The video is being examined by London’s Metropolitan Police, along with a separate one from 2024 when, at another London gig, a band member appeared to shout “Up Hamas, up Hizbullah”. Both groups are proscribed as terrorist groups in Britain and public support for them is banned.
In their statement, the group said they believe they have been subjected to a “smear campaign” because of their vocal support of Palestine.
“Establishment figures, desperate to silence us, have combed through hundreds of hours of footage and interviews, extracting a handful of words from months or years ago to manufacture moral hysteria.
“Let us be unequivocal: we do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hizbullah.”
The band – comprising rappers Mo Chara (Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh) and Móglaí Bap (Naoise Ó Cairealláin) from Belfast, and DJ Próvaí (JJ Ó Dochartaigh) from Derry – said they “condemn all attacks on civilians”.
“It is never okay. We know this more than anyone, given our nation’s history.”
The group said they also “reject any suggestion that we would seek to incite violence against any MP or individual”. They said the footage is question was “deliberately taken out of all context” and “exploited and weaponised”.
They expressed their “heartfelt apologies” to the families of David Amess, a Conservative MP who was murdered in 2021, and Jo Cox, a Labour MP who was murdered in 2016.
Addressing the Amess and Cox families in their statement, the group said: “We never intended to cause you hurt.”
Ms Cox’s husband Brendan Cox said on Tuesday that Kneecap’s statement of regret was “only half an apology” and lacked genuine reflection.
“It wasn’t a throwaway remark – it was a very clear incitement to violence," he told BBC Radio Ulster.
Mr Amess’s daughter Katie Amess called the group’s comments “absolutely devastating”.
“It’s not art – it is verbatim telling people to go on and commit a murder," she told GB News.
The matter was discussed for an hour in the House of Commons on Tuesday, after the Speaker granted an urgent question to Tory MP Mark Francois.
Mr Francois accused the band of “alleged incitement to murder MPs” over its comments, as he recalled the deaths of Tory MP David Amess, who was murdered in 2021, and of Jo Cox, a Labour MP killed in 2016.
Mr Francois said it was “unconscionable” that the band should play at Glastonbury in June.
Mr Jarvis said the UK government “unreservedly condemns” the remarks. He does not believe people expressing these types of views should receive taxpayer funding.
He said it is “baffling” that a “republican group, seemingly opposed to the British government in the first place”, would want to receive funding from it.
On Tuesday Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore noted Kneecap’s statement and said the “conversation is now being directed” towards the band “rather than the wider issue of what Israel is doing and the atrocities that are happening in Gaza”. She said any deflection from the “genocide” in Gaza is “not appropriate”.
Asked about his view on the controversial “Up Hamas, up Hizbullah” and “Kill your local MP” alleged comments at Kneecap concerts, People Before Profit deputy Paul Murphy said the band is “designed to be provocative”.
Mr Murphy argued the Taoiseach’s remarks calling for clarity have added to a “witch hunt” against the band. He contended the Taoiseach “should be applauding an Irish artist” for using their platform to call out and oppose “Israel’s genocide” in Gaza.
During the band’s set at the Coachella music festival in California on April 18th, the group led the crowd in chants of “free, free Palestine”.
A number of messages were displayed on the stage’s screens during their set, including one which read: “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people. It is being enabled by the US Government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes.”
In their statement, the group said: “Suddenly, days after calling out the US administration at Coachella to applause and solidarity, there is an avalanche of outrage and condemnation by the political classes of Britain.”
– Additional reporting PA
