Westminster Magistrates Court in Marylebone, west London, was slightly more prepared this time for the inevitable crowd chaos of a hearing involving the Kneecap rapper from Belfast, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh. But only just. As ever, Kneecap put on a show.
The hassled court staff will surely breathe a huge sigh of relief when this is all over. That won’t be until September 26th at the earliest – the date to which the case was adjourned on Wednesday morning.
At the first hearing in June of the case, in which Ó hAnnaidh is accused of showing support for a proscribed organisation by displaying a Hizbullah flag last November, court staff struggled to control the hordes of Irish Tricolour-waving Kneecap supporters who had gathered at the court. There was even an impromptu gig outside on the street.
Ó hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was bailed then to return this morning for a hearing on whether or not the chief magistrate, Judge Paul Goldspring, has jurisdiction to hear the case.
RM Block
In anticipation of the green-tinged craziness that might lie ahead this time, London’s Metropolitan Police tried to get ahead of it late on Tuesday night by issuing an order restricting the area outside the court where the rapper’s supporters could gather.
Police even weighed in on where would the best spot for a stage be – an incongruous decision at a courthouse but, then again, this is Kneecap.
The problem was that, at first, there was nobody around to enforce the police order. The case was due to start at 10am. By 8.30am, hundreds of Kneecap supporters were already gathered outside, chanting and waving placards. The band’s stewards tried to guide people, but the crowd barriers to corral everybody did not arrive until 9am.
What was the point of putting down crowd barriers when the crowd was already walking around the site? Even the police did not arrive until 9am, with the officers forming a line to try to control the space. Clearly, they need to get up much earlier in the morning to keep ahead of Kneecap.
The court doors opened, and soon afterwards, Ó hAnnaidh and his bandmates and closest friends arrived. From where we were located, upstairs outside Court 1, journalists heard a sudden scream below. It was a court staff member caught in a crush at the front door.
The crowd was now behind barriers, but the photographers were not. So when Ó hAnnaidh tried to walk through the front door, a huge surge of snappers drove forward and crushed the security staff at the door. Ó hAnnaidh himself barely made it through.
The staff formed a scrum and started driving the swell of snappers back out through the narrow door, like Tokyo subway platform workers squashing people onto trains. It was calmer upstairs outside the court room. Anything was calmer than the chaos outside.
Many of the same faces who had been at the June hearing returned on Wednesday morning. There were GAA jerseys everywhere. Two men also strolled around in matching red T-shirts; they were from the An Dream Dearg campaign for an Irish language Act in the North. Inside Court 1, the judge had arranged for an Irish interpreter for Ó hAnnaidh – a blonde woman perhaps in her 30s.
Ó hAnnaidh, wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh fused with the green, white and orange of the Tricolour, was led into the dock. The judge promptly let him out again so he could sit beside his interpreter, who spent the next three hours whispering Irish into his ear.
The judge’s microphones were not working properly, and those in the public gallery complained they could not hear what was being said. Judge Goldspring looked irritated. “Why aren’t these working?” he said sternly to a member of court staff.
At the last hearing, he had sought recommendations for an Irish interpreter. For the next hearing, perhaps Kneecap will be able to recommend him a sound engineer.
Ó hAnnaidh’s defence, led by barrister Brenda Campbell, was trying to get the case thrown out on the basis that the proceedings, they argued, were instituted too late.
Prosecution barrister Michael Bisgrove rose to his feet to argue the paperwork was all fine and did not require the approval of the UK’s attorney general at the point of charge, as the defence claimed. He took an hour to say this.
Campbell was next, and she sounded like she was having none of it.
“You have no jurisdiction to hear this case because no lawful process was instituted before the time limit,” she told the judge. She accused prosecutors of making a “last-ditch attempt to accommodate failure” rather than admit they messed up the paperwork. She took an hour and a half to say this.
“This is the end of the road for the prosecution,” said Campbell. She said the prosecution’s arguments were “legally impermissible” and “audacious” as she invited the judge to reject them and strike out the case.
Judge Goldspring said even he is entitled to a holiday, as he adjourned the matter until September 26th, when he will hand down his ruling on the jurisdiction matter.
Ó hAnnaidh, who has yet to enter a plea, was remanded on unconditional bail to return on that date. The poor court staff probably cannot wait.
