Northern Irish barricades with 'Fenian' by Kneecap

Maybe DJ Próvaí even sleeps with the balaclava. In nine years of photographs, interviews and stages, JJ Ó Dochartaigh - originally from Derry and former Irish teacher in a Catholic school until 2020 with a stage name taken from the Provos of Ira - has rarely shown his face. Unlike Mo Chara, born Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, whose nickname in Irish means 'my friend', and Móglaí Bap - Naoise Ó Cairealláin. Kneecap were born in west Belfast in 2017 on the day after a march for the Irish Language Act, the law that was supposed to officially recognise the Irish language (Gaelic) in Northern Ireland, which was only approved in 2022. On that day Móglaí Bap was out and about with a friend, spray painting the word 'cearta' - rights - on a bus stop. The police arrived, the friend ended up at the police station and spent the night refusing to answer in English while they waited for a translator. Móglaí was already far away. From that story came the first single, 'Cearta', which Gaelic public radio station RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta banned almost immediately for its references to drugs. Then came the first record "3Cag" in 2018, the follow-up "Fine Art" in June 2024 with producer Toddla T, then the hallucinatory and irresistible film bearing the trio's name, presented at the Sundance festival, where it won an award, as well as at the following year's Baftas.

At the April 2025 edition of Coachella, Kneecap closed their set with a screen reading: 'Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people'. In the following days, videos emerged of a concert at the O2 Forum Kentish Town in London on 21 November, in which Mo Chara appeared to display a Hezbollah flag. The Crown Prosecution Service opens an investigation, Keir Starmer states publicly that their presence at Glastonbury would not have been 'appropriate'. The organisers keep score, but the BBC refuses to broadcast the set live. Hungary and Canada close their borders to the band. The CPS brought the charge under the Terrorism Act 2000, but after it was dismissed, on 11 March the High Court of Justice dismissed the appeal and closed the case. Outside the court in Woolwich, Mo Chara addresses Starmer saying sorry: 'It will be for next time'. In the midst of all this, Kneecap had entered the studio with London producer Dan Carey and here they are now with their new album. The title reclaims a double-entendre word: Fenian originated with the Fenian Brotherhood of the 19th century - the Irish republican movement that prepared for armed revolt against London - and has since become a generic colonial slur for any inconvenient Irishman.

'Fenian' is the densest and darkest work of Kneecap's career, the soundtrack to a year in which every headline seemed to be written to become an abrasion between sound and text. The album opens with 'Éire Go Deo', a chillstep meditation on the survival of the Irish language. "Carnival" tackles the trial of Mo Chara head-on, with a refrain that sticks in the ears. "Smugglers & Scholars" and "Liars Tale" unload sharp synths and aggressive rhymes on the listener. The hardcore of "Headcase" restores Kneecap in purity, while "Palestine", a duet with Ramallah rapper Fawzi singing in Arabic, reinforces Irish support for the Palestinian cause due to its past independence struggle. "Occupied 6" and "Cocaine Hill" dilate the tempo, "Irish Goodbye" closes the album in a duet with Kae Tempest on a melancholic piano. Between nocturnal dubstep, Nineties raves and trip hop nightmares, in "Fenian" irony is almost cast aside: Tiocfaidh ár lá.