‘Unconditional bail never felt so good’: Barry Egan watches Kneecap celebrate freedom with hip-hop hymns for the Dublin faithful

There is only one band in the world with titles like that. And yet, on a long hot summer night, the atmosphere at Kneecap’s sold-out show in Fairview Park on Thursday was as friendly and inclusive as any Westlife concert.

There were kids with their shirts off playing basketball on the court outside the venue, as if they were in Brooklyn. Inside, fans were eating hipster burgers and chips or drinking pints of beer in the sunshine.

But there were plenty of political statements around too. Many fans wore tricolour balaclavas and Ireland football jerseys or had Palestinian flags draped over their shoulders.

One young man had a flag with the slogan “From the river to the sea” on it. Another had a T-shirt with “England get out of Ireland”.

People were taking selfies beside a vehicle mocked up as a PSNI armoured Land Rover. On the wall beside it was the wording: “More Blacks. More Dogs. More Irish. Mo Chara.” The most popular T-shirt of the night had the words “Free Mo Chara” on it.

At 8.50pm, the man the T-shirts were referring to bounded on stage to deafening applause and said: “I’m a free man.”

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The 8,000-plus fans at the sold-out show were bouncing about inside the giant tent so vigorously that you could probably feel the vibrations all the way to Westminster Magistrates’ Court, where last Wednesday the 27-year-old rapper (real name Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh) was granted unconditional bail after being charged with a terrorist charge. He is accused of displaying a flag in support of proscribed organisation Hezbollah at a London gig last November.

“Unconditional bail never felt so good. I’m going to make the best of it,” he said.

The crowd cheered and waved their Palestinian flags

He was true to his word as he raced around the stage like a nationalist Mick Jagger in a shiny tracksuit. He was flanked by fellow rapper Móglaí Bap, with DJ Próvaí in his Tricolour balaclava behind them at the DJ console supplying the beats and some raps himself.

Before they took to the stage there was a video screen with messages about Israeli genocide in Gaza, the 60,000 Gazans killed and the Irish Government allowing the US military to use Irish airports.

The crowd cheered and waved their Palestinian flags and the show began with It’s Been Ages — and Móglaí Bap showing off his bilingual lyrical dexterity: “Oh it’s been ages/since we made the front pages/Sin deireadh linn ár hiatus/Back to annoy c**ts that hate us.”

The feel-good hip-hop had everyone under the big tent dancing like they were having the time of their lives. The feeling was reciprocated by the energetic three men in tracksuits and runners on stage.

Next up was Fenian C**ts. Once you get past the title, it’s a hip-hop hymn to the beauty of Protestants and Catholics in the North... ahem, getting it on. It had 8,000 people dancing and singing along to the tale of a latter-day Romeo and Juliet in Belfast, with an unhappy ending.

Móglaí Bap raps about hooking up with a young woman who’s as beautiful, he says, as the mythical Niamh Cinn Óir, the golden-haired lover of Oisín, son of Fionn MacCumhail. It might sound overblown, but it’s fun.

As pop critic Miranda Sawyer wrote last year: “Like Eminem, Kneecap’s humour is the key to their success.”

Another song, the club-friendly banger Parful, is about young Catholics and Protestants dancing with each other in the North’s clubs on a Saturday night.

As Mo Chara rapped in Fairview: “These young people have lived their entire lives in a society poisoned by sectarian hatred/Rave brings Protestants and Catholics together…”

On Rhino Ket, they sing about the effects of coming home after a night on the tiles in their beloved Belfast, taking the drugs of the song title.

“Can’t sit, can’t think, can barely even walk,” raps Mo Chara.

“Dunno how the f**k we’ll make it back to the Falls,” answers Móglaí Bap.

We don’t discriminate in who we piss off

On another song about the joys of drugs, Your Sniffer Dogs Are Shite, Mo Chara raps: “I swear I haven’t got any gear Mr Garda.” I was curious about the reaction to that one from any members of An Garda Síochána present at the concert.

I spent a memorable few hours with the group at a hotel in Newry in 2021. On that occasion, they arrived late because their car broke down on the way from Belfast.

When they walked in, a little sheepishly, Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap from West Belfast and DJ Próvaí from Creggan in Derry ordered flat whites, cappuccinos, herbal teas.

Their only rock’n’roll behaviour was when DJ Próvaí, who wears a tricolour balaclava when he performs onstage, reached into his trousers, took his trademark headgear out of his underpants and threw it to me. (I still have it.)

The Guardian recently described Kneecap as being post-Good Friday Agreement bad boys, taking out every old authority figure without fear. They quoted them saying: “We don’t discriminate in who we piss off.” And on Thursday night in Fairview, it would appear so.

The Recap, their new single, is released tomorrow (though a bootleg version has been doing the rounds on SoundCloud for a while now) and it was one of the standout songs of the night.

The track was inspired by UK Tory Party leader Kemi Badenoch. Lest we forget, Kneecap won a court case last November against Badenoch after she had blocked an arts grant being awarded to the band, citing their politics as being anti-British.

For two hours on Thursday, Kneecap were a blur of energy as they dared and prodded the audience to keep up with their exuberance — it’s powerful, innovative, exciting and fun music. They sliced and diced their lyrics between English and Irish in their songs and the crowd lapped up every word.

In short, it was a great show, all 17 songs of it.

Yes, they’re gobby, and yes, they’re controversial. And yes, you probably won’t like all — or any — of their songs, which are deliberately provocative.

But as they say themselves, they are simply holding up a mirror to society.

I think there is a huge sense of pride in Ireland for what Kneecap stand for

The biggest cheer of the night came after they shuffled off and then returned to encore with Get Your Brits Out and Hood. The latter is about... well, as Mo Chara raps “Low-life scum — that’s what they say about me”, while the former is about a made-up drug-fuelled night on the town with the grandees of the Democratic Unionist Party.

They rap, with 8,000 people joining in: “Arlene’s throwing shapes/half a yoke nearly killed her/Jeffrey Donaldson’s lost all his filters.”

After the show, I spoke to Kneecap’s manager, Daniel Lambert, who is also chief operating officer of Bohemians Football Club.

“It was a phenomenal night,” he said. “The atmosphere was unbelievable. I have never felt noise like it coming off a stage. I think there is a huge sense of pride in Ireland for what Kneecap stand for — and that they are going around the world and bringing such a positive portrayal of Ireland.

“Kneecap deliver such positive messages. I think that they’re a really important act at the moment — and we should also remember what Fontaines DC are doing, what the Mary Wallopers are doing, what Lankum are doing, what CMAT is doing, what Gurriers are doing, what Murder Capital are doing.

“What they’re all doing around the world is great — going out there and bringing amazing music to people, but also a message of solidarity and empathy with Palestine, which is so important right now.

“I think Kneecap can forever hold their heads up high and know they’ve done — and are doing — something really special. I am really proud of them.”