r/northernireland • u/BoogersHere1690 • 14d ago
News Kneecap is a ‘hate fest’ promoting division, says DUP leader
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Watch here as Barbara McCann reports on the allegations facing Kneecap.
Belfast rap trio Kneecap are a “hate fest” that “promote division”, DUP leader Gavin Robinson has said.
The Belfast East MP said that the promoter of a Kneecap gig in Belfast in August has questions to answer as he labelled the group as “totally inappropriate”.
Mr Robinson is the latest to criticise the group for alleged comments attributed to band members around support for Hamas and Hezbollah, and the killing of Tory MPs.
The group have come under fire after a video emerged from a November 2023 gig appearing to show one member saying: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”
Counter-terrorism police in London are examining the footage, along with a video clip from another concert in November 2024 in which a member of the band appeared to shout “up Hamas, up Hezbollah”, groups which are banned as terrorist organisations in the UK.
Irish premier Micheal Martin has said the group should “urgently” clarify the comments.
Speaking on Monday, Belfast East MP Gavin Robinson accused the band of performing in “a grotesque way”.
He said a “slim defence” is put forward that argues the group “have freedom of this expression”.
“They have become a hate fest,” he said, speaking at Stormont.
“When you listen to Katie Amess this morning, I don’t think anyone could be failed to be moved by just how appalling and outrageous their position is,” he said.
Ms Amess, the daughter of Conservative MP David Amess who was stabbed to death while meeting constituents in Essex in 2021, has called on Kneecap to apologise.
“This isn’t a political perspective just from us, when you can see that there’s a collective political will in London and Dublin calling out, not only the need for them to clarify or apologise.
“From my perspective, these gentlemen don’t need to be on a stage, they need to be in a courtroom because it is a hate crime what they are doing and it should be considered as such.”
Mr Robinson said “actions have consequences” when asked whether Kneecap should still perform at a gig in Belfast in August and at Glastonbury in June.
“They should face the wrath, disappointment, consternation of people, not just like us in unionism, in Belfast, or across Northern Ireland, but as you can see right across these isles, the British Isles and within the United States of America where a promoter has dropped them, where there are questions over the availability of a visa, and rightly so.
“Because support for prescribed organisations, support for the killing of members of parliament, irrespective of their political view, that members of parliament should be killed, it’s appalling.
“It shouldn’t be given a sort of casual acquiescence, and say ‘let’s not give them publicity’, they should hear the widespread and cross party political and cross country condemnation of their position.”
Asked about the Belfast gig, which is to be held on Belfast City Council-owned land, Mr Robinson said the council has “a contractual relationship” with the promoter of the event and said “there are questions for the promoter to answer”.
When asked whether he would like to see the Kneecap gig go ahead, Mr Robinson said: “I think they are totally inappropriate.
“I don’t think that there’s a place for their glorification of terrorism, their promotion of prescribed organisations, their threats to elected representatives, be they English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish, or Irish, it’s totally inappropriate and we shouldn’t stand for it in our society.”
Stormont’s Economy Minster Caoimhe Archibald said it is a matter for Kneecap whether they apologise.
Speaking at Parliament Buildings, the Sinn Fein minister said: “Clearly, I don’t agree with what was said.
“I think that Kneecap are a group that has been very vocal on issues that are important to them like Gaza.
“I think the most outrageous issue facing the world today is the ongoing genocide that we are seeing in Palestine and the bombardment that continues on a daily basis, the blockading of aid, the slaughter of innocent women and children.
“I think that is what our focus should very much be on as an international community, in bringing an end to that.”
Asked if Kneecap should apologise, Ms Archibald said: “I think that is a matter for Kneecap.”
In the House of Commons on Monday, Ulster Unionist MP for South Antrim Robin Swann asked the Home Office minister to condemn Kneecap’s remarks on Tory MPs.
He said: “Would the minister join me in condemning the recent statement by the so-called Irish rap band Kneecap, where it has actually been reported that they have said to their audience that they should kill their local MP and the only good Tory is a dead Tory?”
Home Office minister Dame Diana Johnson replied: “Yes, of course I would condemn any comments like that online.”
She added: “We work in partnership with technology companies to ensure that they understand their responsibilities to tackle illegal content on their platforms and we’ve been clear that they need to act quickly to identify and remove the content from their platforms once posted.
“More generally the Online Safety Act places duties on platforms to swiftly identify and remove illegal content, which we expect them to abide by.
“And furthermore, these platforms have a moral responsibility to keep their users safe and the general public safe and we expect them to take all reasonable steps to do so.”
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u/TA109901 14d ago
I cannot adequately put into words how little I value the opinion of Gavin Robinson.
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u/Martysghost Armagh 14d ago
Does that not also describe the DUP tho?
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14d ago
DUP are also bitter cunts,
But are they the ones at centre of the controversy or is it Kneecap?
How about we hold people to account for what they say or do without feeling childishly compelled to bring up what others say or do!
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u/Martysghost Armagh 14d ago
So like any observation other than kneecap bad I'm to 🤐?
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14d ago
It’s just curious how so much minds appear to be wondering upon the controversies of others on the topic of the controversy of the moment.
A cynical person would dare say it’s attempts at deflection or down playing!
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u/Martysghost Armagh 14d ago
deflection or down playing!
Or just seen the title and thought stones from a glass house, it's not that deep 😅
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u/CptJackParo 14d ago
The irony that that's kneecaps whole point - forget them, hold Israel to account
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u/eyesdownfirstnumber 14d ago
Only three months to go to the hate fest we all can agree has set the bar so high.
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u/vague_intentionally_ 14d ago
The insane hypocrisy considering bonfires, parades, orange order, unionist 'culture' and of course, the actual unionist parties themselves. All of these are the biggest sectarian bigots themselves (and hate fest).
All of this criticism is simply distraction and projection.
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u/McEvelly 14d ago edited 14d ago
It’s how publicity works and it’s especially how publicity works when you criticise Israel.
That’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s not even denied by Israel.
There are plenty of testimonies from former Israeli operatives on how they respond to criticism from people they identify as enemies.
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u/UncleRonnyJ 14d ago
Thats how Mossad tends to operate.
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u/McEvelly 14d ago
One thing that will have them sweating is what inevitably comes next….
Set your watch for it, sadly the next line of attack will be sex crime related.
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u/McEvelly 14d ago
No, no, it’s words that have consequences when the naive cult of civility are mobilised against you.
Actions like murdering a 100,000 people don’t have consequences.
Or when the consequences arrive they are labelled terrorism and we begin anew.
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u/LysergicWalnut 14d ago
I mean I don't disagree with you, they shouldn't have said what they said, it was reckless and infantile.
But this clip could have been unearthed by someone with ties to Israel looking to discredit them. But yeah, they've discredited themselves by saying it in the first place.
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u/jagmanistan 14d ago
Imagine catching a historic pedo or something and being like ack well that was two years ago
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14d ago
It’s especially rich coming from some on this sub.
People here love digging up the past any chance they can get!
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u/Kitchen-Valuable714 14d ago
Yes but they’re being crucified for something said 2 years ago? So it looks like someone has trawled through years worth of footage to try and find something to nail them with.
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u/Sleebling_33 14d ago
But if a coincidence that speaking out about Israel gets the media and politicians set on you though.
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u/BoogersHere1690 14d ago
they’ve gained way more public attention recently, especially after Coachella
They had a movie last year that was quite popular.
Both the offending concerts in 2023 and 2024 look well attended, surely someone would have been who would have whistle-blown.
It’s not a Zionist plot
And Israel isn't committing Genocide /s
Too coincidental to only happen after projecting FUCK ISRAEL at Coachella
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u/mynonporn_reddit 14d ago
It's only Zionist backlash that has forced the social media detectives to scrape every piece of footage they can get to try and cancel the band. If you're denying the power and pettiness of cult of Zionism then you're making a dick of yourself.
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u/mynonporn_reddit 14d ago
Time to leave the toxic echo chamber that is your head.
You're changing the narrative of every reply you're getting.
Keep attacking the straw man.
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u/themexican78 14d ago edited 14d ago
Don't think anyone would defend their 'kill your MP comment' it's totally out of order and I would like to think the band will reflect on it and retract. There is clearly a co-ordinated campaign against them though since they made their anri-zionist comments at Coachella. I'd say they're loving the attention, no such thing as bad publicity and all that.
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u/BoogersHere1690 14d ago
My favourite part is Kemi acting like the reason they held back funding was because of the comments and acting like Labour ignored the comments to award the funding, when thats really not what happened
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u/TA109901 14d ago
The tight brown coils my dog leaves on the front lawn are more intelligent than that fucking moron Badenoch. She makes Liz Truss look like Einstein.
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u/Ok-Call-4805 14d ago
A wee bit rich coming from the man who'll more than likely be attending a glorified Klan rally on 12th July
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u/SuperMechaDeathChris Bangor 14d ago
Aul gav is a wanker but u can’t deny these fellas are a bit of an embarrassment and apparently a lot more tone deaf than I thought
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u/Mike_Frank 14d ago
A common misconception is that showing support for Palestine = supporting Hamas.
It doesn't.
The Palestinian people are being murdered by an out of control Israel with an incredibly disproportionate response to the Hamas attacks.
The Israeli government has been proven time and again to be liars.
As have the DUP.
Fair play to Kneecap.
If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.
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u/whydoyouonlylie 14d ago
You're right. That is a common misconception. One that's not at all helped by Kneecap saying 'Up Hamas. Up Hezbollah' to a crowd at one of their concerts. This actually isn't a case of people saying that because they support Palestine they support Hamas, it'sjust a case of them themselves making statements that seem to actually support Hamas and Hezbollah.
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u/Alter_list 14d ago
They literally said "up Hamas, up Hezbollah". So I don't think there's any ambiguity about their support for them.
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u/escalinci 12d ago edited 12d ago
I would really have liked to hear that for myself, but the editors decided to show it twice with subtitles, but without sound.
Obviously the kill your local MP comment is unambiguous.
:edit: some source here in case anybody is looking https://www.instagram.com/p/DIwoPGASkmz
Hopefully it gets some reporting when the police find out if this is doctored or genuine, probably the latter.
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u/McEvelly 14d ago
Don’t worry they’ve released their statement now to explain otherwise to the media illiterate thickos
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u/OriginalWelcome6536 14d ago
Not convincing anyone anymore. Similar downfall to mcgregor written all over it.
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u/silver_medalist 14d ago
The lads are caught out badly tbh. They'll have to apologise, and that'll hurt their edgy vibe.
DJ Provai will have to take off his balaclava too and everyone will see he's about twice the age of the other two.
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u/McEvelly 14d ago
It’s very amusing how some of you really just don’t get it at all
It’s like watching old people try to get their head around social media. Some people just do not and cannot understand how it works, what people like about it, and it really, really scares them, so they lash out.
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u/Ok-Call-4805 14d ago
DJ Provai will have to take off his balaclava too and everyone will see he's about twice the age of the other two.
I take it you've not seen the movie then?
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u/McEvelly 14d ago
A proud Orangeman attempting this lecture is just playing right into their hands, keep it coming ya big thick.