The rise and success of Ireland’s favourite Irish language group
By Eoghan McSweeney
Since hip-hop group Kneecap last played in Killarney, so much has changed for the band.

The trio experienced an explosion in popularity at the back end of last year due to the release of their album Fine Art in June, and then of their semi-fictionalised and self-titled biopic in August.

The award-winning movie detailed the beginning of their music careers and their rise to prominence, with both album and movie receiving overwhelmingly high acclaim.

Just one month after Kneecap last played in the INEC, the group won a legal case against then business secretary and now Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch after she blocked an arts grant of £14,250 or €16,000 for the band.

She cited anti-British politics as the reason. Kneecap claimed the denial of the grant was an “attack on artistic culture, and an attack on the Good Friday Agreement itself”.

At a hearing in Belfast’s High Court the withholding of funds was deemed “unlawful and procedurally unfair.”

Kneecap donated the grant to two Belfast youth clubs.

These events are significant milestones in helping Kneecap to achieve notoriety.

The band was cast further into the spotlight during the US music festival Coachella in April of this year.

As Kneecap performed in front of the raucous American crowd, the jumbotron behind the band read “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people” before switching to a new message, “It is being enabled by the US government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes.”

There were cries of outrage because of the stand made by Kneecap that night.

Their American booking agent dropped them, and their visas were rendered invalid.

It was just one month after this when one of Kneecap’s members Mo Chara found himself being charged with a terror offence.

He was alleged to have showed support for Hamas and Hezbollah during a show in London in November of 2024.

Hamas and Hezbollah are deemed proscribed terror organisations by the British state, which means vocalising support for them is illegal.

Although Mo Chara’s case would eventually be dropped in September, it still meant Kneecap would be subject to a three-year ban from Hungary directly before their scheduled performance in the Sziget Festival in Budapest.

Hungary was not the only nation Kneecap would be barred from performing in.

In September the trio was banned from entering Canada ahead of four shows set to be played in Vancouver and Toronto, with Canadian officials citing Mo Chara’s terror charge. Canadian MP Vince Gasparro stated the group has “amplified political violence and publicly displayed support for terrorist organisations.”

Kneecap has since taken legal action against Gasparro regarding his defamatory comments.

As Kneecap return to Killarney to play two gigs this weekend and the scramble for tickets comes to a close, it makes you wonder how any of this ever came to fruition.

Just a few short years ago, the idea of an Irish language rap group making headlines and playing sold out shows globally would’ve been deemed utterly absurd and completely unrealistic.

This seemingly impossible achievement shows how there is a desire amongst young Irish people to have a language and culture of their own, and how our language can be more than a just a mistaught school subject.

It is vital that more creatives like Kneecap continue to be supported if we want our language to survive.

A language learner can only feel passionate about learning if the content of what they are learning is relatable; this is the reason that a hip-hop trio from Belfast has done more to motivate young Irish people in just the last few years to speak their own language than this government ever has.