You truly could not make it up. Kneecap, who spent the past three months whingeing and complaining about their gigs being cancelled because of their views on Gaza, have signed an open letter demanding a small community festival be shut down.
All that guff about the sanctity of free speech and artistic expression. It was all a sham. Because it turns out that the Belfast trio are big fans of cancel culture after all. Just as long as the cancelling does not apply to them.
Kneecap’s nauseating hypocrisy has been laid bare by Drumshanbo
The latest battle in the cancel culture wars is unfolding, not at Coachella or Glastonbury, but in a community hall in the tiny, picturesque town of Drumshanbo in rural Ireland, famed for being a hub of Irish music, folklore, and heritage. A one-day event called Mise Éire (I am Ireland) – the name alone was enough to send the ‘anti-fash’ brigade into fits of apoplexy – was scheduled for August 23 in the Mayflower community centre. It was billed as a festival ‘for those who cherish Irish culture, heritage, and are united in celebrating our shared values.’ It was to feature filmmaker Thomas Sheridan, Brehon Academy founder Kevin Flanagan and journalist Louise Roseingrave.
It also had a few speakers lined up whose views on immigration clearly crossed the line on what is tolerated by the intolerant left. In Victorian times such an outrage would have sent those of a delicate disposition in search of the smelling salts. In these more enlightened times, they just send for the like of Kneecap who happily wield the censorship cudgel. And hey presto, the event was cancelled. Never was the phrase ‘free speech for me but not for thee’ more apt than when applied to these hypocrites.
Lest Kneecap feel singled out, it is fair to point out that around 500 other artists engaged in this spot of cancel culture. Many of them, including Fontaines D.C. and protest balladeer Christy Moore, were the very same people who protested the silencing of Kneecap. It is worth recalling their noble sentiments when Kneecap was feeling the heat:
‘As artists, we feel the need to register our opposition to any political repression of artistic freedom… The question of not agreeing with Kneecap’s political views is irrelevant: It is in the key interests of every artist that all creative expression be protected in a society that values culture, and that this interference campaign is condemned and ridiculed.’
Consider the letter Kneecap and the same artists signed demanding the cancellation of Mise Eire: ‘If it is permitted to go ahead, we believe the far-right “Mise Éire Festival” will tarnish the proud history of the Mayflower as a venue that has served to bring people together from all backgrounds and as a safe and inclusive cultural space. We artists and musicians thus call on the committee of the Mayflower Community Centre to cancel this divisive event.’
So, there you have it. The festival was declared far right and divisive. It had to go.
It appears the source of the angst was that an anti-immigration protest in Cork scheduled for the 23 August was postponed – allowing anyone who wanted to attend the Mise Éire festival to do so. Well, we couldn’t have that, could we?
The local ‘anti fash’ crowd sprang into action by issuing the open letter to be signed by artists whom, they correctly anticipated, would be similarly outraged. Leitrim and Roscommon Against Fascism (LARAF) is led by the usual screeching, green haired brigade, otherwise known as ‘the self-appointed arbiters of what is safe for ordinary Irish folk to see and hear’. Because when it comes down to it, LARAF, Kneecap and the rest deem ordinary folk too unsophisticated, nay, too thick, to absorb divergent views, engage our critical faculties and make up our own minds. Immigration was not even on the agenda of the festival, but that was beside the point.
The Mayflower caved under massive pressure and who could blame them? A small community centre facing opposition from a band who took on the hated British establishment over the refusal of a £14,000 artistic grant and won. It is beyond parody.
Ó hAnnaidh was charged with a terror offence after allegedly displaying a flag in support of proscribed organisation Hezbollah at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town in November 2024. He is back in court on August 20. No doubt Kneecap will swagger in applauded by fellow free speech warriors like the last time.
But Kneecap’s nauseating hypocrisy has been laid bare by Drumshanbo. We don’t know what the speakers at Mise Éire intended to say and likely never will. But whatever it was, it was clearly more inciting, hateful, and downright bloodcurdlingly terrifying than chanting ‘Kill your local MP.’ Right lads?
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