The Charges Against Liam Óg Ó hAnnaigh (KNEECAP) & Political Repression

Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh aka Mo Chara is a member of the rap group trio KNEECAP who are pro-Irish language, anti-imperialist and have been vocal in their support for Palestinian liberation and opposition to British colonialism in Ireland. The group has expressed concerns that they are facing political repression for their activism and that the charges against Liam Óg is part of a broader “witch-hunt” in an attempt to stifle their political activism and silence their political voice, which they describe as “political policing”. 

The British state has a long history of suppressing Irish resistance through legal repression and censorship of Irish music, language, and symbols (e.g., banning rebel songs, and suppressing Gaelic revivalists). Charging Liam Óg under anti-terror laws for a slogan (not an act of violence) shows how cultural resistance is framed as “terrorism” to silence dissent.

The parallels in trying to crackdown on Palestine Solidarity run across Western regimes. They are trying to criminalise and censor pro-Palestine speech:

• • Germany: Banned Palestinian protests, fired workers for wearing keffiyehs.
  • UK/US: Arrested students, banned chants like “From the river to the sea.”
  • France: Banned pro-Palestine rallies under “anti-terrorism” laws.

The logic is the same: Anti-colonial speech equals “incitement to violence.”

The hypocrisy and double standards of Western Imperial Regimes supporting the Israeli Settler-Colonial genocide of Palestine while suppressing any criticism of the Israeli regime is unpalatable. The bombings of hospitals, the murder of medics, people being bombed queueing for food, in their tents (after multiple displacements) the deliberate starvation (manmade famine) and other countless crimes against humanity that barely make it through a news cycle. Yet a rap group that dared to speak out against this genocide is getting hauled over coals for weeks. This is ideological policing to protect imperialist states interests by silencing resistance.

The police, courts, and media enforce ruling-class ideology to deter anti-imperialist solidarity. Western powers back Israel for geopolitical control. Just as Britain occupied Ireland for capitalist exploitation and like back then when Britain demonised Irish culture, they continue to do it now because Kneecap’s cultural resistance is a threat to them. The struggle is eternal, but so is the resistance, from the Gaeltacht to Gaza, from the rebel songs of the past to the revolutionary rhymes of KNEECAP. Every censored word, every banned chant, every arrested artist only proves one thing: they’re afraid of us because culture is a weapon.

The British feared the Irish language, so we spat it back in rap. Israel bombs Palestinian poets, so their verses grow louder in exile. The West criminalises solidarity, and so the movement multiplies. “The ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling class.” But the cracks in their system? Those are made by our fists, our mics, our refusal to forget.

So keep pushing. Agus ná déanaigí dearmad: They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds. They try to silence us. They don’t know we’re echoes of a thousand rebellions.

Solidarity is unstoppable. Tiocfaidh ár lá applies to all of the oppressed of the world now!!