Kneecap have put billboards up around London ahead of member Mo Chara’s – real name Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – scheduled appearance at Westminster Crown Court over terror charges tomorrow (June 18).
The Belfast rapper was charged over an alleged incident where he reportedly displayed a Hezbollah flag during a Kneecap show last November. Hezbollah is listed as a proscribed terrorist organisation by the UK Government.
Responding to the charge, the group said that they “deny” the offence and will “vehemently defend ourselves”. “This is political policing,” they wrote. “This is a carnival of distraction. We are not the story. Genocide is.”
Kneecap have consistently denied supporting either Hamas or Hezbollah, and said that they do not incite or condone violence. They have also argued that the footage at the UK shows had been taken out of context, and described the legal action as a “carnival of distraction”.
Now, they have announced on social media that they’ve “plastered London with a few messages” ahead of this witch-hunt”.
The post reads: “British courts have long charged people from the North of Ireland with “terrorism” for crimes never committed. We will fight them. We will win.”
Kneecap’s London billboards read “More Blacks, More Dogs, More Irish, Mo Chara” – in reference to a discriminatory slogan, “No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs”, used in the mid-twentieth century to indicate that certain spaces and services were not open to these groups.
Signs with the discriminatory slogan were often seen plastered on homes and businesses, and they marked racial and social prejudice at a time of heightened racial and socio-political tensions in post-war Britain.
Last month, the trio jokingly urged fans to gather at Westminster with “a big bag of ket” for the hearing. The comments were made during their headline set at Wide Awake 2025, just days after Mo Chara’s charges were made.
During the set, the group addressed the terror charges and described it as a way to “silence” them from “speaking on stage at Glastonbury the way we did at Coachella”.
“The fact that I’m speaking to this amount of people, and I assume the majority of people agree, shows that we’re on the right side of history,” Chara said at Wide Awake, before lightheartedly encouraging fans to gather outside the Westminster Magistrates’ Court in June.
The band also used their headline set at London’s Wide Awake festival to echo their support for Palestine and speak out against efforts to shut the band down ahead of their Glastonbury appearance.
Tom Morello, Brian Eno, Pulp, Fontaines D.C. and more recently signed an open letter to protect freedom of expression. Massive Attack, who themselves have boycotted performing in Israel since 1999, also supported the band by saying: “Kneecap are not the story. Gaza is the story. Genocide is the story”.
Similarly, Love Music Hate Racism has shared a statement saying that the charity “stands with Kneecap”.
“Love Music Hate Racism stands with Kneecap against the attempts to silence them for speaking out for Gaza,” the statement read. “Anyone trying to silence them, or get them pulled from shows, is on the wrong side of history.
“LMHR has always attempted to use the power of music to unite people against hate and division. We stand with Kneecap against those directing hate towards the movement for Palestine. We call on all to stand with Kneecap and defend Mo Chara on June 18 outside Westminster Magistrates Court in London.”
In other news, Kneecap have dropped their politically-charged new single ‘The Recap’ featuring Mozey.
