{"id":616461,"date":"2026-08-02T10:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T10:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/616461\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T10:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T10:07:11","slug":"kneecap-at-all-together-now-rappers-deliver-exceptional-performance-with-a-soaring-moving-peak-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/616461\/","title":{"rendered":"Kneecap at All Together Now: Rappers deliver exceptional performance with a soaring, moving peak \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kneecap Main stage, Saturday \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606<\/p>\n

Kneecap<\/a> are by now mainstays of the summer festival circuit. Their rip-roaring rap, tongue-in-cheek humour and propulsive stage presence is familiar to many festivalgoers, but Kneecap\u2019s Saturday night set at Waterford\u2019s All Together Now<\/a> marks something of a departure for the band. <\/p>\n

Drenched in blood-red light, with a low, waning moon hanging over Curraghmore Estate, Fermanagh musician R\u00f3is kicks off the action with Kneecap\u2019s Fenian album opener \u00c9ire go Deo \u2013 which features a recording of late broadcaster R\u00f3n\u00e1n Mac Aodha Bhu\u00ed<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The rappers then storm the stage performing industrial track Smugglers and Scholars, in which they sing about \u201cgetting guns with American dollars\u201d, with a more austere edge than their jokey early single Get Your Brits Out. <\/p>\n

It is perhaps not without good reason that Kneecap\u2019s tone is more sombre than previous years; Mo Chara, aka Liam \u00d3g \u00d3 hAnnaidh, was dogged by terrorism charges under the UK\u2019s Terrorism Act for allegedly displaying a Hizbullah flag at a 2024 concert. (In March, a London high court judgment determined he would not face a fresh terror charge in a British court<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Their latest studio album Fenian saw the band discuss the series of trials, Palestine, Irish history and the loss of Naoise \u00d3 Caireall\u00e1in\u2019s (Mogla\u00ed Bap) mother to suicide<\/a>. The result is a live performance that is more mature, moodier and perhaps meaningful than their usual fare. <\/p>\n

Carnival references \u00d3 hAnnaidh\u2019s trials and tribulations directly, comparing the court appearances to a circus on a 90s-style hip-hop track. Chants of \u201cFree Mo Chara\u201d recorded live outside Westminster Magistrates Court feature on the track, and the crowd chime in.<\/p>\n

A play of two acts is maybe the best way to describe the show; with Kneecap\u2019s breakout 2017 single C.E.A.R. T.A serving as a half-time palate cleanser dissecting the performance. The swell in the crowd as the track is performed is something worthy of an encore \u2013 people on shoulders, joyous fist-pumping and forceful bellowing.<\/p>\n

\"KneecapKneecap at All Together Now, in Curraghmore Estate, Co Waterford, on Saturday. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill<\/p>\n

But everything before the singalong hit is heavier somehow, whether due to its subject matter or the seriousness with which the rappers treat it. <\/p>\n

Veteran political activist Bernadette McAlliskey comes on stage to deliver a pro-Palestinian message, telling the audience \u201cit is our job as human beings and as Irish people who understand colonisation to know genocide is as old as colonisation\u201d. <\/p>\n

The soaring peak of an exceptional concert is carried by \u00d3 Caireall\u00e1in, when he performs Irish Goodbye, the single he has addressed as his \u201clove letter\u201d to his mother, Irish-language activist Aoife N\u00ed Riain, who died in 2020. <\/p>\n

\u00d3 Caireall\u00e1in is joined on stage by track collaborator Kae Tempest, who had performed on the Something Kind of Wonderful stage a few hours earlier, as well as Lisa Canny and Niamh Hinchy of BIIRD and sibling duo Caoimhe and Seamus \u00d3 Flaharta. <\/p>\n

This is a taste of a new Kneecap; a band that is not just provocative but moving. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kneecap Main stage, Saturday \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606 Kneecap are by now mainstays of the summer festival circuit. Their rip-roaring rap,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[264],"tags":[120433,199583,18,117,19,17,4066,10303,26161,337],"class_list":["post-616461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-all-together-now-festival","tag-dj-provai","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kneecap","tag-mo-chara","tag-moglai-bap","tag-music"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117025364599488841","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}