{"id":636743,"date":"2026-08-14T12:09:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T12:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/636743\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T12:09:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T12:09:20","slug":"its-a-medieval-siege-massive-attack-designed-bohs-strip-highlights-ireland-cuba-links-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/636743\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s a medieval siege\u2019: Massive Attack-designed Bohs strip highlights Ireland-Cuba links \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bristol<\/a> trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack have designed the new Bohemian FC<\/a> third strip. <\/p>\n

The jersey is based on Cuban<\/a> national strips, inspired by the art of Jim Fitzpatrick \u2013 his famous Che Guevara image is on the hem tag \u2013 and features text from Guevara\u2019s anti-imperialist speech to the Afro Asian conference in Algeria in 1965. <\/p>\n

The Cuban revolutionary had roots in Co Galway<\/a>. <\/p>\n

On the back of the shirt, inside the Massive Attack flame symbol, there\u2019s a quote from his father Ernesto Guevara Lynch: \u201cIn my son\u2019s veins flowed the blood of the Irish rebels.\u201d <\/p>\n

Thirty per cent of the profits from the shirts are going to two organisations \u2013 Cuba Vive and MediCuba Europe \u2013 which are providing emergency medical aid in the midst of the US blockade of the island.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The Irish artist who captured the image of Che GuevaraOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The country is suffering severe fuel shortages and power blackouts due to the Trump administration\u2019s sanctions on key sectors of the Cuban economy. Cubans are facing growing food insecurity and shortages of medicines and basic supplies. <\/p>\n

This is neither Bohs\u2019 first musical collaboration nor their first foray into politics. There have been shirts designed by Fontaines DC and others that declared \u201call refugees welcome\u201d. <\/p>\n

For the Dublin club\u2019s chief commercial officer, Daniel Lambert, the association with musicians is related to the fact that Bohs\u2019 clubhouse has long been used as a venue. <\/p>\n

\"DanielDaniel Lambert, Bohemian FC chief commercial officer. Photograph: Tom Maher\/Inpho <\/p>\n

There is a series of gigs due in mid-September under the banner The Last Days of Dalymount, that includes a DJ set from Annie Mac and performances from John Francis Flynn and Johnny Logan. Not to mention the fact Bob Marley played at Dalymount Park in 1980 in what would be the reggae superstar\u2019s only performance in Ireland.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Bohs secure rights to release Bob Marley away jerseyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it was Brush Shields or Johnny Logan or Paul Page or the Fontaines lads or Kneecap, we\u2019ve always had strong links to music at the stadium,\u201d says Lambert. \u201cWe\u2019ve tried in the last few years work with artists who, as well as the music, have a social conscience and stand for other things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe new Bohemian FC strip designed by Bristol band Massive Attack. Photograph: David Thomas Smith <\/p>\n

He links the club\u2019s social conscience directly to being fan-owned. \u201cWith most football clubs the wellbeing of the club is directly correlated with the wealth of the owner \u2026 With a fan-owned football club, your success is the amount of people who are willing to become a member and become actively engaged. How you build that level of loyalty beyond just results on the pitch is to connect with people on a human level.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"BohemianBohemian FC: A quote on the back of the Massive Attack-designed jersey from Che Guevara’s father. Photograph: David Thomas Smith <\/p>\n

People are starved of meaningful connection, he says. \u201cIf you look at Ireland 30 years ago, all the football clubs were fan-owned, more or less. People went to church. They were in unions. They had intergenerational family connections on the streets. They had long job contracts and a vocation. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow there\u2019s precarious employment and precarious rent situations where they have to move from where their families are. All those social connections have been lost.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason you go to football is probably social connection,\u201c says Lambert. \u201cAnd secondly, it builds up that connection [to] things that are perhaps more important than just sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lambert\u2019s connection to Massive Attack came from his other job as Kneecap\u2019s manager. \u201cMassive Attack have been of great assistance to Kneecap in the past couple of years,\u201d he says. \u201cIn recent months we had a conversation with them about working together on something. They\u2019re very aware of what\u2019s happening in Cuba.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"MassiveMassive Attack: ‘We\u2019re proud to follow the tradition of musicians who\u2019ve collaborated with Bohemian FC.’ Photograph: Jim Dyson\/Getty <\/p>\n

The release is accompanied by the release of two short films by Unit 3 Films in Bristol. One interweaves the work of Jim Fitzpatrick with the new strip and the other puts the words of Guevara\u2019s speech against imagery from the football terraces. <\/p>\n

Being against the US blockade is not an \u201coutsider\u201d position, Lambert notes. <\/p>\n

Ireland has voted against the blockade alongside the vast majority of countries in the UN. <\/p>\n

\u201cI went there myself in March with Kneecap and it\u2019s a medieval siege,\u201d says Lambert. \u201cThe issue there isn\u2019t just that there\u2019s not enough food or water. There\u2019s no electricity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s wrong on so many levels. What has been Cuba\u2019s crime? Cuba has a different economic system than the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irish musical acts tend to be more outspoken on social issues than those in the UK or the US. Why does he think that is? \u201cIt\u2019s just that we\u2019re a postcolonial country. I think if you\u2019re raised as an Irish person and you\u2019re aware of Ireland\u2019s history, you have an awareness and an understanding of what colonial crimes look like, and you have an international solidarity to try and resist and assist people \u2026 That\u2019s what you see with CMAT, Fontaines, Lankum and Kneecap.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018I want to see the final chapter of this\u2019: Cubans demand change but fear US military actionOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Massive Attack have long been a politicised outlier in the UK context. Earlier this year they produced Boots on the Ground, an anti-Ice song and video collaboration with Tom Waits, and they were recently arrested and banned from Singapore for raising a Palestinian flag at a concert. <\/p>\n

Of this new collaboration, the band say: \u201cWe\u2019re proud to follow the tradition of musicians who\u2019ve collaborated with Bohemian FC to support a fan-owned football club, at the same time drawing attention to important social or political issues. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur strip design takes inspiration from Cuban national football kits and references the Irish connection to Che Guevara in terms of his ancestry and the iconic 2-tone graphic created by Dublin artist Jim Fitzpatrick. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt collages text of Che\u2019s speeches that underline the importance of international solidarity in resisting colonial \u2013 and neocolonial \u2013 imperialist aggressions. His words still contain resonance for the political struggles of today. Our nominated charities arrange urgent shipments of medical aid to Cuba, where vital hospital supplies are threatened by the Trump administration blockade of the island \u2013 an illegal act of collective punishment of the Cuban people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bristol trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack have designed the new Bohemian FC third strip. The jersey is based on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[34758,48750,199584,52,18,117,19,17,4066,12474,1294],"class_list":["post-636743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-bohemians","tag-cuba","tag-daniel-lambert","tag-dublin","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kneecap","tag-patrick-freyne","tag-uk"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117093792611708873","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636743","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=636743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}