{"id":85596,"date":"2025-09-25T22:27:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T22:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/85596\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T22:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T22:27:09","slug":"kneecap-band-members-london-court-hearing-moved-to-other-side-of-city-after-flooding-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/85596\/","title":{"rendered":"Kneecap band member\u2019s London court hearing moved to other side of city after flooding \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A London<\/a> hearing on Friday in a case involving Kneecap\u2019s<\/a> Liam \u00d3g \u00d3 hAnnaidh has been moved from Westminster Magistrates Court to another venue 21km (13 miles) away.<\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has confirmed to The Irish Times the hearing in the case, in which he is accused of showing support for a terrorist organisation, has been moved to Woolwich Crown Court on the outer fringes of east London.<\/p>\n

Westminster Magistrates Court was closed on Thursday after a water main burst and flooded the area.<\/p>\n

The MoJ said it did not yet know if the court would reopen on Friday, but added the Kneecap rapper\u2019s case had definitely been moved to the courthouse of Woolwich Crown Court for a 10am hearing.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Thursday, London\u2019s Metropolitan Police<\/a> had banned supporters of Mr \u00d3 hAnnaidh, from congregating at the entrance to Westminster Magistrates Court.<\/p>\n

Mr \u00d3 hAnnaidh is due to appear for a ruling on his application to have the case against him thrown out.<\/p>\n

He is accused by British authorities of showing support for a proscribed organisation by draping himself in a Hizbullah flag at a gig in London last November. <\/p>\n

Judge Paul Goldspring of Westminster Magistrates Court is due to rule whether he has jurisdiction to hear the case \u2013 albeit the hearing will now be in Woolwich.<\/p>\n

Mr \u00d3 hAnnaidh, who performs as Mo Chara in the Belfast rap trio, has yet to enter a plea in the case but he has publicly indicated that he intends to fight the charge.<\/p>\n

At a previous hearing in August, his lawyers argued that the charge against him was issued one day beyond an official deadline. Prosecution lawyers denied this.<\/p>\n

The judge has indicated if Mr \u00d3 hAnnaidh\u2019s lawyers are shown to be correct, the case against him will be immediately dismissed on Friday. If the jurisdiction ruling goes against the Irish man, the case will proceed and he will have to enter a plea. If he pleads not guilty, a trial will be set for a later date.<\/p>\n

At two previous hearings in the case, hundreds of supporters of Mr \u00d3 hAnnaidh, many waving Irish Tricolours and Palestinian flags, congregated at or near the entrance to Westminster Magistrates Court to hold noisy protests.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, police had issued an order restricting supporters of the rapper to a location set back around the corner from the front door of the courthouse.<\/p>\n

In a statement on the social media platform X, Kneecap accused the police of making a \u201ccalculated political decision\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis police action is designed to try and portray support for Kneecap as somehow troublesome,\u201d said the band. Police said the order was necessary to prevent \u201cserious disorder, damage, disruption, impact or intimidation\u201d.<\/p>\n

It is unclear what restrictions the police may put in place for the Woolwich hearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A London hearing on Friday in a case involving Kneecap\u2019s Liam \u00d3g \u00d3 hAnnaidh has been moved from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,19,17,4066,130,36124],"class_list":{"0":"post-85596","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-kneecap","13":"tag-london","14":"tag-metropolitan-police"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85596","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=85596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}