Kneecap member Liam O’Hanna was released on unconditional bail yesterday after appearing in a London court to face a terror charge in relation to him displaying a Hezbollah flag at a gig in the capital last year. His next court appearance is now scheduled for 20 Aug.
O’Hanna - whose performer name is Mo Chara - was joined by his bandmates at yesterday’s hearing in a packed Westminster Magistrates’ Court, with supporters of the band gathered outside. Organisations like Love Music Hate Racism had encouraged those supporters to attend the hearing and have vowed to organise a similar gathering on 20 Aug.
The band wore Free Mo Chara t-shirts when they arrived at court. Once inside, O’Hanna simply confirmed his name, date of birth and Belfast address before being released on unconditional bail and being told to attend the August hearing.
The previous day, the band revealed that they had organised for posters to be displayed around London that declare “More Blacks, More Dogs, More Irish, Mo Chara”. That being a play on the racist notices displayed by some London boarding houses in the 1950s that stated “No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs”.
“We’ve plastered London with a few messages ahead of this witch-hunt”, the band said on Instagram, alongside a video featuring the posters in various sites across London. “British courts have long charged people from the North of Ireland with ‘terrorism’ for crimes never committed”, the post then added, concluding: “We will fight them. We will win”.
Although they have always courted controversy, Kneecap have been very much in the public glare since their Coachella set earlier this year, where they displayed very pro-Palestine and anti-Israel statements. That prompted both praise and condemnation from different quarters, with some calling on other festivals to pull the band from their line-ups.
It was in the wake of the Coachella set that footage emerged of O’Hanna seeming to express support for Hamas and Hezbollah at a London gig last year. Both are proscribed terrorist organisations in the UK, making expressing support for them a criminal offence. The band have insisted that they do not, in fact, support either group, but that didn’t stop a police investigation and the subsequent terror offence charge.
Kneecap argue that the police investigation was the result of pressure from some in the UK political community - and the music industry - who seek to discourage the band, and other musicians, from speaking out in support of Palestine, especially in the context of the ongoing conflict in Gaza.