Kneecap (2024)

Kneecap (2024)

In one of the Belfast dancers, the children are asked to wear spectacles in order to sing the Irish folk song. This is used as a warm-up that is a part of the curriculum of the school. During the practice they show the whole song that they do not want to be a part of, this is evident through the monotone vocals. In a class, two boys at the back can be observed sharing the earplugs and pretending to sing along to the hip-hop song of Kneecap a local Irish trio that raps in the Irish language and is not seen that commonly in the entertainment world. This is all well portrayed in Peppiatt’s movie, which focuses on the actual happenings that triggered Kneecap. The Irish group consists of, songwriters Liam and film actor JJ O Dochartaigh (DJ Próvaí) who were cast in the movie depicting their story of life.

The Irish language neared an obliteration of sorts. For most, speaking Irish is political in regard. Kneecap was formed in 2018, around the same time as the so-called ‘debate’ about the Irish Language Act which was to be imposed by regards to the Sinn Féin party. It would have made Irish equal to English legally and reserved for Garda interrogation rooms and courtrooms. The song “Óró Sé do bheatha” sarcastically ties up a lot of strands of the discussions that have been had around Irish. For example, a language has to be dynamic, it has to be in the Now, and it cannot be stagnant. It is absurd and out of line for 21st-century children to sing a song that was written about some event that took place over 100 years ago, but there are three brutal men shouting.

Like a lot of reports, Kneecap’s music was in controversy because of their alleged drug use, but that was not the only thing, They were also captured with their bottom bared, one with the word ‘BRITS’ and the other ‘OUT’. One viewer maintains, “Ireland embodied here is the real one, we have sinned, and this language has two faces.” This KNEECAP seemed to many Pillars of the Irish language as a Poor man as an advocate for the language but in fact, they were an impediment to its popularization.

Simultaneously, Kneecap controlled large audiences with incredible appeal, including children singing the Irish lyrics. Is this not progress in a direction that members of the Irish-speaking community would want? Surely they would not!

One film cannot address all the issues that surround the Irish language and context, though “Kneecap” does a great job of contextualizing the vast majority of them and making it fun to watch. The pace of the movie is upbeat with lots of action, has humor which is largely sarcastic too, contains some narration wherein voice modulation is likely used, interlacing including cartoon animation and witty interjections, and varied visual techniques (footage freeze and the likes). The film makes no efforts to gloss over the drug issues or the childhood of West Belfast children who bear the nickname ‘Ceasefire Babies’. (Lyra McKee, in her 2016 article ‘Suicide Among The Ceasefire Babies’ for The Atlantic, wrote with accuracy ’We were the Good Friday generation that was spared the worst of the war. Unfortunately, the remnants of those horrors always seemed to follow us.’ Remarkably and tragically McKee was weaponed in the Derry protest in 2019.)

His father made him a maverick continuously urging, ‘Not being every day is a day I conquer the occupiers.’ But for Naoise (the brilliant Simone Kirby) and her depressed mother, it has been unbearable. Naoise sees his mother cheating with his father. The father has been recruited by the police and refuses to comply with the interrogation in English. The professional aide was called in, a music teacher questioned J. J. O Dochartaigh who was white and married to an Irish language and culture activist. They clarify to them that Liam and Naoise, a song composed by C.E.A.R.T A. He remains with them in a garage, when they record the song only he assists them because they do not know how to use the recording equipment.

At first, their gigs are rather small. They perform in bards and pubs where old men sit at the bar nursing a pint of Guinness, and look on in confusion. Afterwards, word starts going around. There is YTUS and the children from YTUS come, Now JJ is also included in the trio and he goes by DJ Próvaí. During his shows, he wears a practical balaclava that he made himself, which is colored green, white, and orange for the Irish flag. However, it’s actually because he wants to protect his job and spouse. As a result, it is the punishment that the Irish terrorist groups imposed against drug sellers that the group adopted the name Kneecap. (Kneecap is followed by another group. They are Radical Republicans Against Drugs and they are mad people. They burned down JJ’s garage studio.)

The inception of hip hop seeks premises in the sphere that conveys the self-conceived, the self-denigrators viewed by the community as social rejects who scream their lungs out. Hip hop is by nature political it’s music of protest by its very essence. There are countless instances in which the song’s lyrics of N.W.A. attracted criticism but it’s not in the past when one has to look at the watch in order to appreciate the cause.

(The persistent abuse of the Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi can easily top the list of major human rights violations and represents one of the biggest scandals of hip-hop at the moment.) However, there is no shortage of governments who are willing and able to silence the downtrodden criminals who hate free speech. And narrative-controlling groups feel the same. Kneecap comes in the middle of all this cacophony and nonsense. Liam’s pleasure of a friend (Jessica Reynolds) from the other side of the world (not a Republican) a heady mix as they have sex while wearing balaclavas and scream at each other about their political grievances, both north of Ireland and Northern Ireland interests them a lot. At one of their exchanges of opinions, I recall Liam blowing up and saying something irate about the Irish Proclamation of 1916. That does not sound cute or educated. Rather, it is gritty and real. Some viewers may find it necessary to have some information ‘in-depth’. The movie progresses and progresses without caring about you.

The Kneecap (2019) can, at the same time, leave the viewer satisfied and infuriated the actors, including the impressive Michael Fassbender and Kirby, always deliver their best, and the decision to have the members of the band Kneecap address the camera was a poorly thought out decision, yet it manages to work. The Irish rap group Kneecap is not unknown, but not many have probed deep into its formation and history. The Irish rap group Kneecap did not emerge for an isolated purpose, like many rap groups tend to do, in fact formed to further a cause-i.e the fight for the rights of the Irish youth and the Irish people as a whole. Even then, a person such as the leader of the buttock writing brigade Andy Gill, enjoys the freedom to write something on their buttocks, including “brits out”.

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