Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, better known as Mo Chara in Kneecap, has said he’ll “get over it” if his visa to travel to the US is revoked.
The Belfast rap group are reapplying for visas, he says, as he faces a terrorism offence charge in the UK.
Ó hAnnaidh is accused of displaying a flag in support of Hizbullah, after someone from the crowd handed it to him at a gig last November. Last week, the case was adjourned by a court in London and he was freed on unconditional bail until August.
In an interview with the Guardian on Friday, Ó hAnnaidh said: “Maybe visas get revoked, you’re not allowed in America again, it’s not ideal – but Jesus Christ, there’s people being bombed from the f**king skies, and people being starved to death.
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“We’re in the process [of applying for new visas], hopefully it works. But if it doesn’t, I can go about my day without having to worry about my next meal or my family being bombed. Visa revoked, I can get over it.”
When asked if he regrets what happened at the gig in question, Ó hAnnaidh said: “It’s a joke. I’m a character. Shit is thrown on stage all the time. If I’m supposed to know every f**king thing that’s thrown on stage, I’d be in Mensa, Jesus Christ.”
He added: “I don’t know every proscribed organisation – I’ve got enough shit to worry about up there. I’m thinking about my next lyric, my next joke, the next drop of a beat.”
The band believes the charges are part of a concerted effort to distract from their vocal support of Palestine.
“We’re a distraction, to take away [attention] from what’s happening in Palestine,” Naoise Ó Cairealláin, aka Móglaí Bap, said in the same interview.
“It’s all being livestreamed – you can never say you didn’t know what’s happening in Palestine, and that’s why they want to bog us down and go through old videos. Over 100 people were killed in the last four days – that’s the real story.”
He alleges that the US and the UK “are complicit in this genocide” on the grounds that each country has sent military supplies to Israel.
Ó hAnnaidh was charged with the terrorism offence shortly after Kneecap performed two sets at Coachella, the popular California music festival. As is commonplace at the group’s shows, they displayed a message stating: “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people,” and the words “Fuck Israel. Free Palestine”.
The band are due to perform at Glastonbury on Saturday, a set dubbed “inappropriate” by UK prime minister Keir Starmer due to the terrorism charges and separate remarks about MPs.
Footage from a November 2023 gig appears to show one of the band’s members saying: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”
The band later expressed their “heartfelt apologies” to the families of David Amess, a Conservative MP who was murdered in 2021, and Jo Cox, a Labour MP who was murdered in 2016.
When asked about the ‘Kill your local MP’ footage, Ó hAnnaidh again stressed that he’s playing a character on stage.
“It’s satirical, it’s a f**king joke. And that’s not the point. The point is, that [video] wasn’t an issue until we said ‘Free Palestine’ at Coachella. That stuff happened 18 months ago, and nobody batted an eyelid.
“Everybody agreed it was a f**king joke, even people that may have been in the room that didn’t agree – it’s a laugh, we’re all having a bit of craic. The point is, and the context is, it all [resurfaced] because of Coachella.”
After those gigs, Ó hAnnaidh said Kneecap’s opponents “went and combed through eight years of a career ... they’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel”.
“If you believe that what a satirical band who play characters on stage do is more outrageous than the murdering of innocent Palestinians, then you need to give your head a f**king wobble.”
