“Guess who’s back on the news, it’s your favourite Republican hoods,” spits Móglaí Bap on Kneecap’s 2019 track, Get Your Brits Out – a roiling, riotous tune, rapped in both English and Irish, in which the trio imagine a drug-fuelled night out with DUP politicians.
“Favourite Republican hoods” is a cheeky yet apt descriptor for how the provocative, satirical Irish-language rap group have been received this year. Kneecap became the surprise stars of Sundance film festival, where their biopic – a semi-fictional origin story in which they play themselves opposite Michael Fassbender – received rave reviews and the festival’s audience award last month. The film has been praised for its anarchic, irreverent tone, grappling with issues of identity and the tumultuous social and political landscape of Northern Ireland, post-Good Friday agreement.
