Kneecap lead foul-mouthed Kier Starmer chant before 'riot' speech at Glastonbury
'Just to clarify, I don't want anybody to start a riot"
Kneecap have completed an expletive filled Glastonbury performance that included repeated chants of 'F*** Keir Starmer ' and 'free Palestine' throughout their set.
The group have faced a barrage of criticism in recent weeks over their stance in support of Palestine and were unlikely to lay down to pressure as they took to the West Holt's stage for a charged performance despite multiple efforts to ban them.
They opened with a montage of their critics, before moving on to Better Way To Live.
But they didn't take long to lay into their critics including the Prime Minister who had said it was 'not appropriate' to allow Kneecap to play the festival.
Mo Chara, along with bandmates Naoise Ó Caireallain (Móglaí Bap), and JJ Ó Dochartaigh (DJ Próvaí), made their feelings known early on, with Móglaí Bap telling the crowd: 'The Prime Minister of your country, not mine, didn't want us to play. F*** you, Starmer.'
The crowd chanted the insult throughout the set.
They later added: 'Are there any English people here? We f***ing love the English people. It's the English government we don't like. We are not far away from a Celtic republic.'
Festival bosses had earlier closed access to the stage amid crowd crush fears as people in their tens of thousands arrived to catch the controversial Irish language rap group.
The rap trio took to the West Holts stage at 4pm on Saturday, just over a week after one of their members appeared in court on terror charges.
At a show in O2 Forum Kentish Town last year, Mo Chara is alleged to have waved a Hezbollah flag.
Today, to cheers and a sea of Palestinian flags, Mo Chara, wearing a keffiyeh, said: 'Glastonbury, I'm a free man.'
After several songs, the frontman Móglaí Bap said: 'On August 20 Mo Chara is back in court for a trumped-up terrorism charge. Trust me it's not the first time that there has been a miscarriage of justice against an Irish person by the British justice system.'
He added: 'So if anyone is available on August 20 to support Mo Chara, let's start a riot.' He later added: 'Just to clarify, I don't want anybody to start a riot.'
During the set, the band said: 'I don't know if everybody here is following the Glastonbury app but we've had a notification that they've had to close the West Holt's stage because there's too many F**ian b*****s here.'
The group also made reference to the BBC's decision not to livestream their performance, with O hAnnaidh, 27, telling fans: 'I don't want anybody to start a riot, just love and support and more importantly support for Palestine because that is what it is all about.
'This situation can cause stress for us but the stress we are feeling in minimal compared to the stress the people of Palestine are feeling.
'The Irish suffered 800 years of Colonialism at the hands of the British state, but the Irish, we were never f***ing bombed from the skies with nowhere to go.'
The political theme continued from the band who told the crowd: 'This situation can be quite f***ing stressful for us indeed but the stress we're feeling is minimal compared to what the Palestinian people are going through every f***ing day.
'We're from West Belfast, a place still under British occupation and Derry… so we understand colonialism.
'We understand how important it is for solidarity internationally.
'The Irish suffered 800 years of colonialism at the hands of the British state but we were never bombed from the f***ing skies with nowhere to go. The Palestinians have nowhere to f***ing go, literally.
'Not only are they being bombed from the f***ing skies. They're now being starved to death… I don't have to lecture you people. We're all watching it… Israel are war criminals. It's a genocide.'
Looking out at a sea of Palestinian flags, the band members laughed as they told the fans: 'The BBC editor is going to have some job.
'Sometimes you feel helpless. Sometimes you feel you're not doing enough and that's probably true sometimes but the difference it makes to people in policy when they see this many people from the other side of the world screaming, free Palestine.'
There were more boos from the crowd when they were asked if anybody was "going to see Rod Stewart tomorrow".
The 80-year old rocker has caused a stir after speaking out in support of Reform and saying that people should give Nigel Farage a chance.
'Have I missed something?' Kneecap asked. 'I mean the man's older than Israel. Rod, the Prod.'
Kneecap's show culminated with the band leading chants of 'free Palestine' and 'f*** Keir Starmer' as they rammed home their point.
'No riots, just love and support and more importantly support for Palestine because that is what it's all about.'
Last month, the Irish rap group was axed from the line up of Glasgow music festival TRNSMT amid safety fears.
The trio are no longer set to play Glasgow Green on Friday, July 11 due to concerns over the safety of the event.
Police Scotland had previously said the performance at Glasgow Green in July would require "a significant policing operation".
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