News reaches us that Kneecap, the Belfast rap outfit currently bossing it with their eponymous first film, are devastated to have drawn the ire of the Daily Mail. It was never their intent to offend the paper of middle England. No doubt an apology will be forthcoming.
Away and sh*te with ye. I’m joking, of course. The band responded to the paper’s latest jeremiad with five crying-laughing emojis. Rich Peppiatt, the film’s director, described the piece as a “thing of beauty”.
It is hard to imagine a more mutually beneficial class of shared antagonism. Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville came up with “Best of Enemies” as title for their 2015 film on US political rivals Gore Vidal and William F Buckley. That would also work for the current dispute. Kneecap provides the Mail with a source of fury. The subsequent copy reassures the band they’re annoying the right people.
The current story concerns Kneecap’s sweep at the British Independent Film Awards on Sunday night. “Anti-British Irish-language movie funded by UK public money wins Best British Film gong,” the Mail headline fulminated. There was worse to come. “The comedy-drama was not only named the Best British Independent film but also bagged six more of the prestigious trophies and received 14 nominations,” Olivia Allhusen’s report continued.
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There is often unease when Irish films – even if co-financed in the UK – pick up awards for British titles, but the Kneecap squad are content to wryly savour contrary subtexts. “I have to mention there is an irony in the best British film being Irish.” Naoise Ó Caireallain, star of the flick, commentated.
As almost everyone now knows, Kneecap, featuring Michael Fassbender in a salty supporting role, offers us a fictional biopic of the now unavoidable hip-hop trio. The characters come together following a minor drug bust and devise an agreeably profane way of championing the Irish language. Incorporating (as every Ulster yarn must) an across-the-barricades romance, the screenplay resists all but the most jocular sectarianism, but there is plainly a delight in provocative republican symbolism.
Just recall how they drove a defaced PSNI Land Rover to the world premiere at the Sundance Film festival, where the film received rave reviews and won an audience prize. Note that, even then, critics were working a certain English tabloid into the conversation. “The humour is particular, and it’s not of the ‘Daily Mail reader’ variety,” Fionnuala Hannigan wrote in her January 19th rave for Screen International.
The newspaper was quickly on the case with two favourite interconnected lines of attack: supposed misuse of public funds and alleged woke madness at the BBC. “Why did the National Lottery pay £1.6m of public money for a film about Irish rap band accused of glorifying the IRA ...” the headline ranted before taking another lungful of air. “And why does the BBC give them fawning national coverage where they were hailed as being at the ‘forefront of Irish hip hop’?”
This was January 22nd. The mutual hate affair has bubbled on ever since. On February 8th the Mail reported the band “known for their balaclava-clad performances” had been “denied taxpayer funding after being accused of ‘glorifying the IRA’”. There was more chatter about public money in the autumn. To employ the structure of Myles Na Gopaleen’s famous catechism of cliche, in what manner did the new leader of the Conservative Party respond to a reversal of her own decision to deny cash? She “blasted” of course. “Kemi Badenoch blasts ‘cowardly’ Labour for agreeing grant for balaclava-clad Irish rappers Kneecap,” the paper reported on November 29th. Those balaclavas are doing a lot of work in riling up the home counties.
In the midst of all this, the Mail unearthed a video of Kneecap in action from back in 2019. They dared to chant “‘Get the Brits out’ at Empire Music Hall in Belfast, that was visited by Prince William and Kate Middleton 24 hours before the performance.” Well, I’m sure if they knew the future prince and princess of Wales had been there a day earlier they would have reconsidered.
It seems likely band and newspaper will remain best of enemies for some time to come. Kneecap scored a duck (or some GAA equivalent) at the Golden Globes nominations on Monday, but they should, on December 17th, land on the shortlist for the Oscar for best international film. A nomination could well follow.
The Mail is, no doubt, sharpening its headlines.
