Opinion: 'They represent the new symbols and soundtrack of Irish anti-colonial resistance for a generation that aren't actually evoking violent nationalism'
Having risen to fame on the back of their irreverent use of once inflammatory terms in their lyrics, such as "Up the ‘Ra" and symbols like the balaclava, Kneecap's brazen brand of anti-colonial rhetoric and symbolism has provoked debate. But the response to Kneecap’s cultural republicanism is not an isolated controversy, but the most recent manifestation of emerging anti-colonial movements clashing with Ireland’s longstanding tradition of aversion to engaging with the legacies of colonisation.
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From RTÉ News Behind the Story, where do Kneecap go from here?
Contemporary anti-colonialism varies across historical contexts, but is broadly the idea that historic colonialism legacies should be dismantled and colonial power resisted. Examples include calls for the repatriation of artefacts in the hands of British and French museums, indigenous rights movements, demands for reparations and the assertion of language rights.
That to colonise is wrong; its consequences are harmful and it should be resisted, with violence, if necessary, may seem an uncontroversial idea when applied to contemporary conflicts. But this logic gets muddied when we apply it to our own past.
Ireland’s cultural and political approach to colonialism has fluctuated over time. For the first 50 years after securing independence for the 26 counties, romantic nationalism was pervasive. Those who took up arms against the subjugating powers were celebrated and honoured. But over time, the romanticism waned and the violence used to achieve it was decried as several issues emerged, contributing to the broad erasure of colonialism in Irish public life.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Drivetime, Dr Patrick Walsh on why Trinity College Dublin has promised to re-examine and explore its colonial past
The revisionist perspective on Irish history was a reaction and rejection of the romanticisation of violent nationalism and the ideas of blood sacrifice embedded in revolutionary ideologies. Regardless of motivations, the outcomes represented Irish rebels as the aggressors and delegitimised the violence of liberation.
In both media and politics, colonial roots of the conflict in Northern Ireland were largely overlooked. The civil rights origins of the Troubles often omitted from discourse. With media focus on the day-to-day events of the Troubles, paralleled with interventions such as the broadcast ban on republican leadership, and reliance on British state security sources, the colonial basis of the conflict was largely erased.
Since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, political and media attention focused on peace-building, an aversion to reviewing or discussing the colonial roots of the conflict by state, media and other elite institutions developed. However, it was never sustainable.
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From RTÉ Archives, Brendan O'Brien reports for RTÉ News on a 1981 attack on the Queen Victoria fountain in Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin, a memory of Ireland's colonial past
The centenary of the Republic of Ireland's founding events reasserted the need to address the colonised past and the violent uprising that established independence. This was not without controversy. For the Decade of Centenaries, the state adopted an open armed approach. State and institutional approaches colonialism were shaped largely by concepts of ‘narrative hospitality and ethical remembering’. These are frameworks for remembering and commemoration, focusing of shared experiences of conflict and taking the focus off victims of colonial oppression and suffering.
In 2020 Irish Government proposals to commemorate a British colonial police force, the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) as part of the Decade of Centenaries sparked widespread public criticism and debate. Sharing family stories of trauma suffered at the hands of the Black and Tans, many argued that state hospitality went too far, effectively equating the suffering of victims of colonialism with that of perpetrators; and equating violence of liberation with the violence of oppression. The event was cancelled and the issue receded for a time.
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From RTÉ News in 2020, Government cancels plans to commemorate RIC as part of the Decade of Commemoratons
But it is just one episode in the often unrecognised and uncomfortable issues underpinning Irish society. Others include the anti-colonialism of the Irish Diaspora news media which is often a source of controversies in how Irish colonial history is represented. It emerges in cultural republicanism. When the Rubberbandits first appeared, their surrealist and inhospitable approach to colonialism in Ireland was also met with criticism. There was disquiet from some quarters over the audience size at shows by the Wolfe Tones.
However, these ‘concerns’ over the revival of colonial discourse and cultural republicanism overlook that it is not focused on the romanisation of revolutionaries nor the trivialisation of the Troubles. Rather, the focus on self-determination for colonised people which prioritises solidarity rather than violent antagonism. It is subverting and repurposing its cultural heritage for new ends.
Kneecap represent the new symbols and soundtrack of Irish anti-colonial resistance for a generation that aren’t actually evoking violent nationalism. The irreverent use of language and symbols help redefine and remodel once feared ideas. DJ Provi’s balaclava and Mo Chara’s irreverence for slogans stir fears rooted in eras of conflict on the island.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, Irish Times journalist Ronan McGreevy and art historian Kyle Leyden discuss the decision by the owners of the Shelbourne Hotel to reinstall statues mistakenly believed to be representations of slave women
However, songs like Hood are neither underpinned by nor provoke the kind of sectarian hostilities and violence they once might have. Instead, the song provoked cross community nights out to remember (or not). Internationally, Kneecap’s reception is symbolic of the desecuritisation of Northen Ireland’s culture and the border rhetoric once associated with it.
Outrage at state commemorations of colonial era police is just one example of many such rumbling of anti-colonialism emerging in its modern form in Ireland and interacting with public institutions and public opinion writ large. Controversy over the removal and reinstatement of statues wrongly thought to depict slaves at Dublin's Shelbourne Hotel; Irish universities supporting academics in decolonising curricula and Irish museums discussing decolonising public heritage all indicate a public contestation of anti-colonial thought in Irish public life. All of this will continue.
Irish and British society need to prepare as more contentious issues will inevitably emerge. Debates over colonial history and identity underpin significant social and political questions that will have to be confronted as real events are on the horizon - Irish unity, the extent of Irish participation in the EU and the extension of the right to vote to Irish citizens living abroad – are all on the near-term political agenda. A deeper and wider reflection on Ireland’s colonialist past is necessary if we are to debate and discuss these issues in the appropriate context and from a considered perspective.
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
