Few applications for Troubles pension from emigrants or Army

Noel McAdam, Sunday Life, June 29th, 2025

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS IS AUGUST 2025

People who moved to England after losing loved ones in the Troubles are under-represented in applications to a government compensation scheme, victims' groups have warned.

The same is true of soldiers who served in Northern Ireland, prison officers and people from the north west.

Victims' groups have asked the Assembly committee which monitors the Executive to examine the disparities urgently, with applications to the Troubles Permanent Disablement Payment Scheme set to close in August next year.

Almost £95m has been paid out to victims so far.

The scheme was passed by Westminster four years ago after decades of wrangling.

Wave Trauma Centre chief executive Sandra Peake said: “The committee could maybe look at this. The scheme may finish within the next year. The question is whether it should.

Poor communication with diaspora

“Not enough due diligence has been done outside Northern Ireland.

“There are people who do not know that the scheme exists and that they are eligible for it.

“There needs to be a clear communication strategy and a big push.

“It should not go right to the wire. It needs to be done as early as possible. Whatever needs to be done to get people through the scheme should be done.”

South East Fermanagh Foundation director Kenny Donaldson said: “There have been fewer than 1,000 applications submitted to the scheme from those living outside Northern Ireland.

“In my mind, that illustrates a lack of understanding and awareness beyond this place among all those others who have been impacted by the Troubles.

“In the Great Britain context, people have been impacted by atrocities, and many people from our community who were victimised left Northern Ireland to live there.

BA - 300,000 boots on ground

“There is then a constituency of people in the security forces and armed services who have been here — some 300,000 — as boots on the ground. That is a huge cohort.

“There is some sense that the number of applications from the north-west of Northern Ireland is lower than it should be, given the gravity of what occurred there, particularly in the capital city of that region.

“There is also a sense that applications from the prison service fraternity are limited. It all needs close examination.”

The Victims' Payments Board has twice launched media campaigns to raise awareness of the scheme, but it confirmed it had only had around 1,000 applications from outside Northern Ireland.

David Taylor, welfare officer with the Ely Centre, which was set up following the Enniskillen bombing, told MLAs: “Further work is required in terms of more extensive communication to raise awareness of the scheme, especially outside Northern Ireland.”

The Executive Office said the Victims' Payments Board had made a significant impact on the lives of thousands since its introduction in 2021.

A spokesperson added the board would be “intensifying efforts to ensure that all those living with injuries sustained in relevant incidents are made aware of the opportunity to apply”.

Orange Order stops engaging with parades watchdog over Drumcree

Noel McAdam, Sunday Life, June 29th, 2025

IT'S POINTLESS TO ENGAGE WITH COMMISSION OVER DRUMCREE, SAYS SENIOR ORANGEMAN

Orange Order leaders appear to have cut off contact with the Parades Commission over the Drumcree protest due to be staged again next Sunday.

The commission has had no meetings about its ban of the return parade in Portadown, via Garvaghy Road, which is now in its 28th year.

It said: “No further representations have been received in relation to this parade this year.”

In its determination on the march, the commission said the parade still had the potential to cause disruption in Portadown and further afield.

contact

It claimed if the march went ahed, it could spark public disorder and impact community relations.

Nigel Dawson, the district secretary of the Portadown lodges, was contacted but declined to make any comment.

Likewise, there was no official response to a request for comment from the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland.

But a senior member said: “There is a general feeling is that there is no point in talking to the commission.

“They have their minds made up, and as long as they support the residents' point of view, why should the residents do anything?”

An attempted meeting between the commision and the Orange Order in the run-up to the controversial march last year came to nothing.

Mr Dawson said at the time: “It wasn't possible to secure a date suitable to both sides, so we will meet after the Twelfth.”

While no meeting took place, the commission said it had encouraged all parties to enter into dialogue.

BAN

Mr Dawson and others have held meetings with Northern Ireland Office officials, but there is no sign of any change to the ban, which has been in place for almost 30 years. The Garvaghy Road Residents' Association, which has had no direct contact with the commission since 2022, said it did not accept the Orange Order's argument that it needed to complete the parade, which was banned in 1998.

In its determination, the commission said the order had made clear it was prepared to enter into talks with residents, having been opposed for years.

It also said the order was willing to negotiate on matters including the size, the timing and the form of the parade.

Portadown LOL No. 1 previously hit out at the commission for creating “an impasse where the residents have want they want and therefore do not need to engage”.

But the residents' coalition maintained that allowing any march down the road would raise fears and anxieties “which should be allowed to remain in the past”.

The coalition also said previous attempts at dialogue with the order had proven futile, and the community had moved on.

The commission said there appeared to be little prospect of “meaningful mediation on the dispute”.

Teenager arrested after slurry spread in Ballymena hours before town's first Pride parade

Adrian Rutherford, Sunday Life, June 29th, 2025

INCREASED POLICE PRESENCE FOR 'HISTORIC' FIRST IN BALLYMENA, WERE EVENT WAS ALSO SCENE OF A PROTEST

A teenager has been charged after slurry was spread on the streets of Ballymena hours before the town's first Pride parade.

Police are treating the incident, which was discovered yesterday morning, as a hate crime.

There was an increased PSNI presence in the town for the parade with those taking part carrying banners and rainbow flags through Ballymena.

It also attracted a small crowd of protesters, many of them holding up placards inscribed with biblical texts.

Organisers said the Pride event was an effort to celebrate “diversity, inclusion and cross-community unity”.

The 19-year-old man was charged with criminal damage, possession of an article with a blade or point and causing material to be deposited on a road.

He is due to appear at Coleraine Magistrates Court on Monday.

Local people and businesses took part in a clean-up operation.

disgusting act

Scott Cuthbertson, from The Rainbow Project, said those responsible for the slurry incident were “disgusting bigots”.

He added: “A huge thank you to the businesses who have rallied round to clean up the mess. The lesson for these bigots (is) Pride goes on.”

Political representatives led condemnation, with one MLA saying it was a “disgusting” attempt to intimidate people taking part in the parade.

Alliance MLA Sian Mulholland said “There is no place for this kind of disgusting, deliberate attempt to intimidate or shame those taking part in a peaceful, joyful celebration of love and community.

“I have spoken directly with the parade organisers and the PSNI, and our team has engaged with Mid and East Antrim Borough Council to ensure cleansing takes place urgently and the route is made safe and welcoming for all.

“Ballymena Pride is a historic and hopeful moment for our town.

“No amount of hate will drown out the message of inclusion, solidarity, and pride that today represents.”

Justice Minister Naomi Long said on X: “I despair the mentality of those who spread slurry on the streets of their town motivated by hate and bigotry.

“Solidarity to all at Ballymena Pride.

“It's a frightening time, but love will always triumph over hate.”

UUP MLA Doug Beattie also condemned the incident, saying: “I think this is appalling, stupid and a level of hatred not wanted by the majority of people in Ballymena.”

Sinn Fein MLA Philip McGuigan said: “This is a disgraceful act clearly intended to disrupt Ballymena's first pride parade.

“I want to express my solidarity with everyone in Ballymena Pride, who will make history by marching through the town.”

SDLP councillor Seamas de Faoite said it was a “shameful and targeted act of intimidation”.

Alleged Ballymena rioter 'believed he was doing good'

Sunday Life reporter, June 29th, 2025

An alleged rioter who set a tyre in front of a police vehicle during recent rioting in Ballymena “believed he was doing a good act, not a negative one,” a solicitor has claimed.

Applying for Bobby Rainey to be granted bail, defence solicitor Andrew Kinney said that according to the 23-year-old, he was a “spectator” at the racially motivated riots and not an active participant.

Although a police officer told Antrim Magistrates Court, sitting in Ballymena, that Rainey had been seen setting a tyre in front of a police Land Rover, Mr Kinney said that in the defendant's mind, “he believed he was doing a good act, not a negative one”.

disorder

Rainey, from Camberwell Way in Ballymena, is on remand in prison facing a single charge of riot on June 10 this year.

During a contested application for bail on Tuesday, the court heard it was around 8pm when police in the Clonavon area of Ballymena were faced with a crowd of rioters.

“There was significant disorder occurring with masonry, bottles, bricks, petrol bombs and other objects used to attack police,” said the constable, adding that unrest continued in Ballymena and also spread to other areas during the week.

Rainey, the court heard, surrendered himself to police after the PSNI issued images of alleged rioters during a public appeal.

During police interviews, Rainey said he had been drinking in a nearby bar and had “fallen in with a crowd in the Clonavon area”.

He maintained, however, that “he was there to spectate” and claimed that he “did not hear the numerous warnings by police to disperse”.

According to the police case, Rainey “is seen lifting a tyre and appears to place it in front of a police vehicle”.

She told the court given the “racially aggravated public disorder that caused serious damage” to property and injuries to police, there were concerns about Rainey being granted bail.

Refusing bail, District Judge Nigel Broderick adjourned the case to July 10.

Belfast estate agent pleads with anti-immigrant protesters to back off and stop false rumours

Ciaran Barnes, Sunday Life, June 29th, 2025

BUSINESS DENIES PROVIDING HOUSING TO REFUGEES

A Belfast estate agent targeted by far-right protesters over false claims he is helping house asylum seekers has pleaded with them to get off his back.

Robert McDowell, the director of Rea Estates, had his business picketed by demonstrators at the start of last week.

This follows on from similar protests last summer when a stolen car was rammed into the front of his offices in the Woodvale area of Belfast.

Untrue allegations about his business are now being shared on sinister websites in England, with calls to take “action” against other estate agents in Northern Ireland.

Eager to put an end to the stories, Mr McDowell told Sunday Life: “Rumours are circulating on social media that Rea Estates as a business is 'facilitating mass, uncontrolled, unvetted immigration' and serving notice on existing tenants to hand over properties to government agencies to house asylum seekers and refugees.

“I can state without equivocation that this is not true. As a business, we do not provide housing for asylum seekers and refugees. We do not have contracts with government agencies to house these groups.”

Estate and letting agents help property owners sell or rent their houses. They do not own the houses that they rent.

This is a fact lost on the crowd who gathered outside Rea estate agents last week holding placards wrongly blaming the business for assisting “mass immigration”.

Mr McDowell added: “Many of our landlords own and rent property in areas with a shortage of social housing and high demand for homes.

“It has been our long-held policy to promote local tenants to landlords as they settle in an area they know close to friends and family and make good long term tenants serving the best interests of both tenant and landlord.

“Unlike the Housing Executive and housing associations, we do not allocate housing to those registered on the social housing waiting lists. Instead, we invite anyone enquiring to apply for a tenancy.”

Prospective Tenants

Any of his prospective tenants, explained Mr McDowell, must have a right to live in the UK, pass credit and reference checks and provide a Northern Ireland guarantor who meets financial affordability checks, which automatically rules out asylum seekers.

Northern Ireland has the lowest rate of immigration in the UK, with latest Home Office figures showing 2,637 people living here being in receipt of asylum support.

The last 2021 census revealed about 6% of the Northern Ireland population as being born outside of the UK or Ireland.

However, these statistics go over the heads of protesters who use terms like “mass immigration” without either understanding or caring what those words mean.

As a result, businesses like Rea Estates are being wrongly blamed and targeted for a problem which, in reality, does not exist.

According to locals in the Woodvale area the recent demonstration outside the estate agents was organised via social media by a group of “far right nutters”.

“Even the paramilitaries are embarrassed by them, that's why they haven't got involved,” said a source.

“That said, there is a huge issue on the Woodvale and throughout the greater Shankill with social housing.

“Not enough have been built, but that's the government's fault, not Rea's estate agents or some fella from Africa.”

A5 Debacle - Why North’s preposterous Govt is ultimately unsustainable

Sam McBride, Sunday Independent and Sunday Life, June 29th, 2025

Last week, Belfast High Court blocked the building of a major road on technical grounds, even though the judge accepted his decision would likely lead to people being killed and seriously maimed.

That sounds insane because it is insane, but it's not the judge who's mad.

Mr Justice McAlinden's decision has thrown into turmoil a plan to save lives on one of Ireland's most dangerous roads. The deadly A5 — a key route through Northern Ireland from Donegal to Dublin — is to be upgraded at a cost of £1.7bn, making it the costliest infrastructure project in the history of Northern Ireland. The Irish taxpayer is paying €600m.

In the last 19 years, almost 60 people have died on the road, which carries traffic from Aughnacloy to Derry. Since 2007, a massive dual carriageway upgrade has been promised. If Stormont had built that road when it said it would, most of those people would probably still be alive because dual carriageways are far safer than roads where traffic meets head-on at high speed and tractors share a lane with fast cars.

Yet this project has been failed by the very people who claim to be its champions.

The Stormont parties demanding a bigger road are the same Stormont parties who tied the judge's hands.

Just three years ago, they passed a climate change law which placed exceptionally challenging rules for carbon emissions.

Sinn Fein minister Liz Kimmins runs Stormont's Department for Infrastructure (DfI), which has repeatedly bungled the road scheme.

Mr Justice McAlinden witheringly described her department having an “it will be alright on the night” approach, going on to say: “From an all-embracing climate change perspective, this stance really is not good enough and does not even pay lip service to the legal requirements set out in the (Climate Change) Act”.

The DfI claimed it was “doing all that is required of it to decarbonise transport”, and so should be allowed to build a huge new road.

In a 50,000-word, often highly technical, judgment, the judge found the department's decision was “irrational”, and he was concerned that its approach “runs contrary to the whole spirit of the 2022 Act”.

Classic Stormont Crisis

This is classic Stormont: It wants to slash carbon emissions but emit more; it wants it to be compulsory to protect the environment but be allowed to damage the environment; it wants to cut road journeys while building bigger, better roads.

Here, Stormont's lead parties are akin to someone who has voluntarily chosen to be a vegetarian loudly demanding that they be allowed to eat meat. If MLAs want to build this road, they can do so, but they can't simultaneously pretend to meet the carbon reduction measures they enshrined in law.

These are duties which the Executive parties chose to impose upon themselves, but now they are unhappy that a judge has actually held them to the standards they insisted the courts should hold them to.

When the Climate Change Act (Northern Ireland) was being passed in 2022, Sinn Fein's Caoimhe Archibald — now the economy minister — hailed it as “ambitious”.

She enthused: “We should not, and must not, in any way, diminish the climate and biodiversity crises that our planet faces.

“Action to tackle those crises means changing how we and future generations live our lives. Not acting, or delaying, means catastrophe and more irreparable damage.”

This past week, when the judge agreed with what 2022 Sinn Fein wanted, 2025 Sinn Fein said it was “disappointed” at the judgment.

The SDLP, now in Opposition, suggested amending the law to allow the road to be built. Yet they had been among the most enthusiastic supporters of stringent climate change targets. They insisted that the law set higher targets than the UK advisory body suggested. That was their prerogative, but what's pathetic is the attempt to now disown the consequences.

Jumping on every populist bandwagon

Jumping on every passing populist bandwagon is no way to coherently govern, and here, one bandwagon is derailing another.

The same thing is happening with Lough Neagh. The Stormont Executive claims that cleaning up what is now a toilet of toxicity from which over 40 per cent of Northern Ireland's drinking water is drawn is a key priority.

Yet the moment one minister, Alliance's Andrew Muir, launched a consultation to even suggest enforcing stricter rules on agricultural pollution (the main source of the lough's contamination), every major party denounced him.

The DUP is organising a petition against him. A debate on the floor of the Assembly has already seen him lambasted by supposed colleagues. Michelle O'Neill, who stood at Lough Neagh's shore, pledging to save it, is now heading a party which is voting against Mr Muir's attempt to do so.

For years, while Stormont was down, many Northern Irish people hoped in desperate weariness that if devolution returned, it just had to be better than in previous incarnations.

If anything, it's getting worse because the problems past Stormont Executives created are now impossible to ignore, yet it still can't take the action necessary to reverse crises of its own making.

NI Water is so chronically underfunded that it now cannot guarantee the most basic functions of a water service — that clean water will come out of every tap, and that every toilet can be flushed. Yet just days ago, Sinn Fein Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins insisted that “our existing funding model works” for NI Water.

She's refusing to countenance domestic water charges, even for the wealthy, but is simultaneously refusing to propose any alternative which would bring in enough money.

There's cash for bungling — already, £100m has been spent on a road which remains unbuilt — but not enough to provide something as basic as adequate clean water and sewerage.

This is a preposterous government which is ultimately unsustainable, yet the party at its head is telling people in the Republic that it can transform their state for the better. It's lucky that the partitionism it claims to detest means few southern voters pay close attention to just how bad its northern record has been.

Tullyhommon bomb - the massacre that almost was

Ivan Little, Sunday Life, June 29th, 2025

You probably won't recognise the name 'Tullyhommon', but it's only by the grace of God that you don't.

If the IRA's plans had worked out differently in 1987, the blink-and-you'll-miss-it townland on the border between Donegal and Fermanagh at Pettigo would have been up there with the likes of La Mon, McGurk's bar, the Shankill and Greysteel in the list of Troubles atrocities.

To tell the truth, I'd all but forgotten about Tullyhommon, but the memory of the massacre that nearly happened there came back to me last week during a break for coffee and sandwiches in a picnic spot on this side of the border on the way home from Donegal.

It occurred to me that it was there that the IRA came close to causing carnage on the same day that its bomb in Enniskillen, 18 miles away, killed 11 people at a Remembrance Day service.

At Tullyhommon, the terrorists planted a bomb that, at 150lbs, was four times bigger than the Enniskillen device.

It was left near the car park in Tullyhommon, the assembly point for another, much smaller, Poppy Day parade in which Boys Brigade and Girls Brigade members were taking part, along with a few veterans, members of the security forces and a band.

Thankfully, the device didn't explode. No one knew it was there until the IRA called Downtown Radio to say the bomb had been abandoned.

Tractor ran over command wire

The security forces said that wasn't true and claimed the device was designed to kill young and old at the parade.

In a documentary about the IRA, veteran journalist Peter Taylor claimed the bomb failed to go off because a tractor ran over, and broke the command wire, which stretched into the Republic.

The police later said that if the bomb had detonated, the result would have been devastating.

The area was sealed off until a bomb disposal team was satisfied the device was safe.

What happened in Enniskillen pushed Tullyhommon out of the headlines, but down the years, from time to time, politicians and victims' groups have attempted to ensure it's still talked about.

There is nothing to commemorate the failed atrocity in the townland, but it appears the authorities have stopped caring about the area as a whole. On the day I was there, the picnic site — Termon River Park — was a shambles of overgrown grass and weeds.

A noticeboard extolling the virtues of Tullyhommon was so faded it was almost unreadable.

Fences were broken and a banner supporting the campaign to restore services at the South West Acute Hospital in Enniskillen was twisted and torn. A sorry place indeed.

many narrow escapes

There were many other narrow escapes on both sides of the community throughout the years of conflict.

The fact no one died in them doesn't mean they should be ignored, rather they should throw into focus calls for an official record on the Troubles.

I don't know if other journalists who covered the conflict are like me, but my travels around Northern Ireland frequently set me thinking about the Troubles, and the memories flood back.

A memorial to a victim of the Troubles will soon be unveiled in the Tullyhommon/Pettigo area.

Staff sergeant Ronald Francis Beckett, an ammunition technical officer, died from multiple injuries when a 20lb IRA bomb exploded as he dragged it from the local post office.

The bomb had been left by two carloads of IRA men who also placed a device in a customs station.

One group went on to a garage and tried to murder a UDR man, who returned fire and escaped. A 13-year-old boy was wounded in the arm in the crossfire.

The 52nd anniversary of Mr Beckett's death will be marked in August with the unveiling of a plaque during a remembrance service in the local Church of Ireland.

The South East Fermanagh Foundation said Mr Beckett's two daughters would travel from England for the ceremony.

For detailed account see, ‘The Northern Ireland Conflict on the Margins of History, Protestant Memory on the Border’, by Kenneth Funston and Cillian McGrattan, Memory Studies Association, Berghahn.

'Cowards in our unionist community': Victims campaigner slams return of notorious terrorist mural in Belfast

Richard Carroll, Belfast Telegraph, June 29th, 2025

The infamous ‘Ready For Peace Prepared For War’ mural is once more set to dominate the entrance to the Mount Vernon estate.

A newly constructed wall and freshly painted mural is nearing completion seven months after Storm Darragh brought the original crashing to the ground.

It had been hoped that would be the end of the giant image featuring two masked gunmen.

But now it is back and set to be unveiled in time for the Twelfth celebrations.

Mount Vernon UVF carried out the 1997 murder of Mr McCord’s son. Every one of those involved was exposed as RUC Special Branch at the time they lured their victim to a quarry where he was murdered.

No one has ever been charged with the murder despite being repeatedly identified as the culprits.

Last night Mr McCord said politicians and the Housing Executive on whose property the wall has been built have questions to answer.

“Questions must be asked by those local elected politicians why the drug dealing Special Branch controlled Mount Vernon UVF have been allowed to build a wall with a mural of a terrorist organisation on it,” he said.

“The only ‘war’ Mount Vernon were in was the one they waged against their own people and on innocent Catholics.

Questions about NIHE

“The NIHE has questions to answer regarding permission to build the wall. We all know Mount Vernon UVF are not loyalists but criminals and cowards.”

The reappearance of the mural comes as the UVF have given indications they are preparing to disband, but there is little sign of them going away in Mount Vernon.

“The local decent people of Mount Vernon fear them even though there’s not a real man among them.

“You cannot support your community and support the UVF. Mount Vernon not only killed my son, they killed their own community with drugs, beatings, extortion and murders.

“The terrorist mural is a reminder to all that we still have the cowards in our unionist community who hide behind a flag of convenience.”

Storm Darragh, which struck in December last year, partially destroyed the wall and mural, which also included the logos of the UVF and the Young Citizen Volunteers.

Kneecap at Glastonbury with chants of 'Free Mo Chara and 'f**k Keir Starmer'

Belfast group play to their biggest audience ever with attacks on politicians and support for Palestinian people

Kurtis Reid, Sunday Independent, June 29th, 2025

Kneecap led the crowd in chants of "Free Mo Chara and f**k Keir Starmer” during their Glastonbury set yesterday afternoon, while also thanking the organisers for not bowing to pressure to cancel their performance.

The West Belfast trio performed a set on the West Holts stage.

Access to the area was blocked off around 20 minutes into the gig, such was demand to see the group.

Their performance came just hours after the BBC, Glastonbury's long-time broadcaster, announced it would not be streaming the set live.

Instead, a spokesperson said it might be added to the BBC iPlayer "later this evening”. After performing several tracks, the band addressed the audience, referencing Mo Chara — real name Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh — and his appearance in court this month, when he was accused of displaying a flag in support of proscribed militant group Hezbollah.

The charge relates to an incident at a London concert last November, when the rapper was alleged to have held up the flag and encouraged support for both Hezbollah and Hamas from the stage.

He denies the allegations and has been released on unconditional bail ahead of a court hearing in August.

The charge sparked widespread political and public debate, with British prime minister Keir Starmer saying it would be "inappropriate” for the group to perform at Glastonbury.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch called for the BBC to refrain from broadcasting Kneecap's set.

"You might have seen that Mo Chara was in Westminster's courts this month,” band member Móglaí Bap said to the crowd.

Describing the charges as "trumped-up terrorism”, he added: "This is not the first time there's been a miscarriage of justice for an Irish person in the British justice system.

Riot comment

"We will start a riot outside the court [next month]. The papers will love that. That's for the Daily Mail.”

He later clarified: "I don't want anyone to riot — just love and support. And more importantly, support for Palestine.”

Addressing the terrorism charge, Mo Chara thanked the long-time owners and organisers of Glastonbury, the Eavis family.

"They had the prime minister of your country — not mine — saying he didn't want us to play. F**k Keir Starmer,” he said.

"The stress of our situation can be hard at times, but it's nothing compared to what the Palestinian people are going through every day.

"We're from West Belfast, a place still under British occupation — as well as Derry. The Irish have suffered under occupation and colonisation.

"But we were never bombed from the skies with nowhere to go — not only starved to death, but kids being starved to death, and we're all watching it. We all have phones.”

Kneecap later called Israel "war criminals” and said: "It's a genocide. The number of Palestinian flags here is incredible. The BBC editor is going to have a tough job tonight.”

They then led the audience in chants of "Free Palestine”, with one member shouting: "Glastonbury, I am so f**king proud of you. This is the biggest crowd we've ever played.”

During their set, they also referred to the prime minister as "a shit Jeremy Corbyn” in reference to the Labour Party's former leader.

They also said: "We don't hate the English, we hate the English government.”

Later, just before their final song, they added: "We want to thank Glastonbury for standing by us and standing by Palestine — and the truth.

"One day it will be controversial for bands and people who didn't speak out about Palestine. We will remember them and so will history.”

Kneecap lead anti-Starmer chant during politically charged Glastonbury set

Robyn Vinterand Jamie Grierson, Guardian, June 29th, 2025

Kneecap began a politically charged set at Glastonbury on Saturday afternoon, leading the crowds in chants of “Fuck Keir Starmer!”

The Irish rap act took to the stage at 4pm for their controversial set, which had been criticised by the UK prime minister as not “appropriate”.

The PM’s comment came after band member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, known as Mo Chara, was charged with a terror offence for holding a Hezbollah flag at a London gig last November.

“We understand colonialism and we understand how important it is to support each other internationally,” said Ó hAnnaidh on the band’s support for the people of Gaza who have suffered at the hands of Israel’s military and through a lack of aid deliveries.

Later on Saturday, an Avon and Somerset police spokesperson said the force was assessing comments made by Kneecap during their set.

They told the Guardian: “We are aware of the comments made by acts on the West Holts stage at Glastonbury festival this afternoon.

“Video evidence will be assessed by officers to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation.”

During the Kneecap performance, a sea of at least 200 Palestinian flags made it difficult for cameras to get a clear shot of the stage from inside the crowd.

At least 200 Palestinian flags were waved by the crowd during the performance. “The BBC editor is going to have some job,” Chara joked, referring to the flags. Earlier the broadcaster confirmed it would not be able to support a live stream of the performance.

The broadcaster has not yet confirmed when the footage will be available on iPlayer.

Users of the Glastonbury app received a push notification almost an hour before the band were due to perform saying the West Holts stage was closed. However, spectators were still getting in 20 minutes before the start of the set.

The show opened with clips of news and various TV discussion shows, with politicians and commentators saying the group should be banned and had been “avoiding justice for far too long”.

“Glastonbury I’m a free man!” shouted Ó hAnnaidh, to wild cheers from the crowd.

“If anybody falls down, you’ve got to pick them up. We’ve got to keep each other safe,” he added.

The group, who rap in English and Irish, performed an energetic set including Your Sniffer Dogs Are Shite, Get Your Brits Out and Fine Art in front of a backdrop which said “Free Palestine”, occasionally varying with other phrases including “Fuck Badenoch”, referring to the leader of the Tory party.

The crowds chanted: “Free Mo Chara, free free Mo Chara!”

“Mo Chara’s back in court for a trumped up terrorism charge,” said Móglaí Bap, also known as Naoise Ó Cairealláin.

“It’s not the first time there’s a miscarriage of justice for an Irish person in the British criminal justice system,” he said.

Ó hAnnaidh cut a defiant figure, saying his plight in the courts was nothing compared to the suffering of the Palestinian people. The band urged people to come out to support Ó hAnnaidh at his next court date at Westminster magistrates court.

“I want to say a big thank you to the Eavis family [organisers of Glastonbury],” Ó hAnnaidh added, for “holding strong” in the face of criticism.

Asked on Wednesday about the controversy, organiser Emily Eavis said: “There have been a lot of really heated topics this year, but we remain a platform for many, many artists from all over the world and, you know, everyone is welcome here.”

On numerous occasions, the trio chanted “Fuck Keir Starmer!”, with the crowd passionately shouting back. They also had the crowds chanting the Irish republican slogan, “tiocfaidh ár lá”, which translates as “our day will come”.

The band laughed with the crowd asking: “Is anyone going to see Rod Stewart tomorrow?”

The 80-year-old rocker was criticised ahead of his Pyramid stage performance after saying he thought the public should give Nigel Farage “a chance”.

Rod the Prod

Describing him as Rod the Prod, Ó hAnnaidh said: “I mean, the man’s older than Israel.”

Paloma Faith, the musician and public speaker, was in the crowd for Kneecap’s performance.

She told the Guardian: “A lot of people are now being demonised because there’s such a fear of terrorism. And I understand that fear but I don’t think that Kneecap have anything to do with that. They’re all about the soul and the heart of freedom of people.

“I don’t know anyone who likes to see children being killed on such a huge scale for any reason and I think [Kneecap] stand by that. Obviously they come from the perspective of a marginalised community at the hands of British colonialism.”

She said artists who speak out on human rights issues were worried about being misquoted by the press or having their words taken out of context at a time when peaceful activists are coming under increasing attack from governments.

She added: “Everyone’s a bit scared now. People are going to jail for stuff that isn’t what we perceive as violent. It’s scary times.”

It comes after the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said on Monday that the pro-Palestinian campaign group Palestine Action would be proscribed under anti-terror laws.

If approved in parliament in a vote next week, this would make membership and support of the group illegal and punishable with a prison sentence under anti-terror laws.

On stage, Kneecap reiterated their support for the group and band member JJ Ó Dochartaigh, known as DJ Próvaí, wore a Palestine Action T-shirt, underneath a red boiler suit associated with the group as he surfed the crowd.

Kneecap accuse UK government of enabling genocide and brand Israel 'war criminals' 

By Iain Gray, Belfast News Letter, June 28th, 2025

Kneecap accused the UK government of “enabling genocide” and branded Israel “war criminals” during their Glastonbury set – and appeared to invite thousands to riot outside their next court date, it has been reported.

The BBC refused to show their performance live, but according to the Mirror and footage seen on social media, the controversy-courting act finished their set by displaying a banner marked “the British government is enabling genocide” on a huge screen behind them.

Amid many foul-mouthed on-stage comments on the conflict in Gaza, they led a crowd of around 30,000 people in a chant of “Free, Free Palestine” – and rapper Liam O hAnnaidh, currently facing a terror charge, stated: “There’s no f---ing hiding it, Israel are war criminals.”

The band pledged to support Palestine Action, an organisation likely to be banned after breaking into an RAF base and vandalising planes. On stage, DJ Provai – alias 37-year-old J.J. O Dochartaigh – sported a T-shirt featuring the group’s logo.

Kneecap went on to apparently invite the crowd to riot outside the next appearance of 27-year-old O hAnnaidh, aka Mo Chara, at Westminster Magistrates Court, where he’s facing a charge of supporting a proscribed organisation due to actions and comments he’s alleged to have made on-stage in London seven months ago.

Referring to the case, for which a full trial has not taken place, rapper Naoise O Caireallain (31) told the crowd: “It’s not the first time there has been a miscarriage of justice for an Irish person in the British justice system.

“So, if anyone is available on 20th August at Westminster we will go to support Mo Chara, we will start a riot outside the courts.”

O Caireallain, aka Moglai Bap, later backtracked, telling the crowd: “I have to make a disclaimer; when we go to support Mo Chara, I don’t want anybody to start a riot.

"No riots, just love and support.”

They also took pains to point out how much they like English people – directly after performing a song that has become a republican anthem, ‘Get Your Brits Out’, which takes swipes at DUP figures amid copious drug references.

Stating they “love the English people, just not the English government”, they also thanked Glastonbury organisers for having them.

The BBC refused to livestream the set, though spokespeople said it would “look to make an on-demand version available” on iPlayer.

Kneecap mocked the broadcaster both before and during their performance, describing it as “the propaganda wing of the regime” on social media early in the afternoon, and – seeming to accept their show will be heavily cut when it winds up on iPlayer – stating “the BBC will have some job editing” their anti-Israel and pro-Palestine comments.

The crowd, many of who waved Palestine flags or sported versions of the band’s trademark tricolour balaclava in the festival’s 26°C heat, chanted along when the trio called on them to swear about Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who last week said it would be not appropriate for Kneecap to perform.

Despite their pro-Palestine words at Glastonbury, last year the group angered many left-wing fans when they broke a boycott to play an English festival sponsored by a company with financial ties to arms manufacturers suppling Israel’s military.

Half of the acts booked for the Great Escape in May 2024 pulled out in protest of that sponsor, but Kneecap performed anyway, leading to accusations of hypocrisy. The rappers said they had to play as they’re a “working band” while dismissing their critics as middle-class.