At Christmas 9,000 people came to the SSE in Belfast and now to bring a Kneecap show to the capital’s biggest venue with young and old embracing the Irish language….we fu*king love it. Your favourite republican hoods are coming back to Baile Átha Cliath and there’ll be more bombs than 1916. They used to say to us “rapping in Irish? It’ll never work!”. Our revenge will be the laughter of our children….and of course Celtic!
Kneecap
Kneecap is a global phenomenon. Bursting out from a squat in Belfast, Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara, and DJ Próvaí are spearheading a moment in Irish culture, music, language, and cinema that has brought them to sensational levels. All it took was a generational talent to tear through conventions, expectations, and records. This is hip-hop at its most exciting – a potent and revolutionary force, smashing bans, barricades, and the occasional bottle of Buckfast.
Their fiercely intelligent breakthrough concept album, Fine Art (2024), was produced by Toddla T, and set across a raucous night out, traversing a fantasy pub called The Rutz, with adventures spilling out on to the streets of Belfast and London, during ketamine and cocaine binges gone wrong (and right), and featuring guest appearances from Lankum’s Radie Peat, Fontaines DC’s Grian Chatten and Tom Coll, alongside Jelani Blackman and Annie Mac.
Live, Kneecap continues to electrify festivals and venues around the world. A morning gig at Glastonbury’s Woodsies stage in the summer of 2024 filled the tent with thousands of fans, their festival appearance capped off with an epic late-night show at Shangri-La, where Noel Gallagher waited backstage to heap praise on the group. Their autumn US tour saw sold out gigs across multiple American cities. 2024 was capped off with a series of sold out shows across Ireland, including five consecutive dates at Vicar Street, yet another sold out run of gigs across England, Scotland and Wales, and a massive arena show in their hometown of Belfast sold out to 9,000 people.
Today it was announced that Kneecap will play 3Arena Dublin on 17th December 2025. Tickets for this date go on sale this Friday 31st January at 10am from Ticketmaster.ie
Photo credit – Carl Foran