Kneecap rapper charged with terrorism offence over alleged Hezbollah flag at London show

Liam O’Hanna, a member of the Irish-language rap trio who recently performed in Melbourne with the severed head of a British monarch’s statue, is accused of showing support for the proscribed terrorist group.

Kneecap, from left: DJ Próvaí, Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap

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A member of the Northern Irish rap trio Kneecap has been charged with a terrorism offence after allegedly displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah during a performance in London.

Liam O’Hanna, 27, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged following an investigation by the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command. He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 18 June.

The charge relates to a concert at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, north London, on 21 November last year. According to the police, O’Hanna is alleged to have displayed the flag “in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion that he is a supporter of a proscribed organisation”.

Footage from the event, which emerged online in April, shows O’Hanna draped in the flag of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group that has been designated a terrorist organisation by the United Kingdom since 2019. He is also heard shouting, “Up Hamas! Up Hezbollah!” — both Hezbollah and Hamas are designated terrorist organisations under UK law.

The Met said officers were made aware on 22 April of an online video from the gig. An investigation was subsequently launched, leading to the Crown Prosecution Service authorising the charge.

Kneecap — the West Belfast trio of Mo Chara, Moglai Bap (Naoise Ó Cairealláin, 31), and DJ Provai (JJ Ó Dochartaigh, 36) — burst onto the scene in 2017 with a blend of Irish- and English-language raps steeped in republican politics. Last year, they broke through to a wider audience with Kneecap, a semi-autobiographical film about the group that premiered at Sundance and took home a BAFTA.

Kneecap has drawn controversy in recent months. The group faced criticism after their appearance at the Coachella festival in California, where graphics reading “F*** Israel” appeared during their set.

The incident prompted renewed scrutiny on social media, with resurfaced videos allegedly showing a band member shouting “Up Hamas” and “Kill your local MP”.

The latter video led the band to apologise to the families of murdered UK MPs Sir David Amess and Jo Cox. However, Kneecap claimed they believed there had been a “concerted campaign” against them, including “industrial scraping” of the internet to find damning clips.

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer condemned the band following the incident, with a spokesman describing the video as “completely unacceptable” and denouncing the comments “in the strongest possible terms.”

In the wake of these controversies, several Kneecap gigs have been cancelled, and some British politicians have urged organisers of next month’s Glastonbury Festival to drop the group from the line-up.

Irish hip-hop band Kneecap were gifted with the severed head of a King George V statue at their Melbourne gig in March. Picture: Kneecap via Instagram

In March, the trio performed at the 170 Russell music venue in Melbourne with what appeared to be the severed bronze head of a statue of King George V, which had been decapitated in the city the previous year.

Posting on social media, the band wrote: “Some madman dropped by with a huge King George’s head so he could hear a few tunes … Remember every colony can fall.”