In years gone by,I'd have said this situation with the Mothers Against Genocide, has the potential to become a major scandal that will see heads roll. But we don't do accountability anymore,so no matter what the outcome, it will just go away eventually. But even if we ignore the proven culture in the gardai of lying and smearing to cover their own arses,they've told the minister for justice that they have video footage proving no strip searches took place. How the fuck can you have video footage of something that didn't happen? And in the same week they publish The Grace Report. Conveniently during a Dail recess,and sure enough,nobody from the government was available for media last night to discuss it. It really is a corrupt little kip.
Kneecaps manager was really good on prime time last night. Kept bringing it back to the fact a few misinterpreted words are deemed worse by the media than killing 15 paramedics.
My young lad is involved with rap in ireland, wouldn't know the kneecap lads personally but would be friends of friends, not sure if he's been talking to the friends but he seems to think they're not too bothered about it and it'll probably end up benefiting them cos everyone is talking about them. He was saying online hits for kneecap have gone through the roof in the last few days, probably getting way more eyes and ears on them than a few cancelled festival slots would've done.
They will definately be getting more coverage but with politicians in multiple countries looking to bring them down, they need to be very careful over the next while.
Yeah there's a lot of sponsors involved in these gigs these days and they could pull the plug if a particular artist is involved, it works both ways of course. Neil Young threated to walk away from Glastonbury over one of the corporate sponsors, can't remember exactly who it was but I think it eventually got sorted. I think on balance this is probably not the worst thing in the world for kneecap, I don't know any of their music (or not consciously I'm sure it's on the radio that I've heard it) but I've heard plenty about them because of their controversy so maybe it's one of their main tactics to generate publicity and if that is the case maybe it is a case of no publicity is bad publicity.
My young lad suggested that other Irish acts might pull out of festivals in support of them, not sure if that's from the horse's mouth.
Had a debate(or whatever you want to call it)with John Brewin from The Guardian Football Podcast, on Kneecap. Has never spoken a word on Gaza,but decided to have a pop at Kneecap yesterday. When this was pointed out to him by somebody else,it was "well what does a freelance football writer bring of value to the debate?". I wondered why that didn’t go for his criticism of Kneecap too? And suggested it was strange that something a rap group might have said,warranted him joining in on the pile on,but tens of thousands of dead kids didn’t illicit any response at all. He asked me if I really thought he approved,and I said of course not. I also said I don’t think any sports reporter should be forced into political activism,especially when it could put their livelihood at risk. But he'd made a choice to take a potshot,and join in on a safe pile on that was being led by the people perpetrating/funding/supporting a genocide. He basically admitted he didn’t have the freedom to criticise what Israel are doing,and I suggested that the correct and moralthing to do in that situation,was probably to bite his tongue on the Kneecap situation,because he'd just made a complete hypocrite of himself. And thats where so many people have put themselves. Unless you're a sociopath,or an evil scumbag, there's no way anything a rap group could ever say, would be more deserving of your condemnation than kids being blown to pieces, starving,having amputations and surgeries carried out without anasthetic etc. I understand that some people are protecting their livelihoods and thats ok,but shut the fuck up about all of it. Don't jump in on Israel's behalf because it's safe. And if you're an actual news journalist,then do your fucking job, or give up that job,because if Kneecap is a big story for you,then you're not a fucking journalist.
My thoughts on kneecap. There message is plain and simples. We all know that by now. And fair play too them. However then to say kill you're tory mp etc even tho they are c@ubts,don't wish death on anyone. The video of shouting for Hamas as hazbiula, plus the post of reading voices of hazbiula on Instagram. They should keep it in the middle, support the innocent people from been wiped out by Israel and not support the their government . Anyways regardless these fellas got get sum hits on the podcasts and whenever they come back on the stage will be sell outs everywhere
Wouldn't disagree with any of that except telling them where they should keep it. There's a large element of satire to what they do, as there is with rap in general that's about delivering a social message. Sometimes it goes to somewhere a lot of us wouldn’t condone, and they'll have to accept that criticism comes with that,but this is not what this is. If it was it would be a 1 or 2 day story at most, but yesterday,21 days after their set became an international news story, BBC did a piece with a guy who was kneecapped for joyriding decades ago, with the headline "Kneecap doesn't speak for me" says kneecapping victim. That type of absurd shit from the media,along with the campaign to have them sent to prison for terrorist offences,is about one thing and one thing only......to censor criticism of Israel through fear.
that is one of the maddest things I have heard in a while. Donnie O’Sullivan is was on Second Captain’s this week. Mad mad stuff altogether
Niall McConnell and his crew are in letterkenny today. Will be interesting see what kinda crowd turns up. Was in town this morning loads ands loads of garda, along with arm units. Sum roads closed off. Just pity wasn't pissing rain
There is a major public meeting in Carrickmacross Monaghan this week. a couple of worrying things there in last few weeks with people who have come into the town. A young fella on TikTok waving what looked like a gun about (turned out to be a fake gun) and then also uploading videos of what looked like fights at school. Then some fella with no English was stopping cars in Main Street with a knife during the week and was caught on video. A couple of other things caught on video also. It’s been brewing for years as local ‘business people’ have been taking over a lot of buildings in the town and crammed them full of people seeking asylum. Matt Carthy has called a public meeting for this week and there was a 800 strong peaceful March through the town this week. Having seen some of the videos you can see why people are frightened to let their kids out and something will need to be done. These are not Ireland is Full type people so it must be pretty bad at this stage
Don’t think there has ever been a protest there for anything until Friday. Drove through it recently and it’s unrecognisable from the town we used to pass through and that’s not even got to do with the people in it. Loads of buildings on Main Street were bought up and ‘converted’ into accommodation. Not just one hotel but entire rows of buildings. I am surprised it’s taken this long to be honest. A lot of bad feeling is due to the fact that local business people have turned the Main Street in the town into one big IPAS centre. They are making an absolute fortune. I think a lot of the anger is directed at the them rather than people living in them and that seems to who Matt Carthy will be focusing on in the meeting this week.
It's a pity a lot of people can't get themselves as motivated for other dire problems we're dealing with,unless they can link it to immigration. But look,they're perfectly entitled to protest against what's happening in their town.
An American Pope. Suprised me,yet I've no idea why. Why should an American Pope be more suprising than any other nationality? But here we are. The conservative christians seem dissapointed with this choice, and from what I can make out it's because he's not the exact opposite of Jesus. They keep calling him a woke marxist. Ah yes,Karl Marx......famous for his advocacy of religion. A marxist pope would be like a vegan butcher.