The British police charge him under The Terrorism Act. The media goes into a furore. While it wasn’t exactly The Sex Pistols singing “God Save the Queen” on the Thames during the British monarch’s silver jubilee, it still turned out to be a masterstroke in publicity, propelling a group of young Gaeilgeoirí rappers from relative obscurity to international attention.
Of course I’m talking about Kneecap. Now they are everywhere, giving rise to a common theme in the comments from their detractors –“If they are so anti-British why are they taking British money? Why are they playing British festivals, concerts, courthouses etc”? OK, I made the last bit up, but that’s the gist of it. The problem here is the word “Brits.”
When I was a child a “Brit” was a bastard in uniform with boot polish on his face, who carried a rifle and would raid your home at 6am. As I got a bit older the meaning expanded to include the British government, its agents, and their establishment, as well as the soldiers on the ground. And they were rarely just “the Brits.” They were, almost always “the fucking Brits.” It was an insult. They knew it and we knew it. The word wasn’t so much spoken as spat in disgust.
Then, gradually, a subtle change began. I suspect it was part of the Normalisation part of the three-pronged British strategy for the north which included Criminalisation and Ulsterisation. They began to adopt the word. Aided by their propaganda wing in the BBC and the editors of red top rags they took away its power as an insult by using it to describe themselves, much the same way as African Americans did with the N word. The first time I heard some upper middle class talking head on TV talking about “we Brits” I nearly fell of my chair. And therein lies the confusion. Those of us from the north of Ireland know exactly who we are referring to when we talk about “the Brits” and it’s not the ordinary British people.
So, for the Kneecap detractors, when you hear them sing “Get Your Brits Out” rest assured they’re not referring to the British public, they’re talking about “the fucking Brits.”
⏩Dino McGarrigle is a Strabane raconteur.
Kneecap has been the topic of a few pieces on the blog. Always good to get writers to highlight the matter.
ReplyDeleteTPQ might not be as regular over the next few days. I'm dealing with an infection which has put me out of sorts.
Get well soon, Anthony
DeleteMake sure you take vitamin D, b3 iron and zinc Anthony. Get well soon.
DeleteThanks Steve & Barry
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