Controversial west Belfast rap group Kneecap is to donate more than £7,000 to a youth group on the loyalist Shankill Road after taking a High Court case against the British government.
The legal action was launched earlier this year after former British business secretary Kemi Badenoch, who is the current Conservative Party leader, blocked a grant going to the popular band.
The British government conceded at Belfast High Court on Friday the decision to refuse the £14,250 funding was “unlawful”.
The three-man band had sought funding for a Music Export Growth Scheme (MEGS) grant allocated to support the expansion of registered artists in the north and Britain in global markets.
The application was later shortlisted and approved by a British Phonographic Industry (BPI) panel.
However, Ms Badenoch, whose department oversaw the initiative, later stepped in to block the grant.
Known for their strong nationalist views, the band later claimed a promotional poster, which depicted Boris Johnson strapped to a rocket for their 2019 “Farewell to the Union” tour, had angered the Conservative Party.
In the past band members unveiled a mural in west Belfast with the words “England get out of Ireland” while another showed a burning RUC Land Rover with the Irish message “nil fáilte roimh an RUC”, which translates as “the RUC aren’t welcome”.
The band’s members, who turned up at Belfast High Court on Friday in their trademark police Land over, say they will split the £14,250 grant between Shankill Road based R-City and Irish language group Glór Na Móna, which is located in west Belfast.
In a statement the group said their legal action was never about the money.
“The motivation was equality,” they said.
“This was an attack on artistic culture, an attack on the Good Friday Agreement itself and an attack on Kneecap and our way of expressing ourselves.
“They don’t like that we oppose British rule, that we don’t believe that England serves anyone in Ireland and the working classes on both sides of the community deserve better; deserve funding, deserve appropriate mental health services, deserve to celebrate music and art and deserve the freedom to express our culture.”
The band say the British government broke its own laws.
“The reason for this was they didn’t like our art, in particular our beautiful 2019 tour poster of Boris Johnson on a rocket,” they said.
“They didn’t like our views, in particular our opposition to the ‘United Kingdom’ itself and our belief in a united Ireland which is our right to do.
“They didn’t like the fact that we are totally opposed to all they represent, embodied right now by their arming of genocide in Gaza.”
Sarah Jane Waite, Director of RCITY Belfast, thanked Kneecap for their generosity.
“We will be using the donation towards a number of themes within our Projects,” she said.
“At this time of the year our groups focus on social action projects that positively impact the communities across North Belfast supporting some of the most vulnerable groups.”
Conchúr Ó Muadaigh, Chairperson of Glór na Móna described the donation as “incredibly generous” adding it “will go a long way in supporting our ambitious plans for the future and ensuring a new generation of Gaels have access to youth services through the medium of Irish”.
The group’s lawyer Darragh Mackin, of Phoenix Law, said: “Kneecap continue to lead by example in practicing that they preach.”
“Not only do they sing about CEARTA (rights), but today they have shown they will even hold the British Government itself to account to protect them.”
