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Belfast rap trio Kneecap have won a legal battle against the UK government after the business department then led by Kemi Badenoch denied them arts funding because they “oppose the UK”.
The High Court in Belfast heard on Friday that the UK government would not contest the case and acknowledged the department’s decision to block the grant earlier this year was “unlawful”. Badenoch is now leader of the opposition Conservative Party.
“They broke their own laws by trying to silence Ball joint“, the Irish rap group said in a statement, blasting what it called a “fascist” attempt to “block art that does not align with their views.”
The group’s lawyer, Ronan Lavery, read a joint statement to the court calling the denial of funding “unlawful and procedurally unfair.”
The kneecap received £14,250, the equivalent of grant the funding they requested under the Music Export Growth Program.
The Department of Business and Commerce confirmed a settlement had been reached.
“This Government’s priority is to continue to deliver the changes we promised and protect taxpayers from further spending. We will therefore not continue to contest the Kneecap challenge as we do not believe it is in the best interests public,” said a DBT spokesperson.
A spokesperson for Badenoch said: “This case is not about whether a group promotes violence or hates the UK, as Kneecap clearly does; it is about whether government ministers have the ability to stop taxpayers’ money subsidizing people who neither need nor deserve it.
“Labour would rather waste your money than stand up to a group of Irish republicans who are going to court because the British government won’t give them our money.”
Band member JJ Ó Dochartaigh, better known as DJ Próvaí, arrived at court in a converted RUC Land Rover flying Irish and Palestinian flags. The Royal Ulster Constabulary was the police force at the time of the Troubles conflict in Northern Ireland.
Kneecap – the stars of an award-winning film which has been selected to represent Ireland at the Oscars – job on social media platform »
Wearing his iconic balaclava in the Irish colors of green, white and orange, DJ Próvaí told reporters that the trial was never about money.
“The motivation was equality. It was an attack on artistic culture, an attack on the Good Friday Agreement itself and an attack on Kneecap and the way we express ourselves,” he said, referring to the peace agreement. of 1998 in the region.
He added that Kneecap would donate the £14,250 awarded to two youth organizations who are “working with both communities to create a better future for our young people”. One is a group working on the unionist Shankill route; the other offers services to young people in the Irish language.
Kneecap said the British government had objected to a tour poster of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson on a rocket, the group’s condemnation of the Gaza conflict and “particularly our opposition to ‘U.K. » himself and our belief in a united Ireland. , which is our right.”
Their lawyer, Darragh Mackin, called it “a victory for the arts, for culture, for freedom of expression.”
