(Alt é seo ónár bhfoireann Gaeltachta.  Is féidir leat an bunleagan as Gaeilge a léamh anseo.)

KNEECAP ARE RELEASING a new album today — the second from the globally acclaimed Belfast Irish-language group — and among the 14 tracks on Fenian are songs that address the band’s various conflicts with the British Government, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu.

The album closes with Irish Goodbye, a song written by Naoise Ó Cairealláin, known as Moglaí Bap, about the death of his mother, Aoife Ní Riain, who died by suicide in October 2020.

Earlier this week the song was released as a single, accompanied by a statement on the group’s social media platforms from Naoise himself, in which he spoke about his mother and her death.

In the statement, Ó Cairealláin said he was inspired to write the song when he saw a documentary showing his mother happy at a time when he and his brothers, Cairbre and Áinle, were young and living in west Belfast. His father, the late Gearóid Ó Cairealláin, was President of Conradh na Gaeilge at the time and a film crew had come to the house to record them playing and doing their homework.

“We weren’t the kind of family who had videos of ourselves when we were young — just photographs — so this was the first time I saw my mam in a video and she was happy.

“That had a profound effect on me, seeing her and seeing her happy — I was so moved to see her like that,” he said.

He explained that he had written another song previously and had told her about it, but that he never got the chance to share it with her before she died.

“She was suffering from depression at the time — the idea I had with that song, Mam, that came out in 2020, was that if I wrote it she would hear it and maybe she’d feel her worth because when you suffer from depression you don’t feel your own value.”

Aoife Ní Riain, Moglaí Bap/Naoise Ó Cairealláin's mother, worked with Raidió Fáilte, a Belfast based Irish language community radio station. Belfast Media Group Belfast Media Group

Now Ó Cairealláin has released another song dedicated to his mother, entitled Irish Goodbye, accompanied by a video that tells a story all too familiar in the area where he grew up — a young man lost to suicide, and the grief and loneliness left behind among his family and friends.

Among the actors appearing in the 13-minute film are Liam Cunningham and Deirdre O’Kane. The film tells its own story while the sound of Irish Goodbye weaves in and out in the background. Ó Cairealláin, in his Moglaí Bap persona, trades verses with guest vocalist Kae Tempest.

Moglaí Bap - aka Naoise Ó Cairealláin - wrote the song Irish Goodbye as a tribute to his mother, the late Aoife Ní Riain. Sasko Lavarov Sasko Lavarov

“Irish Goodbye is about the ordinary things I used to do with my mam,” he said. “It never occurred to me that the everyday things we did together would be what I’d miss the most — going for a walk in the park, her giving out to me or keeping me on the straight and narrow, giving me advice.

“It’s all those little things you miss.”

He said it was a great honour that Kae Tempest, who has a significant reputation in Britain and internationally, was singing verses on the song, and that Dan Carey had composed the music.

“If people listen to the song and watch the video, I hope something will connect with them that will give them some kind of relief.

“You can’t carry this stuff around with you and blame yourself — it’s not your fault, it’s nobody’s fault. It’s about the process of working through it, and you can work through it, you can.”

Aoife was also a talented musician and played the concertina. There is a reference to this in the lyrics of the song.

Tuigim Mam nach mbeidh tú ar ais go deo
Ach cluinimse do chonsairtín go fóill ag bualadh ceoil
I mo chluas ag teacht anuas ó na flaithis                                                    Sin an rud a líon mo chroíse lán áthais 

[I understand Mam that you won't ever be back

But I hear you play on your concertina still

It comes to my ear from heaven above

It fills my heart with happiness]

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This is the final track on an album packed with other songs that will delight the group’s fans and displease the authorities in Britain and others who are hostile to the Belfast trio.

There is a song called An Ra and, given that this is a common nickname for the Provisional IRA in the North, one could easily make the mistake of thinking it refers to that paramilitary group.

But the song is in fact about the other Ra — An Ríocht Aontaithe/Irish for the United Kingdom — and the trio make clear in the opening line where they stand: “Céad slán leis an Ra” (Farewell to the UK).

Kneecap have been strongly associated with the Palestinian cause and it is often stated by them when they are in the headlines that the story concerns Gaza rather than themselves. On the song Palestine, rapper Fawzi from Ramallah performs alongside them in Arabic.

On previously released songs such as Liar’s Tale, they urge people not to accept things, declaring there is “no good in their politics, for you and me,” and the lyrics of Fenian bring to mind Kneecap’s court victory when the British Government attempted to claw back a £15,000 grant (approximately €18,000) on the grounds that the band was anti-British — a claim made by Kemi Badenoch, who was serving as Minister for Business in the Conservative Government at the time.

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From 2017, when Kneecap set out on this adventure with the song C.E.A.R.T.A. — which first brought them to public attention — the group has been taking on the authorities, and if there were times when it seemed as though they might be caught, this new album shows they are still well ahead of the posse.

The Journal’s Gaeltacht initiative is supported by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.

This article was originally written in the reporter’s native Irish and has been translated to English here. AI was used as part of the translation process before final edits.