A GOOD RULE of thumb for writing up the stranger events of any given week is that if both Gript and Massive Attack are writing essays about the same thing, then that thing is probably worth looking into.

Belfast rap group Kneecap have remained at the forefront of the public consciousness, at least by that oddly specific criteria. When last we left them, footage of their gig from last November was under review by the Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism unit over alleged statements made with reference to Hamas and Hezbollah.

As of this weekend, that review has been upgraded to an actual investigation. Further footage under investigation is alleged to include statements made to the effect of: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”

The fallout has been significant. The husband of slain MP Jo Cox has weighed in to condemn the group. Their eponymous movie was removed from in-flight entertainment by United Airlines. Several of the group’s gigs have been cancelled by organisers, including in the United Kingdom and Germany. Ireland’s reputation as a producer of iconoclastic pop stars remains safely intact.

English electronic music duo Massive Attack (one of whom is probably Banksy, by the way, in case you weren’t aware) were one of the first to issue a statement in defence of Kneecap, with the emboldened headline: “Kneecap are not the story. Gaza is the story. Genocide is the story.” This is absolutely true, but how our society reacts to that genocide is a major part of the story, and right now Kneecap are at the centre of that reaction.

The powers-that-be, particularly in the United Kingdom, are talking about Kneecap because it’s much more comfortable than talking about, say, why they have so decidedly failed to put pressure on Israel to end its genocide in Palestine. As an MP, it is much easier to moralise about the actions of a counter-culture music group than it is to earnestly engage with how their government is supporting another that is actively committing genocide, war crimes and flagrant abuses of human rights.

One might ask, for example, what is one throwaway comment made onstage when weighed against the impact of the £500 million worth of military exports the UK has sent to Israel since 2015?

The answer is that the violence done by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people is seen, for whatever reason, as legitimate. States continue to trade with Israel, EU leaders eschew the ruling of the International Criminal Court to welcome Benjamin Netanyahu to their shores for state visits, and high-profile figures who stand in solidarity with Palestinian freedom are relentlessly targeted for, as is the case with Kneecap, cancellation in the most literal sense.

For their part, Kneecap issued a statement this week that seemed to balance their support for Palestine with perhaps a more pragmatic account of their views. Depending on which corners of the internet you carouse, you will this week have seen many posts from self-professed allies to the Palestinian cause saying that they stand with Kneecap, but there is no shortage of those in the cause who believe that Kneecap’s statement does a disservice to Palestinian resistance. They were criticised by some online for saying that they “do not and have never supported” either Hamas or Hezbollah.

Then of course there are those who hate both of the factions mentioned above, and unambiguously want Kneecap removed from public life. Kneecap, in short, have fast become one of the most polarising music acts not only in Ireland but the entire world. 

By leaning so heavily on the aesthetics of rebellion, such as tricolour balaclavas and hijacked PSNI Land Rovers, Kneecap have taken on the responsibility for remaining true to the causes they champion. But it is a comparatively small responsibility relative to that of those who wield actual executive influence over the way in which this world does business. 

One might mistake Kneecap for public representatives, such were the words chosen by Taoiseach Micheál Martin when he called on them to “urgently clarify” their views, as if they were leaders of the opposition. Surely, the same Micheál Martin who just a few weeks ago was japing about Ireland’s housing crisis in the Oval Office with a bona fide fascist should have some empathy for statements made during a performance.

And speaking of the housing crisis, one might think that the Taoiseach would be better served by focusing less on Kneecap and more on the catastrophic rollout of the €430,000-salary ‘housing tsar’ position, also in the headlines at the moment.

This week saw former NAMA boss Brendan McDonagh inform Housing Minister James Browne that he would be withdrawing his name from consideration for the role as the new housing tsar. McDonagh had been touted as the new head of the ‘Housing Activation Office’, but there have since been reports that Fine Gael were seeking to block McDonagh from taking the job. Not so much with the ‘housing activation’, then. What else is new.

As the controversy around the position began to spiral, McDonagh pulled his name from consideration. It makes one wonder how toxic a government institution needs to be for the guy who was in charge of literal NAMA to take a look and say: “Do you know what? This is a bit much even for me.”

This false start for the Housing Activation Office is a damning indictment of this government’s legacy of utter failure when it comes to appropriately addressing Ireland’s housing crisis. If anyone’s keeping count, that’s damning indictment #1,047.

It is interesting to imagine a hypothetical person upon whom it is only now just dawning that this government possesses neither the will nor the wherewithal to fix housing in Ireland, but if that’s you: welcome home. We’re just waiting for the right person who we can pay €430,000 to activate it.