FORMER TAOISEACH LEO Varadkar has said that politicians “shouldn’t get involved in deciding which artists should be allowed to perform where” after criticising UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer earlier this week for suggesting Kneecap should not perform at Glastonbury. 

Varadkar said that he believes a terrorist is “a non-state actor who has bombs and guns and uses them against civilians”, adding that music has a tradition of often being “challenging” or “anti-establishment”.

Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh (known as Mo Chara), one of the members of Kneecap, appeared in court in Britain last week charged with displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah, a proscribed terrorist organisation in Britain, during a gig in London.

Starmer told The Sun this week that he does not think the group should perform at the Glastonbury Festival.

“No, I don’t, and I think we need to come down really clearly on this,” he said.

“This is about the threats that shouldn’t be made. I won’t say too much because there’s a court case on but I don’t think that’s appropriate.”

Varadkar has been critical of Starmer’s remarks.

In an interview with The Journal at a conference in Budapest, Varadkar said: “One of the members of Kneecap, Mo Chara, has been charged with a terror offence. That now is a matter for the courts in Britain, and I always believe in due process and the rule of law, and somebody is innocent until proven guilty.

“I would have a concern about terrorism legislation that maybe goes a bit too far.

“In my mind, a terrorist is a non-state actor who has bombs and guns and uses them against civilians in shopping centers and chip shops and things like that. That’s what a terrorist is,” he said.

“That’s a decision that the British courts will have to make, and will make in due course.

The former Taoiseach said he believes that “when it comes to politicians – and I’m not a politician anymore, but obviously I spent a lot of my life in politics – it’s not great for politicians to get into deciding which artists should be allowed to perform where or not.

“To me, that’s illiberalism. Part of the whole point of art and music and literature is to be inappropriate, is to be challenging, is often to be anti-establishment,” he said.

“We’ve had a situation now for quite some time in Ireland and in Europe and Britain, where politicians didn’t get into the space of saying who should be allowed to perform, who shouldn’t, what books you should be allowed to read, and I hope we don’t slip back into doing that under the guise of national security and anti-terrorism when it isn’t really about that.”

Varadkar said that he hasn’t seen Kneecap perform, nor has he ever been to the Glastonbury festival. “I’d love to go. Next year’s a fallow year, so maybe 2027.”

Eyes on the Áras? ‘No way’

It’s that time that comes around every seven years – when anyone in Ireland whose ever been a big player in politics inevitably sees their name come up in speculation about who might put themselves forward for the election for president.

Varadkar shot down rumours that he would go anywhere near the race for the Áras.

“No, I’m not,” he stated.

“I saw one or two columns suggesting that, but I’m absolutely loving having my life back and having intellectual and personal freedom, so there’s no way I will consider anything like that.

“I don’t ever see myself running for any election ever again, quite frankly, certainly not for public office.

“I may even be out of the country in October because I’m due to back in Harvard, so I’ll have to be applying for postal vote.”

US visas

Varadkar took up a guest lecturing and student mentorship role at Harvard in the US state of Massachusetts earlier this year.

The US State Department announced last week that students will now be required to provide the details of all their social media accounts from the last five years, and make them publicly accessible for vetting, to be approved for a visa to study in the US.

Varadkar said he agrees with Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s description of the move as being “excessive”.

“I do respect the fact that the United States has a right to say who can come and study in their country and who can’t, just like we do,” he said.

“But I think the thing that bothers me the most about it is that one of the foundational principles of American democracy and American liberty, one of the things they’ve helped to spread around the world, is the idea of free speech and free expression, and that seems to be really undermined the United States now.

“It’s free speech with exceptions. So, free speech except for Palestine, free speech except for trans people, for example. And that’s not free speech at all.”