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Darren Millar calls for Kneecap to be pulled from Green Man lineup

22 May 2025 6 minute read
Left to right – Members of Kneecap, Mo Chara, JJ O’Dochartaigh and Moglai Bap attending the Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA) Awards Ceremony. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire and The Green Man 2025 logo

Stephen Price

Leader of the Welsh Conservatives, Darren Millar MS, has demanded answers from the Chair and Managing Director of the Green Man Festival Fiona Stewart over whether the festival will still provide a platform to Belfast rap trio Kneecap following a member of the group being charged with terror-related offences.

Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged under the name Liam O’Hanna over the alleged displaying of a flag in support of Hezbollah at a gig at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, north London, on November 21 last year.

Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism, Sport, and North Wales, Gareth Davies MS, wrote to the organisers of the festival on 28 April 2025, requesting the festival withdraw their invitation to Kneecap to perform following a video recording showing a member of the group stating “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”

In his letter, which has not received a response from the festival organisers, Mr Davies said “associating the festival with such rhetoric risks damaging its reputation, heightening community tensions, and sends the message that individuals who advocate violence are welcome in Wales.”

Leader of the Senedd Conservatives, Darren Millar MS

Commenting, Leader of the Welsh Conservatives, Darren Millar MS said: “It’s completely unacceptable that the Green Man Festival has yet to respond to my colleague’s request for Kneecap to be removed from the lineup, their silence speaks volumes.

“This is a group that has openly called for the killing of MPs, and now one of its members faces serious terror-related charges linked to a proscribed organisation.

“The festival previously acted swiftly to drop Meic Stevens over anti-Muslim remarks, yet they seem prepared to turn a blind eye in this far more serious case.

“Green Man must be consistent in its values and withdraw Kneecap from the programme immediately. Anything less undermines the festival’s credibility and risks endorsing extremism.”

“Political policing”

Kneecap have said the charging of one of their members with a terror offence in the UK is “political policing” and a “carnival of distraction”.

In a statement on X, the group said: “14,000 babies are about to die of starvation in Gaza, with food sent by the world sitting on the other side of a wall, and once again the British establishment is focused on us.

“We deny this ‘offence’ and will vehemently defend ourselves, this is political policing, this is a carnival of distraction.

“We are not the story, genocide is, as they profit from genocide, they use an ‘anti-terror law’ against us for displaying a flag thrown on stage. A charge not serious enough to even warrant their crown court, instead a court that doesn’t have a jury. What’s the objective?

“To restrict our ability to travel. To prevent us speaking to young people across the world. To silence voices of compassion. To prosecute artists who dare speak out.”

L-R: Mo Chara, Moglai Bap, DJ Provai. Image: Kneecap Press

The band continued: “Instead of defending innocent people, or the principles of international law they claim to uphold, the powerful in Britain have abetted slaughter and famine in Gaza, just as they did in Ireland for centuries. Then, like now, they claim justification.

“The IDF units they arm and fly spy plane missions for are the real terrorists, the whole world can see it.

“WE STAND PROUDLY WITH THE PEOPLE. YOU STAND COMPLICIT WITH THE WAR CRIMINALS. WE ARE ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY. YOU ARE NOT. WE WILL FIGHT YOU IN YOUR COURT. WE WILL WIN. FREE PALESTINE.”

Charges

O hAnnaidh, 27, of Belfast, was charged by postal requisition and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on June 18, the Metropolitan Police said.

Officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command were made aware on April 22 of an online video from the event, police said.

An investigation led to the Crown Prosecution Service authorising the charge.

Green Man 2025

Earlier this month, the Metropolitan Police said Kneecap were being investigated by counter-terrorism police after videos emerged allegedly showing the band calling for the deaths of MPs and shouting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah”.

The rap artists have had gigs cancelled after the footage emerged, but are still listed to headline Friday’s Wide Awake day festival in Brixton’s Brockwell Park, as well as the Green Man near Crickhowell.

The group apologised last month to the families of murdered MPs but said footage of the incident had been “exploited and weaponised”.

They also said they have “never supported” Hamas or Hezbollah, which are banned in the UK.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has called for Kneecap to be banned while other politicians pushed for the group to be dropped from the Glastonbury Festival line-up.

Green Man 2025 Lineup

In 2024, the band released an eponymous film starring Oscar-nominated actor Michael Fassbender which is a fictionalised retelling of how the band came together and follows the Belfast group on their mission to save their mother tongue through music.

Formed in 2017, the group, made up of O hAnnaidh, Naoise O Caireallain and JJ O Dochartaigh, are known for their provocative lyrics and merchandise as well as their championing of the Irish language, and their best-known tracks include Get Your Brits Out, Better Way To Live and 3Cag.

Largest festival in Wales

Now entering its third decade, Green Man is the largest festival in Wales, an award-winning seven-day event that attracts 25,000 daily visitors from across the world to the breathtaking Bannau Brycheiniog.

The Green Man experience spans music, comedy, literature, film, performance and installation art, wellness, science, as well as specific areas for both children and teens, its own Welsh Beer Festival showcasing the best independent Brewers in Wales. It was the first UK festival to sell out for the 2025 season, which it did in minutes without any line-up announced.

Green Man is one of the three remaining large independent festivals in the UK. It generates £28 million into the Welsh economy, and is the only large UK festival where a woman has controlling ownership.

The organisers of the Green Man Festival have been invited to comment.


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Peidiwch bradychu'ch gwlad
Peidiwch bradychu'ch gwlad
16 days ago

I call for Darren Millar to be tried for treason against the Welsh nation

Stephen Thomas
Stephen Thomas
16 days ago

Why DAZ? Because they oppose your little Zionist friends for slaughtering innocents. No thanks

Fi yn unig
Fi yn unig
16 days ago

I take it then that Darren Millar would NOT call for the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu, a wanted war criminal with an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court, if he turned up in Cardiff or perhaps he would care to answer to that in case I have reached an incorrect presumption. What is his view on that whilst he is elevating the popularity of Kneecap who have demonstrated the kind of moral compass he appears not to possess? Holding or waving a flag, circumstances regardless, against the mass slaughter, repeated displacement, destruction of infrastructure, starvation and… Read more »

HarrisR
HarrisR
16 days ago

Didn’t members of Millar’s malign little Tory outfit once proudly parade around it’s various conferences wearing “hang Nelson Mandela” T shirts? And not so long ago members of our glorious armed forces were using pictures of Jeremy Corbyn as target practice. As you do

And if Hamas is terrorist, a name only to be whispered by “decent” people after dark, then wha xyz is the Israeli IDF? Other than Murder Incorporated.

“Can words mean so many things?”, asked Alice. “Who is to be Master, that is all!”, replied Humpty Dumpty.

Erisian
Erisian
16 days ago

I note the irony that all the usual jerks are jerking their knees.

Llyn
Llyn
16 days ago

Strange that the Tory free speech advocates call for Kneecap to be banned from Green Man for calling for MPs to be killed, yet the same Tories were very happy to take £25 million from Frank Hester who called for Diane Abbott MP to be murdered

Fi yn unig
Fi yn unig
16 days ago
Reply to  Llyn

Nicely done. I hadn’t thought of that. Tory after Tory after Tory came on saying he had apologised but he didn’t except for being ‘rude’ which clearly didn’t cut it.

Garycymru
Garycymru
16 days ago

Doesn’t that completely contradict their usual tantrums about freedom of speech??
Stop talking Mr Millar, your party or its vile views have no place in Welsh communities.

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
16 days ago

I thought I saw them coming out of an education building in Dol the other day…

Who is dressing like who, the Clark look or Kneecap, so all black and hidden behind a flag and both as cuddly as a thrown cobble…Fashion…D. Bowie RIP

Florence Wiffen
Florence Wiffen
15 days ago

Why are Kneecap playing at Green Man? It may be geographically a Welsh Festival but it is staged on land owned by aristocracy, i.e. Tiggy Legge-Bourke, the former nanny and close confidante to Prince William and Prince Harry, who also served as a a personal assistant to King Charles. Green Man is also owned and profited by an English company and practically all the senior team are English. 

Brychan
Brychan
15 days ago

It start is when governments start banning songs and courts sending bands to prison. Anyone remember Pussy Riot?

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