By Jamie Bryson
It might be said to be somewhat of an obvious and self-evident starting point to declare that I am no fan of Kneecap. I think they actively sanitise (putting it at its lowest) republican and wider international terrorism. They do, none the less, deliver one rather valuable contribution in so far as they stand as an illuminating example of the inherent imbalance and hypocrisy at the heart of the so-called ‘peace process’ in Northern Ireland.
The media and societal elite have normalised Kneecap, and thus the values they represent. This sends the message that turning up to court in a balaclava is grand, so long as its an Irish republican themed one. It goes without saying the same media and societal elite would be spitting out their lattes in fury if someone went to court in the Union flag balaclava.
In the same vein, the casual normalisation verging on active promotion of republican terrorism (and the international terrorism of their ‘friends’ such as Hamas) is lapped up by the great and the good, meanwhile if someone described themselves as DJ UVF or UDA the Twitterati sphere and media columns would be full of indignant condemnation and fury.
I could expand much more, and would never run out of words when it comes to the hypocrisy Kneecap helpfully shines a light on. There is a book to be written on the inherent double standards and two tier political, civic and professional system which has been generated by the Belfast Agreement ‘process’. But that is a matter for another day.
Following having a rather robust (but as ever enjoyable) legal debate with one of Kneecap’s lawyers, I have reflected on the Kneecap case, and the charge brought against one of their band (or more appropriately perhaps, ‘gang’) members under section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000. In terms, section 13 creates a strict liability offence of giving rise to suspicion that one is a supporter of a proscribed organisation.
Despite my fervent antithesis toward Kneecap, I do have a residual concern that loyalism in particular needs to be careful about how section 13 could be deployed, and a precedent in respect of the Kneecap case (albeit in England where section 13 tends to be deployed rather more liberally) would inevitably lead to the siren call for loyalist singers, bands, memorials, murals and flags to also be viewed through the prism of section 13 of the Terrorism Act.
How long before loyalist singers are charged under the Terrorism Act, or bands that carry standards bearing the emblems of conflict related loyalist groups are before the courts?
And if anything ought to be apparent in Northern Ireland, it is that the political class, PSNI and PPS would deploy such a provision primarily against loyalists, with carve-outs or special circumstances almost inevitably being created to facilitate the continued sanitisation and normalisation of the Provisional IRA.
As counter-intuitive as it feels to say it when dealing with the subject-matter of Kneecap, there is a real danger here that for loyalists, championing the deployment of this provision against our political opponents will create a precedent which will inevitably be disproportionately and arbitrarily then used against bands, singers, memorials, flags and murals. Loyalism will bear the brunt of that given the two-tier policing and justice system will always treat the loyalist community differently than those aligned to Sinn Fein and the Provisional IRA.
In light of all the above, I believe that, in fact, loyalists should be arguing that Kneecap’s prosecution is a breach of Article 10 of the ECHR, as- applying a proportionality test in respect of the ‘circumstances’ by which the display came about- it is not a proportionate interference with the right to freedom of expression. If that is right, then the same defence would assist loyalist singers, bands etc.
I finish this where I started: I am no fan of Kneecap. I have no time for them, nor what they stand for or promote, but, upon reflection, there are flashing danger signs for loyalism writ large by this prosecution.
We ought to oppose Kneecap and all they stand for. The ideology of republicanism, Hamas and the other international terrorist groups championed by the group are repugnant. I stand, and unionism/ loyalism collectively stands, with Israel and their right to defend themselves.
But, at the same time, there seems to me to be no sense in cheering on the building of gallows upon which, inevitably, loyalism will be hung.