Suzanne Harrington: Kneecap are Irishness come full circle

"They have also done what Peig Sayers and successive generations of Irish teachers never managed: they make you want to learn Irish..."

Amach anocht: Kneecap pictured at the IFTA 2024 Awards at the Dublin Royal Convention Centre. Pic: Brian McEvoy

There’s a venue in London’s Kentish Town just north of Camden – an area once poor and Irish, now gentrified and unaffordable – that used to be an Irish dance hall. 

In the eighties it became a gig venue. Everyone from David Bowie to Nina Simone, Siouxsie to Oasis, Rory Gallagher to Justin Timberlake performed there over the years.