Kneecap have revealed the 12-minute short film ‘Irish Goodbye’, which also acts as the music video for the song of the same name, which features Kae Tempest.
The song is written by member Móglaí Bap (real name Naoise Ó Cairealláin), inspired by the loss of his mother, Aoife Ní Riain, to suicide in 2020. It is the fourth single from the forthcoming album ‘Fenian’, released this Friday (May 1). You can view the band’s Instagram preview, as well as the short in full below.
The short, which stars Irish actors Deirdre O’Kane (Small Town: Big Story) and Liam Cunningham (Game Of Thrones), follows a family as they deal with the loss of someone close, implied to be from suicide. Shots of Kneecap and Tempest rapping while sat around a table are interspersed between dramatic scenes, with the short ending with the message: “For those we have lost and those we do not wish to lose,” as well as a dedication to Aoife Ní Riain.
To accompany the release of the song and short, Móglaí Bap recently discussed how the song came to be. “I never meant to write a song about this,” he wrote on Instagram. “But someone sent my brother a documentary about my Dad in the 90s, when he was president of Conradh na Gaeilge. The film crew came to my house, and we were just kids doing our homework, messing around. We weren’t the kind of family who had films of ourselves when we were young, just photographs, so it was the first time I saw my Ma in a video. And she was happy. That had a profound effect on me, seeing her happy. I was so emotional seeing her like that.”
He continued: “’Irish Goodbye’ is about the mundane things me and my Ma did together. I never realised it was the day-to-day stuff I would miss when she was gone; going for a walk in the park, her giving out to me or keeping me in line, offering me pieces of advice. It’s all the small things that you miss.”
Discussing Tempest’s involvement, he said: “Kae delivered something so vulnerable and emotional to the song. That was a really special moment for us.” The message concluded: “I’m hoping if people listen to the song, and watch the video, maybe something will connect that gives them some sort of relief. You can’t carry this stuff around with you and blame yourself. It’s not your fault. It’s no one’s fault. It’s about the process of dealing with it. And you can deal with it. You can.”
In NME’s four-and-a-half-star review of ‘Fenian’, Andrew Trendell wrote: “Put all the rage-bait headlines aside and what you’re left with is a solid, progressive and fearless album from a group that could just as easily be dicking around instead of making music that matters. In that sense at least, their day has come.”
