Kneecap band: Victim of paramilitary-style attack by IRA says band is 'abusing people's disabilities and mental health'

Liam Barker, 53, was speaking out after the west Belfast rap band Kneecap came under international scrutiny, since footage emerged of them apparently shouting support for Hamas and Hezbollah at a concert and urging fans to "kill their local MP".

The band has since said the words were taken out of context and they don't condone violence.

Concerns have also been raised about the band’s name by Belfast academic Prof Liam Kennedy, who has campaigned against paramilitary style attacks for 20 years.

Mr Barker grew up in Turf Lodge in west Belfast where he was a victim of sexual and physical abuse.

He began stealing cars and criminality and was pursued by both the police and the IRA.

"It was a very lonely place... I couldn't tell anyone why or what happened to me or why I ended up running away", he told The Nolan Show on Radio Ulster.

When he was 15 he was beaten unconscious by masked men who said they were punishing him for stealing cars.

Two years later he was shot in the knee and had paving slabs dropped on his legs.

Mr Barker said he was "shunned" by his community and had to learn to walk again - twice.

"I couldn't get a job, I had no sense of hope and fear, always twitching and looking behind me," he said.

Speaking of the band's use of the term, he said: "They are not representing me or anybody like me. Nowhere near it. They are abusing people's disabilities and mental health."

"They need to know what a person that has been kneecapped had been through.

"They have been making a living out of other people's misery. Kneecapping is a life of mental and physical trauma."

But Prof Kennedy said that by taking the name Kneecap, the band is "trivializing" the experiences of people like Mr Barker, "whether they intend to or not".

He said kneecappings are "horrific attacks" and that brutality he has studied is “beyond belief".

The academic asked: "They come from West Belfast. Surely they know that literally hundreds of children and teenagers were brutalized, mutilated by the IRA, by the UVF, by the UDA and other loyalist paramilitary groups?

He recalls one victim who spoke on television anonymously but the paramilitaries recognised his shoes and beat him even more severely a week later.

By speaking out now, he said, Mr Barker is "incredibly brave".

For the band not to see the wider picture strikes him as “bordering on incredible” he said.

He was also "really turned off” by Kneecap’s “half apology" this week for their “kill your local MP" comments.

Prof Kennedy also took issue with one member being named "DJ Próvai" and wearing a tricolor balaclava.

"If there was a loyalist rap group, which was called 'DJ UVF and the Shankill Butchers' would we regard that as ironic and acceptable in 2025?" he asked.

"I'm absolutely sure we wouldn't."

Kneecap's management said there were a number of reasons the band uses the name, including that it was ironic, as the band are talking about things that might have got them 'kneecapped' during the Troubles.