Irish Hip-Hop Film and The Best End-of-Summer Novels [Video]

“Every word of Irish spoken is a bullet fired for Irish freedom.” So says Michael Fassbender’s character, Arló Ó Cairealláin, in the self-titled, “mostly true” biopic of Irish hip-hop group Kneecap. The film follows the three childhood friends, who were inspired to start rapping after meeting the local music teacher who acted as their Irish-language translator during a police interrogation.

Raucous hijinks follow, but so too do affecting explorations of the lives of the disenfranchised ceasefire generation. One band member is having a relationship with a Protestant girl – but keeping it well under wraps. Another has a tricky relationship with his father (Fassbender), a former IRA member, who faked his own death to avoid prison. And all three experience run-ins with the police, who treat them with increasing sadism.

The band played in my own city, Leeds, last year. An event my partner described (in breathless admiration) as chaotic, …