Belfast trio Kneecap release their new album FENIAN on Heavenly Recordings this Friday May 1st, and to mark the occasion they have shared a 12-minute short film.
The song features Kae Tempest and was written by Móglaí Bap about his mother, who died by suicide.
In a lengthy and candid statement, he describes how the song came from watching old documentary footage of his family, which unlocked happier memories alongside the grief.
The band previously released a song about their mothers in 2020, addressing the same topic called ‘Mam’.
“Irish Goodbye is about the mundane things me and my Ma did together,” he writes. “I never realised it was the day to day stuff I would miss when she was gone.”
Produced by Dan Carey, the track is one of the more personal moments on FENIAN, which also features previous singles ‘Smugglers and Scholars’, ‘FENIAN’ and ‘Liars Tale’. The short film was directed by Thomas James.
Watch below.
Cast: Colm O’Brien, Barry Dobson, Deirdre O’Kane, Liam Cunningham, Patricia Twomey, Emmanuel Okoye, Callan Cummins, Cúán Hosty-Blaney, Peter Newington, Joni Morris
Móglaí Bap’s words to accompany the film in full:
“I never meant to write a song about this. 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. I had written a song about her before, called MAM, which came out in 2020. She was sick at the time with depression. The idea I had in my head with MAM was, if I wrote it, she’d hear it, and maybe she’d feel her worth, because when you suffer from depression, you can’t see your own value.
At that time, we went for a walk, and I told her I had written a song for her, but that it wasn’t completely finished yet, so I’d wait until the next week to play it for her. But by then it was too late.
Suicide is hard. And when someone is sick with depression and dies by suicide, it’s hard to remember the good moments. You get caught up in the dark times.
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.
Watching that footage of her and writing this song, unlocked a part of my brain that gave me the opportunity to override the constant sad memories. It allowed me visualise happier times, instead of being so angry at the world.
Dan Carey wrote the music, and then Kae Tempest got involved, which was such an honour. Kae delivered something so vulnerable and emotional to the song. That was a really special moment for us.
Suicide is such a complex thing. It’s hard to confront the reality of what has happened. When you’re trying to deal with it, you get caught in this in-between world; you understand and then you don’t understand, you’re sad and then you’re angry, there’s shame and there’s guilt. There’s grief, of course, but it’s a specific kind of grief. You feel like you’re carrying this weird other burden.
It’s a very hard conversation to have. Who the fuck wants to talk about it, really? Death is depressing enough. But we need to talk about it, because we have to alleviate that extra burden of shame and guilt on top of the burden of grief. You can’t change what happened. You’re not necessarily able to save people from themselves.
People ask me how I coped. I didn’t cope. It takes years. So you cope in whatever way you can in the moment. But there’s help out there too. When I was eventually able for it, therapy was the thing that helped me. A lot of our parents’ generation don’t believe in therapy. But we’re different. We can ask for help, we should ask for help, and there should be services there for us to get help.
As Irish people, we have a good relationship with death and the rituals around it. We can remember people how they were, not how they ended up. I hope that this kind of death, even though it’s awful, can be included under that approach, as hard as it is to deal with.
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.”
If you’ve been affected by the themes in this piece, Samaritans Ireland can be reached at 116 123, and Pieta House at 1800 247 247.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
