Galway Food Stories; Behind the Balaclava with KNEECAP

Head Chef Jess Murphy met with the trio from KNEECAP ahead of their Big Top gig during Galway International Arts Festival 2024, discover how it went right here...

The sun was splitting rocks in Gaillimhe and I found myself in the Fisheries Field looking out over the sparkling Corrib at the seals chasing salmon up river. Here at the Big Top, there’s a green room like no other with a beautiful backstage fridge that’s filled to the brim with Buckfast, Harp and Beamish. The West Belfast Rappers -DJ Próvaí, Mo Chara, & Móglaí Bap- who I’m cooking for are in a band called Kneecap, and I’m a massive fan.

So I did what I do best and cooked them up a wee pre-gig feast to break bread and get to know the boys a bit better…
-Jess Murphy

We started off with some amazing Kelly’s Oysters, paired with a Bloody Mary vinaigrette and a savage cabbage kimchi. They were perfect for such a hot day, a super brine taste of the West Coast. While this was going on, I chatted with their manager and learnt that he’s from Inis Mór and knows Niamh and Bertie, my amazing crab folk from Aran Island Sea Foods (small world). So, we had this with Hapi Bakery’s brown soda bread and the lads swooned over the kimchi-oyster combo. I then made a Brady’s Buckfast marinated steak and fired it on a Japanese grill. At the same time, we had baked St. Tola goats cheese on massive fig leaves we had foraged by the Cathedral, along with an amazing orange grove honey I had brought back from Albania.

Later, I got chatting with Mr. DJ Próvaí about his favourite festival for food and he absolutely loved Rock Werchter. I also learnt that he has a massive grá for steak flavoured McCoys, which I can see backstage alongside tonnes of the purple snacks that Móglaí Bap and Niamh had eaten in Kai the night before while raving about our Buckfast Negronis. Our conversation then did a 180 to Mo Chara’s short but well loved beekeeping career, and I met his lovely girlfriend Sinead.

I love the fact they [Kneecap] describe themselves as South Park, they just pull the piss out of their generational trauma. I’m a fan of these young gentlemen, for not only bringing awareness to what’s happening in society, but also for donating all profits from their song ‘Mam’ to the Samaritans in support of their work with Aida refugee camp in Palestine. It’s because of Irish heroes like them and Mary Manning, (a worker at Dunnes Stores on Henry street, Dublin, who in 1984 refused to handle South African grapefruit during apartheid and started an anti-apartheid strike, which inturn made the Irish government boycott South African goods), that I am so proud to call myself an Irish citizen. And, after meeting young folk like Kneecap it gives me a strong sense of hope and for change.

It was also an absolutely unbelievable gig to watch!

All photos by Ciarán MacChoncarraige