The irreverent, unrepentantly political Northern Irish rap trio Kneecap welcomed a special guest onto the stage of its show in Melbourne, Australia, over St. Patrick’s Day weekend: the head of King George V, which appeared to be a missing piece of a statue that was decapitated in the city last year.
“Some madman dropped by with a huge King George’s head so he could hear a few tunes for our last Melbourne show!” the group posted on Instagram, alongside a photograph of the enormous bronze face onstage in front of one of the group members, Mo Chara.
It was the latest twist in a monthslong mystery, after a towering statue of King George V in the King’s Domain area of Melbourne was decapitated and vandalized with paint last June, part of a wave of anticolonial vandalism that targeted imperial statues across the state of Victoria. The missing head seemed to briefly reappear in January, when a video posted on Instagram showed it on a barbecue grill, lit on fire. But it has been missing, again, ever since.
“Allegedly his head was cut off last year in the city..…anyways he was put on stage for a few tunes and then whisked away,” the group wrote in its post. “Remember every colony can fall 🔥”.
Kneecap — a trio composed of the West Belfast musicians Mo Chara, Moglai Bap and DJ Provai — has raucously burst into the mainstream over the past year with a critically acclaimed, truth-adjacent biopic. The group is known for its high-volume Republican politics and gleefully inebriated shows, in which its frontman, Bap, regularly appears shirtless and slugging from a bottle of Buckfast, the cheap tonic wine that is a universal Irish touchstone for a messy night out.
Central to the group’s ethos are anti-colonialist politics and promotion of the Indigenous language. Bap, Chara and DJ Provai perform in both Irish and English, and they have spoken often about the importance of promoting and preserving the Irish language, which was banned across the island during British occupation.
The group has less courted controversy than brazenly promoted it: Around the same time that King George V’s head was separated from the statue, the group tore through the British Museum in London, placing Kneecap-branded “Stolen from Ireland” stickers on various artifacts.
Kneecap did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The police in Melbourne confirmed that they were still investigating the decapitation of the statue and that they were aware of its possible recent weekend out.
“Melbourne Crime Investigation Unit detectives continue to investigate damage to a statue in Kings Domain last year,” the police said in a statement. “Investigators are also aware that the head from what appears to be a statue appeared at a concert in Melbourne on 14 March. Detectives will investigate whether there is any link between the two incidents.”
The statue was decapitated last June during a holiday begun to celebrate the British king’s birthday. Australia established itself as an independent commonwealth in 1901 and formally severed any remaining ties to Britain in 1986. It has a long connection to Ireland and Northern Ireland and is home to one of the island’s most robust diasporas.