What, you need a licence to wave a flag these days?

Following the raking over the coals the pro-republican west Belfast rap group Kneecap has been receiving over onstage statements from several years ago, member of the trio Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh has now been charged by the Metropolitan Police for a terror offence due to waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert last year.

The actual intention behind the charge feels much more insidious and stomach-churning than the action itself. This is the state legitimising backlash put forth by politicians and the media, an attempt to make an example out of the group by thumbing through a Rolodex of drunk, edgy things the group has done just to find the right transgression to close in on. Hezbollah is not the only flag considered offensive that the group has cheerfully waved, but it seems to be the only one to pass into the territory of what the police deems prosecutable.

I may have missed it, but what act of terror was incited or intended by this, and why did the police not bring their attention to such grave danger sooner? I’m not sure attendees of the concert committed themselves to the values of Hezbollah once they witnessed a flag being waved around on stage, and there seems to be no incident or consequence afterward linked to the concert. Did the flag itself go out and commit fear and atrocity? Maybe this sentient terrorist flag is the real offence and will........

© Herald Scotland