KNEECAP – Irish Goodbye ft. Kae Tempest
KNEECAP have shared “Irish Goodbye”, the closing track from their forthcoming album FENIAN, due May 1 via Heavenly Recordings. It features Kae Tempest, with music written by producer Dan Carey, and it’s among the most stripped-back and personal things the Belfast trio have released.
Móglaí Bap (Naoise Ó Cairealláin) wrote the lyrics after watching footage of his late mother, Aoife Ní Riain, an Irish language activist and traditional musician, appearing in a documentary about his father from the 1990s. It was the first time he had seen her in a video, and seeing her happy had, in his words, “a profound effect” on him. She died in 2020. He had written a song for her before, “MAM”, during a period when she was ill with depression, but told her he’d play it the following week when it was finished. He never got the chance.
“‘Irish Goodbye’ is about the mundane things me and my Ma did together”, he wrote on Instagram ahead of the release. “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”. He also wrote that making the song helped him access happier memories rather than staying caught in the darker ones, and that therapy, when he was eventually ready for it, made a real difference.
Kae Tempest’s contribution is, by Bap’s account, deeply vulnerable — a performance that fits the song’s emotional register without overpowering it. Dan Carey, who produced FENIAN throughout, wrote the music. The Irish Times gave the album five stars and singled out “Irish Goodbye” specifically. It closes the record. I wasn’t expecting to feel the weight of it this directly, but here we are.
FENIAN follows the previously shared singles Liars Tale (W05), Smugglers & Scholars (W09), and FENIAN (W14). Kneecap play Crystal Palace Park in London on June 27, with support from The Mary Wallopers, Fat Dog, Biig Piig, Gurriers, and Madra Salach. Festival dates include AVA Festival, All Together Now, Boomtown Fair, and Reading and Leeds.
Tour Dates Europe:
- April 28 – Dundee, UK – Live House
- April 29 – Edinburgh, UK – Liquid Rooms
- April 30 – London, UK – Rough Trade East
- May 2 – Newcastle upon Tyne, UK – Boilershop
- May 3 – Glasgow, UK – Garage
- June 27 – London, UK – Crystal Palace Park (headline, with The Mary Wallopers, Fat Dog, Biig Piig, Gurriers, Madra Salach)
- Summer 2026 – AVA Festival, All Together Now, Boomtown Fair, Reading and Leeds (dates TBC)
