Police are today investigating how the decapitated head from a historic statue of King George V ended up on stage with anti-colonial Belfast hip-hop trio Kneecap in Australia.
The crowd at the gig in Melbourne booed the Royal Family as it was unveiled and then cheered as one band member declared: ‘He’s the first royal at a Kneecap gig, and will be the last’.
Kneecap, from West Belfast, also shared images of the head, which has been missing for nine months, on social media with the caption: ‘Remember every colony can fall.’
Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvaí, who wears an Irish tricolour balaclava, have been photographed alongside Cillian Murphy, Oasis’ Noel Gallagher and Jeremy Corbyn. They rap in English and Gaelic and are well known for expressing Irish republican sentiments.
Australian police have been unable to track down the bronze head since it was cleaved off last June but it popped up at Kneecap’s Melbourne performance on Friday night.
No one has ever been arrested over the criminal damage. A spokesman said: ‘Melbourne Crime Investigation Unit detectives continue to investigate damage to a statue in Kings Domain last year. Investigators are also aware that the head from what appears to be a statue appeared at a concert in Melbourne on March 14′.
Kneecap have previously been accused of glorifying the IRA and on one poster showed Boris Johnson and Alene Foster strapped to a rocket on top of a burning bonfire for their Farewell to the Union tour in 2020. They were clutching petrol bombs.
Their latest stunt has been branded ‘predictable and tiresome’ by one politician in their native Northern Ireland.
The decapitated statue head of King George V made a cameo on stage for Irish rap band Kneecap’s performance in Melbourne on Friday night
Kneecap’s statement on King George’s head
Kneecap with Cillian Murphy last year
The decapitation of the late monarch’s statue came in June. The statue was then covered with red paint and the words ‘the colony will fall’
The King George statue’s head has not been seen since
King George V’s head was cut off a statue in Melbourne by vandals who dedicated the attack to King Charles in June – just months before he was due to visit Australia with the Queen.
The video of the statue beheading posted to social media overlaid with the Sex Pistol’s song God Save The Queen while one vandal daubed ‘the colony will fall’ at the statue’s foot.
Melbourne City Council estimated it would cost about $10,000 to clean the statue and even more to restore it.
It came amid a spate of anti-colonial vandalism in Australia.
The King’s Domain statue was beheaded and covered in red paint to coincide with the annual public holiday celebrating the monarch’s birthday.
‘Some madman dropped by with a huge King George’s head so he could hear a few tunes for our last Melbourne show,’ read a social media post from the Northern Irish outfit Kneecap.
‘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. Remember every colony can fall.’
Kneecap, comprised of Mo Chara, JJ O’Dochartaigh and Moglai Bap, are known for their unapologetic brand of anti-colonial hip-hop.
In November, 2024, the trio won their case against Tory party leader Kemi Badenoch after she blocked an arts grant to the band citing anti-British politics.
The refusal of £14,250 in funding was found to be ‘unlawful’ and the new Labour government agreed to release the money and pay Kneecap’s costs.
They later won a British award and declared they were ‘taking their money and taking their awards’.
Kneecap is a Republican band, which has been accused of glorifying the IRA (Pictured: Poster for the 2020 ‘Farewell to the Union’ Kneecap tour that showed Boris Johnson and Alene Foster strapped to a rocket on top of a burning bonfire)
Mo Chara, JJ O’Dochartaigh and Moglai Bap (left to right) at the IFTA Awards in February
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn once called Kneecap ‘inspiring’. (Pictured: Jeremy Corbyn, left, and members of Kneecap)
Amid the row over anti-British sentiment Down Under, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been accused of bowing to a ‘noisy minority’ spouting ‘woke rubbish’ and virtue-signalling on issues such as climate change and gender.
The avowed republican is also accused of stoking anti-British sentiment as well as being instrumental in ensuring that King Charles III does not appear on the new $5 note after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Some have questioned whether corporates such as Qantas co-opting of the ‘Acknowledgment of Country’ to show respect for Aboriginal culture and heritage is doing more harm than good to Indigenous causes.
These are also known as ‘Welcome to Country’ announcements – recognition of Australia’s ancient history before the British arrived – and a promise that Australia ‘always was and always will be Aboriginal land’.
The attacks on British statues from the 19th century give an insight into the increasing wokeifcation of Australia – a country, to the outside world at least, better known for their love of beer, beaches and cricket.
But a new young generation of ‘woke-left noisy activists’ has emerged with children Down Under ‘being taught that their country is shameful and racist’, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The statue of Captain Cook in St Kilda has been cut down in January last year
Vandals daubed ‘The colony will fall’ on Captain Cook’s plinth as attacks on statues become more common in Australia and other parts of the former British empire
A Queen Victoria monument in Melbourne was also vandalised with red paint
A gigantic statue of Queen Victoria was torn down , decapitated and daubed in red paint in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on Canada Day in 2021
Canada became an independent state in 1867 but Queen Elizabeth II was Canada’s constitutional monarch until she died. This is her statue before and after it was torn down two years ago in Manitoba
Albanese’s critics have said Australia in the midst of a culture war and has become too quick to ‘beat ourselves up’ and apologise for the past as well as ignored the benefits that came from being a colony.
Former prime minister John Howard, who led the country from 1996 to 2007, said last year: ‘I do hold the view that the luckiest thing that happened to this country was being colonised by the British’.
Last year the statue in Melbourne of British naval officer James Cook, who in 1770 charted Sydney’s coast, was sawn off at the ankles, while a monument of Queen Victoria in the city’s Queen Victoria Gardens was doused in red paint.
It happened on the eve of Australia Day, which held each year on January 26 to mark the anniversary of British settlement in 1788.
Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins and disgraced former skipper Steve Smith have recently claimed that January 26 is not an appropriate date to celebrate the national holiday, with the date a highly controversial issue due to the landing of the First Fleet from Britain in Australia.
Justifying the vandalism aboriginal politician Uncle Shane Charles has insisted that Australia Day should be called ‘Invasion Day’ and ‘Captain Cook is the founding father of genocide in this country’.
Attacks on statues linked to Britain have become more frequent with Captain Cook and other British historical figures attacked a number of times over the past decade.
Statues of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II have been toppled in Canada because of its colonial past.
A recent poll found that almost half of Australians believe the nation is more divided than ever on major issues such as climate change, immigration and foreign policy including how to deal with the threat of China.
Many blame Australia’s current Labour Prime Minister.
In 2023, after discussions with Albanese’s government, Australia’s central bank announced that its new $5 bill would not feature an image of King Charles III after the Queen’s death.
Anti-royalists hailed it as a step towards a republic Down Under.
