{"id":420388,"date":"2026-04-27T18:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T18:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/420388\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T18:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T18:32:09","slug":"we-have-to-alleviate-that-extra-burden-of-shame-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/420388\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We have to alleviate that extra burden of shame\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kneecap\u2019s<\/a> M\u00f3gla\u00ed Bap<\/a> has spoken about his mother\u2019s death by suicide in advance of the release of a song he wrote in tribute to her called Irish Goodbye. <\/p>\n

The Belfast<\/a> rapper, whose name is Naoise \u00d3 Caireall\u00e1in, said watching video footage of his mother, Aoife N\u00ed Riain, in which she was happy, had a \u201cprofound effect\u201d on him. <\/p>\n

\u201cWatching that footage of her and writing this song, unlocked a part of my brain that gave me the opportunity to override the constant sad memories. It allowed me to visualise happier times, instead of being so angry at the world,\u201d he said on Instagram.<\/p>\n

N\u00ed Riain, who died in 2020, was an Irish language activist and traditional musician who had her own show on the community radio station Raidi\u00f3 F\u00e1ilte. <\/p>\n

M\u00f3gla\u00ed Bap\u2019s father, Gear\u00f3id \u00d3 Caireall\u00e1in<\/a>, was president of Conradh na Gaelige in the 1990s. The rapper was inspired to write the song about his mother after watching a documentary about his father in which the family featured. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe film crew came to our house, and we were just kids doing our homework, messing around. We weren\u2019t the kind of family who had films of ourselves when we were young, just photographs, so it was the first time I saw my Ma in a video. And she was happy,\u201d M\u00f3gla\u00ed Bap said.<\/p>\n

He said he had written a song about his mother before, called Mam, which came out in 2020. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe was sick at the time with depression. The idea I had in my head with Mam was, if I wrote it, she\u2019d hear it, and maybe she\u2019d feel her worth, because when you suffer from depression, you can\u2019t see your own value. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt that time, we went for a walk, and I told her I had written a song for her, but that it wasn\u2019t completely finished yet, so I\u2019d wait until the next day to play it for her. But by then it was too late.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Kneecap: \u2018These topics have been out of bounds for many years\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Describing suicide as \u201ca very complex thing\u201d that was difficult to talk about, Mogla\u00ed Bap said it should be spoken about \u201cbecause we have to alleviate that extra burden of shame and guilt on top of the burden of grief\u201d.<\/p>\n

The artist said help was available: \u201cWhen I was eventually ready for it, therapy was the thing that helped me. A lot of our parents\u2019 generation don\u2019t believe in therapy. But we\u2019re different. We can ask for help, we should ask for help, and there should be services there for us to get help.\u201d <\/p>\n

Irish people had a good relationship with death and the rituals around it, he said. \u201cWe can remember people how they were, not how they ended up. I hope that this kind of death, even though it\u2019s awful, can be included under that approach, as hard as it is to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n

He hoped that if people listened to the song \u201cmaybe something will connect that gives them some sort of relief\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t carry this stuff around with you and blame yourself. It\u2019s not your fault. It\u2019s no one\u2019s fault. It\u2019s about the process of dealing with it. And you can deal with it. You can,\u201d Mogla\u00ed Bap said.<\/p>\n

Irish Goodbye, featuring English spoken word poet Kae Tempest, will be released on Tuesday, April 28th, with Kneecap\u2019s new album Fenian coming on Friday, May 1st. In a five-star review<\/a> of the album in The Irish Times, Ed Power wrote of Irish Goodbye: \u201cThe final fade to grey arrives with the gorgeous, piano-fuelled Kae Tempest duet Irish Goodbye \u2013 a melancholic farewell at the end of a knockout album.\u201d<\/p>\n

For support: Samaritans on freephone 116 123 or text HELLO to 50808. Pieta freephone: 1800 247 247 or text HELP to 51444. Or visit yourmentalhealth.ie<\/p>\n

Darkness Into Light 2026 is a nationwide 5km walk taking place at 4.15am on Saturday, May 9th, and is Pieta\u2019s biggest annual fundraiser<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kneecap\u2019s M\u00f3gla\u00ed Bap has spoken about his mother\u2019s death by suicide in advance of the release of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1853,15338,42,34095,10366,410,105088,43,14394,40,38,41,39,42415],"class_list":["post-420388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-depression","tag-gaeilge","tag-headlines","tag-irish-language","tag-kneecap","tag-mental-health","tag-moglai-bap","tag-news","tag-suicide","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-your-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}