A SONG by a west Belfast Irish-language rap duo has been removed from an RTÉ playlist because of its content.
RTÉ's Irish language station Raidió na Gaeltachta removed Cearta, a track by Móglai Bap (24) and Mo Chara (20) - known as Kneecap - due to cursing and drug references.
The move has been met with anger among fans of the duo and a petition calling for the song to be put back on the air has so far attracted hundreds of signatures.
Móglaí Bap said the group wanted the song to "break stereotypes".
Speaking to The Sunday Times, he said: "Irish is my first language".
"There are a growing number of Irish speakers who like to party, smoke, have raves," he said.
"A lot of my friends don’t vote Sinn Féin and they’re not republican.
"We’re proud of Sean-nos and Irish culture, but we don’t want to be defined by it. We wanted this song to break stereotypes. We’re not saying we agree with using RUC as a term for the PSNI, but it happens in Belfast".
The track, which is Kneecap’s debut release, has so far been viewed more than 19,000 times on YouTube.
RTÉ told The Irish News yesterday the song was "inappropriate to play pre-watershed".
"RTÉ has not prevented 'Cearta' by Kneecap from being played post-watershed on Raidió na Gaeltachta," said a spokesman.
"Rather, the song was inappropriate to play pre-watershed; The language is explicit and there are sexual and violent references. The decision to play the song post-watershed has got nothing to do with the Irish language or the artist, but is solely based on the content of the song and our responsibility to our audiences as the national broadcaster."
