THEY came in their thousands, if not their millions, and they were all Palestinians. In a raucous scene outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday morning, crowds packed the pavement, waving flags and chanting “free Palestine.”

But this time there were also Irish flags, and there were goths and grannies, punks and Palestinians. People had travelled from Belfast and Brixton, Galway and Greenwich, Liverpool and Lyme Regis.

They were there to show their noisy support for Liam Og O hAnnaidh, better known by his stage name Mo Chara, and a member of the Irish hip-hop band, Kneecap. O hAnnaidh was attending a preliminary hearing that morning after being charged with a terror offence in May under the UK Terrorism Act.

O hAnnaidh is accused of allegedly displaying a Hezbollah flag during a Kneecap concert last November in London, “in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion that he is a supporter of a proscribed organisation,” according to court records. 

On Wednesday, his lawyers argued that the case had been brought too late and should be thrown out. The prosecution insisted that O hAnnaidh was free to express his views, but not to display the flag of a proscribed organisation. Judge Paul Goldspring released O hAnnaidh on unconditional bail and ordered an adjournment until August 20, when he will decide if the case can go forward.

Kneecap have routinely spoken out against the genocide in Gaza and gained notoriety when they performed at the Coachella music festival in the US in April, projecting the words “F*** Israel. Free Palestine” on stage. A fictionalised feature film about them, also called Kneecap, and in which band members played themselves, has further boosted their profile.

That was reflected in unprecedented scenes outside the court building on Wednesday as a scrum of fans, activists and cameras pressed toward O hAnnaidh and his two bandmates, Naoise O Caireallain and JJ O Dochartaigh, as they were hustled inside past a long line of people hoping to get into the public gallery. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” one veteran courthouse security guard told me. 

“This was a rushed prosecution following the Coachella performance where Kneecap did not shy away from speaking truth to power,” said a representative for the band after the hearing. O Caireallain, who performs as Moglai Bap, told a celebratory crowd the band would be appearing at Glastonbury as planned on June 28.

“People shouldn’t be tried for telling the truth,” said Paul Maskey, a Sinn Fein MP for Belfast West, where Mo Chara also lives and who had travelled over for the hearing. “And that’s what’s going on here. People who tell the truth are being tried, are up in front of a court, and that should never be the case. The people who should be up in front of the court are the people who are committing the genocide, and that’s the Israeli government.”

Responding to the raucous crowd outside, John Finucane, Sinn Fein MP for Belfast North, told me: “It is very hard to think of a better example than where we are this morning and that is the hundreds, I think the thousands, of people who are here to play their part and show their solidarity against the hypocritical criminal charges that are being brought against an artist who has unashamedly used his platform to shine a light on human rights abuses.”

Among those trying to get inside the courtroom was Peckham grandmother, Josephine Wood, who said that while the music wasn’t exactly her style, “I just think they’re amazing young men.” She called the charge “predictable. It’s what happens when somebody speaks out, isn’t it?”

Leila Dilling, from East Dulwich, said Kneecap were using the power of music to raise consciousness, something she feels has been missing for too long. Although she had never heard of the band until recently, Dilling said they were bringing politics and passion back into a music scene that “in the last 20 years or so has become so vanilla. I am so glad they did what they did at Coachella because all of a sudden it’s happening, it’s happening again.”

The publicity storm around the band, and what their members have called a persecution campaign, was described by one of Wednesday’s rally organisers, Stop the War Coalition, as a “carnival of distraction,” shifting attention away from the actual human rights atrocities still going on in Gaza. Kneecap have insisted the story is not about them and all eyes must remain on the Palestinian people.

After the success of the film, which focuses on the band’s endeavours to keep the Irish language alive, O Caireallain said: “We soon realised that it wasn’t just about the Irish language. It was about indigenous and native cultures and people all around the world, reclaiming their identity, reclaiming their values and their heritage.”

That shared sense of history and oppression by imperialist powers, felt by the people of Ireland, Palestine and elsewhere, was palpable among the diverse crowd outside the courthouse.

“Irish people recognise oppressors and oppressed quite easily, but it doesn’t even really take our historical experience to see what’s happening in Palestine, what’s unfolding before our eyes,” said Finucane. “And let’s make no mistake about it, it didn’t happen in the past 18 months. This has been going on for decades.” 

Said the Kneecap spokesperson: “The more they come after Kneecap, the louder they will get. If the British government had any sense of history, they would know they have already lost.”

Linda Pentz Gunter is a writer based in Takoma Park, Maryland. She is currently covering events in London.