Kneecap have shared a 12 minute short film titled ‘Irish Goodbye’, which doubles as the official video for the track of the same name featuring Kae Tempest.

The track was written by member Móglaí Bap, also known as Naoise Ó Cairealláin, and draws from the loss of his mother, Aoife Ní Riain, who died by suicide in 2020. It serves as the fourth single from the upcoming album ‘Fenian’, arriving this Friday May 1. You can check out a preview via the band’s Instagram, along with the full short below.

The film features Irish actors Deirdre O’Kane, known for Small Town: Big Story, and Liam Cunningham of Game Of Thrones, and centres on a family coping with the loss of someone close, with the suggestion that it relates to suicide. Scenes of Kneecap and Tempest performing around a table are woven throughout the narrative, before the film closes with the message: “For those we have lost and those we do not wish to lose,” alongside a dedication to Aoife Ní Riain.

To coincide with the release, Móglaí Bap recently opened up about the origins of the song. “I never meant to write a song about this,” he shared on Instagram. “But someone sent my brother a documentary about my Dad in the 90s, when he was president of Conradh na Gaeilge. The film crew came to my house, and we were just kids doing our homework, messing around. We weren’t 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. That had a profound effect on me, seeing her happy. I was so emotional seeing her like that.”

He continued: “’Irish Goodbye’ is about the mundane things me and my Ma did together. 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.”

Discussing Tempest’s contribution, he added: “Kae delivered something so vulnerable and emotional to the song. That was a really special moment for us.” He concluded: “I’m hoping if people listen to the song, and watch the video, maybe something will connect that gives them some sort of relief. You can’t carry this stuff around with you and blame yourself. It’s not your fault. It’s no one’s fault. It’s about the process of dealing with it. And you can deal with it. You can.”

In NME’s four and a half star review of ‘Fenian’, Andrew Trendell wrote: “Put all the rage bait headlines aside and what you’re left with is a solid, progressive and fearless album from a group that could just as easily be dicking around instead of making music that matters. In that sense at least, their day has come.”