‘It’s a medieval siege’: Massive Attack-designed Bohs strip highlights Ireland-Cuba links – The Irish Times
Bristol trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack have designed the new Bohemian FC third strip.
The jersey is based on Cuban national strips, inspired by the art of Jim Fitzpatrick – his famous Che Guevara image is on the hem tag – and features text from Guevara’s anti-imperialist speech to the Afro Asian conference in Algeria in 1965.
The Cuban revolutionary had roots in Co Galway.
On the back of the shirt, inside the Massive Attack flame symbol, there’s a quote from his father Ernesto Guevara Lynch: “In my son’s veins flowed the blood of the Irish rebels.”
Thirty per cent of the profits from the shirts are going to two organisations – Cuba Vive and MediCuba Europe – which are providing emergency medical aid in the midst of the US blockade of the island.
[ The Irish artist who captured the image of Che GuevaraOpens in new window ]
The country is suffering severe fuel shortages and power blackouts due to the Trump administration’s sanctions on key sectors of the Cuban economy. Cubans are facing growing food insecurity and shortages of medicines and basic supplies.
This is neither Bohs’ first musical collaboration nor their first foray into politics. There have been shirts designed by Fontaines DC and others that declared “all refugees welcome”.
For the Dublin club’s chief commercial officer, Daniel Lambert, the association with musicians is related to the fact that Bohs’ clubhouse has long been used as a venue.
There is a series of gigs due in mid-September under the banner The Last Days of Dalymount, that includes a DJ set from Annie Mac and performances from John Francis Flynn and Johnny Logan. Not to mention the fact Bob Marley played at Dalymount Park in 1980 in what would be the reggae superstar’s only performance in Ireland.
[ Bohs secure rights to release Bob Marley away jerseyOpens in new window ]
“Whether it was Brush Shields or Johnny Logan or Paul Page or the Fontaines lads or Kneecap, we’ve always had strong links to music at the stadium,” says Lambert. “We’ve tried in the last few years work with artists who, as well as the music, have a social conscience and stand for other things.”
He links the club’s social conscience directly to being fan-owned. “With most football clubs the wellbeing of the club is directly correlated with the wealth of the owner … With a fan-owned football club, your success is the amount of people who are willing to become a member and become actively engaged. How you build that level of loyalty beyond just results on the pitch is to connect with people on a human level.”
People are starved of meaningful connection, he says. “If you look at Ireland 30 years ago, all the football clubs were fan-owned, more or less. People went to church. They were in unions. They had intergenerational family connections on the streets. They had long job contracts and a vocation.
“Now there’s precarious employment and precarious rent situations where they have to move from where their families are. All those social connections have been lost.
“The reason you go to football is probably social connection,“ says Lambert. “And secondly, it builds up that connection [to] things that are perhaps more important than just sport.”
Lambert’s connection to Massive Attack came from his other job as Kneecap’s manager. “Massive Attack have been of great assistance to Kneecap in the past couple of years,” he says. “In recent months we had a conversation with them about working together on something. They’re very aware of what’s happening in Cuba.”
The release is accompanied by the release of two short films by Unit 3 Films in Bristol. One interweaves the work of Jim Fitzpatrick with the new strip and the other puts the words of Guevara’s speech against imagery from the football terraces.
Being against the US blockade is not an “outsider” position, Lambert notes.
Ireland has voted against the blockade alongside the vast majority of countries in the UN.
“I went there myself in March with Kneecap and it’s a medieval siege,” says Lambert. “The issue there isn’t just that there’s not enough food or water. There’s no electricity.
“It’s wrong on so many levels. What has been Cuba’s crime? Cuba has a different economic system than the United States.”
Irish musical acts tend to be more outspoken on social issues than those in the UK or the US. Why does he think that is? “It’s just that we’re a postcolonial country. I think if you’re raised as an Irish person and you’re aware of Ireland’s history, you have an awareness and an understanding of what colonial crimes look like, and you have an international solidarity to try and resist and assist people … That’s what you see with CMAT, Fontaines, Lankum and Kneecap.”
Massive Attack have long been a politicised outlier in the UK context. Earlier this year they produced Boots on the Ground, an anti-Ice song and video collaboration with Tom Waits, and they were recently arrested and banned from Singapore for raising a Palestinian flag at a concert.
Of this new collaboration, the band say: “We’re proud to follow the tradition of musicians who’ve collaborated with Bohemian FC to support a fan-owned football club, at the same time drawing attention to important social or political issues.
“Our strip design takes inspiration from Cuban national football kits and references the Irish connection to Che Guevara in terms of his ancestry and the iconic 2-tone graphic created by Dublin artist Jim Fitzpatrick.
“It collages text of Che’s speeches that underline the importance of international solidarity in resisting colonial – and neocolonial – imperialist aggressions. His words still contain resonance for the political struggles of today. Our nominated charities arrange urgent shipments of medical aid to Cuba, where vital hospital supplies are threatened by the Trump administration blockade of the island – an illegal act of collective punishment of the Cuban people.”