COOKIES and cakes featuring the iconic image of the Kneecap balaclava are flying off the shelves at a popular West Belfast bakery.
A traditional bakery, Smyth's in Andersonstown bake everything on site. Joint owner Jim Smyth, who runs the bakery with his sister Joanne, said their new selection is in readiness for the St Patrick's Day weekend, but also as a thank-you to the local rappers.
"Kneecap promote Irishness but they also do a lot of work on both sides of the community through sponsorship and other things which I think is amazing," he said.
"It's St Patrick’s Day coming up and they are on a massive tour of Australia and the other day they did a free concert for people who couldn’t get tickets, so they’re all round good guys and we decided to do this for people in the area who were very supportive of them at the start before anybody else knew who they were."
The Póg Mó Thóin and Kneecap cookies at Smyth's Bakery
Jim says that soon after the first run of cookies went on the shelves that they were sold-out – the bakery can't keep up with demand.
"We’ve been flat-out. We do all different types of light-hearted things, like Póg Mo Thóin cookies too.
"We try and stay off the mainstream to give everybody a laugh. So we did the Kneecap ones for a joke and they only lasted about an hour. So through our Facebook page people have been in touch saying they want more – mainly younger people – so we’ve a run of another 500 for the morning.
"So the more successful Kneecap are then the more successful we are. They’re the new Barney Hughes – we’ve moved from baps to Kneecap now."
