WEST Belfast Irish language indie rockers The Shan Vans will be part of the roster of an upcoming gig at St Comgalls organised by Irish Artists for Palestine.

The band will share the 1 December bill with other well known artists including Róisín El Cherif, Lonesome George, Beoga Róis, John Spillane and Gráinne Holland, amongst others.

Four such gigs for Palestine by Irish Artists for Palestine have now been announced in Belfast along with a gig in Dublin featuring Lankum and The Mary Wallopers.

The gigs are as follows:

  • Áras Mhic Reachtain - 24 November
  • The Black Box - 27 November
  • St Comgalls - 1 December
  • The Devenish - 3 December 

The gig at The Devenish on 3 December will feature Kneecap and The Rapparees.

The Shan Vans frontman Jake Óg Mac Siacais said the events represented a mass collection of Irish artists who will continue to use their platforms to highlight the ongoing massacre in Palestine.

Jake said: "What is happening right now in Gaza is a massacre, it is not a war. 

"The massacre of the Palestinian people is being carried with the full backing of our western governments and with our taxpayer’s money. Since October 7 over 13,000 Palestinians have been massacred with impunity.

"The Israeli government are currently engaged in an unparalleled offensive on two fronts. One involves the mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, where almost half of those murdered are children and the other is a war of total and shameless deception, being waged via pro-Zionist social media soundbites, and a very powerful pro-Zionist western media."

Jake said the most prominent feature of this was the continual asking of anyone speaking up for Palestinians whether or not they condemned the group Hamas. Jake said this frames the discussion immediately in the wrong light and instead the first question which needs to be asked is whether or not you condemn the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine.

"We want to ask people do you condemn the occupation? It is an unavoidable fact that this entire horrific episode is a result of occupation and part of the history of European colonialism, in which Britain, European and US interests facilitated the establishment of the Israeli state without regard for the indigenous people living there."

Jake continued saying The Shan Vans would continue to use their platform as artists, along with many other Irish artists, to speak up for people of Palestine and the BDS campaign of sanctions against Israel.

"We stand in solidarity with the thousands of people in Belfast who have weekly been calling for BDS and groups like the newly formed ‘Mothers against Genocide’ and Cairde na Palaistíne Bhéal Feirste and their five points which include calls for sanctions, a cessation of the war on Gaza and expelling the Israeli ambassador."

Jake also revealed that the group are also planning the release of their third single in the new year, a 10-minute song entitled ‘The Shan Van’, highlighting among other things, the earliest poem in Irish history, the Irish republican struggle for freedom, decolonisation in Ireland and in Palestine.

"It is important that all Irish artists continue to use their platforms to highlight the ongoing massacre in Palestine," he added.