Balaclava beats

Their paramilitary shtick is intentionally menacing, offensive and alienating, but to be fair to the hip-hop trio Kneecap, their infamous balaclava is disarmingly hilarious. Kneecap, the 2024 movie that offers a fictionalised account of their rise to fame, is a Bafta- and Oscar-nominated Northern Irish film sensation.

- Jane Clifton

The balaclava is strikingly badly knitted and ill-fitting, in shouty colours that less represent the Irish republican flag than parody it, and you can practically hear the polyester crackling through the baggy stitches.

If its wearer, former school teacher JJ Ó Dochartaigh, burst into someone's home in this monstrosity, once the householder had finished laughing, the intruder's scariest demand would be that they learn a little Gaelic.

Actually, on reflection, that is a bit frightening. It's a fiendishly difficult language to learn, but it's the basis of Kneecap's activism - and the real reason there's so much fear and loathing throughout Britain and Ireland about the possibility their hit film will score further kudos.