Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

When the Irish football team was drawn against Israel last week, many people in Ireland immediately hoped the game wouldn’t happen. Instead as the days have passed, the game seems more likely not less.  On Free State today we look at what has stopped Israel being banned from sport while Russia have been.  Dion wonders what a boycott would achieve and explains how Uefa and Fifa have faile...

David McCloskey says he was once a clandestine journalist. Another way of putting it is that he once worked for the CIA. McCloskey is now a spy novelist. His first book took readers inside the CIA, now he is exploring Mossad, Israel and Iran in his new novel The Persian. On Free State, he talks about the shadow war between Israel and Iran. He explains what has happened to agencies like the CIA und...

‘Doors open at the Watergate’. Those words in June 1972 signalled a break in at the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate Building. They were picked up on a police scanner by a reporter at the Washington Post. They began a chain of events which would eventually bring down a president.  Last week the paper of Woodward and Bernstein, of Ben Bradlee and publisher Katharine Graham, laid...

When Gregory Campbell approached President Connolly in Derry last week, what was the purpose of his intervention? Was he trying to make a good faith case for Protestant and unionist people in Derry or was he just throwing some red meat to his base? On Free State today Dion and Joe look at the life and times of Gregory Campbell. Dion and Joe argue about the merits of his argument and whether who is...

In Ireland, we like to think that the class system is something that dominates Britain. But it shapes this country too. RTE’s new comedy drama These Sacred Vows is a series which challenges what we believe about class, identity and religion in Ireland in 2026. On Free State today, the show’s creator John Butler talks about what he wanted to say in the series about the middle class, the priesthood...

In the House of Commons, Keir Starmer said that Peter Mandelson had ‘betrayed our country, our parliament and my party’. But what was that betrayal and who was actually complicit? On Free State today we look at the rise and fall of Peter Mandelson. We explain why the election of a football mascot monkey as mayor in Hartlepool was an early sign of who Mandelson was.  We explain how Mandelson w...

‘If they showed this film on a plane, people would still walk out.’ As Melania, the documentary about the US First Lady, opened at the weekend, this line seemed to capture the feelings of critics. But, like so many things in Trumpland, even this line of criticism may not be all that it appears. On Free State today Dion and Joe look at what the Melania documentary tells us about the court of Donald...

In the Orwellian world we now live in, gaslighting is now standard. When Donald Trump creates a Board of Peace, we know that where it says one thing, the opposite is the truth. On Free State today Peter Oborne joins us to talk about how we reached this point in the Middle East. Peter’s new book Complicit looks at Britain’s role in sustaining the genocide in Gaza and why there might be consequences...

When the president of the German football club St Pauli said it was "clearly time to at least discuss a boycott" of the World Cup in the US this summer, he was quickly reminded of his station. "He hasn't been with us long," the president of the German football federation said. The idea of a boycott was completely "misguided" he said. But why? On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at why the World...

“We have all seen the video and our eyes don’t lie,” a friend of Alex Pretti said in the aftermath of Pretti’s murder. He was speaking as Donald Trump’s administration advanced a lie, undeterred by what people had seen in the video which dismantled the story spun by ICE and their protectors. On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at the rise of authoritarianism in America and what comes next. As I...

What would it mean to be free of financial insecurity? Why does money scare us so much? On Free State today money expert Eoin McGee talks about how we can achieve financial freedom and faces one of his greatest challenges: Dion’s attitude to money. In doing so, he talks about things far more profound than money. What do we really want from life and Dion explains why your wedding day is not the bes...

When Donald Trump backed down on Greenland, he tried to make it sound like a victory. But what caused him to cave? Western leaders have tried to placate Trump and continued this approach at Davos until Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney laid out the truth about the world today. ‘The strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must,’ he said quoting Thucydides. This is the real...

When the Senegal team walked off the pitch in the last seconds of the AFCON final, were we witnessing a moment of brave resistance or gamesmanship? Was this a stand against the technology which is destroying sport or a stroke? On Free State today we ask if injustice has to be part of sport?  Joe makes his case for video evidence in Gaelic football. Joe and Dion also look at Trump’s determinat...

What drove DJ Carey? What did he believe of the fraud and deception that ended up with him being sent to prison? And as he faces life as a social pariah, what does he think today of his crimes? On Free State today Eimear Ni Bhraonain, author of The Dodger, the bestselling book about DJ Carey looks at what drove one of Ireland’s greatest sportsmen. She considers the childhood of excellence and isol...

In August Belfast will host Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann. More than half a million people will visit the city from around the world for the festival which is a global event. Last year nearly a million people attended the Fleadh in Wexford. But be warned. All this music and culture is not what it appears. A DUP councillor has warned that a spin off event in Bangor has potential to cause ‘ill feeling’...

‘A society,’ Dostoevsky said, ‘should be judged not by how it treats its outstanding citizens but how it treats its prisoners.’ In the U.K. Nigel Farage is promising to build bigger prisons and send prisoners to Estonia and El Salvador. There are more people in prison in the US than in any country in the world. On Free State today we look at how society gave up on prisoners. We examine why populis...

In November, 2022, the principals of Blackrock College and its two junior schools issued a statement. It followed a public apology that had been made by the Spiritan Order over abuse that took place in its schools The statement by the schools spoke of the “great harm done” to pupils over an extended period. It added that “Philip Feddis, Corry McMahon, Louis Hoffman and John Coulter, all of whom le...

As the US military pursued the Russian tanker Marinera in the North Atlantic, a village in South Tyrone might have been paying close attention. The world is not a safe place for many these days but in this time of danger, the residents of Fivemiletown are particularly at risk. On Free State today we look at why Fivemiletown appeared on a Russian strike list. What does it tell us about the drumbeat...

When Nicolás Maduro, the deposed Venezuelan leader, appeared in a federal courtroom in lower Manhattan, he insisted ‘I am still president of my country.’ Maduro was labouring under a misapprehension, not just about his own country but about how things now work. On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at the new age of empire as Donald Trump’s gangsterism spreads across the world. America now has Ve...

"One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this."  On October 25 2023, novelist Omar El Akkad posted this message on X/Twitter On Free State today Omar El Akkad joins Joe and Dionto talk about how the world looked away. His magisterial new book  One Day Ev...

There are those who believe Artificial Intelligence will lead to the extinction of mankind. There are those who believe AI will save the world. On  Free State  today, journalist and author of the Empire of AI Karen Hao explains why AI is an imperialist project and how the colonising is already taking place.  She says why she believes the doomer vs boomer debate is a distraction and...

Colm Toibin returns to the Free State studio for what is now the traditional Christmas interview. He reflects on the year when he turned 70, why there is too many men watching rugby on television and why it’s important to take the 99 out of Irish politics forever. He talks too about the death of his father when he was 12 and how the great Irish psychiatrist Ivor Browne tried to open him up to the...

First there was the music. Keith Donald was always looking to escape.  Music offered the first exit. Then came drink. Keith Donald was abused as a child by his headmistress. He found that jazz had the power to transform his existence. As a teenager he began to play music wherever he could. He played for a band on the Twelfth and toured the country with showbands. On  Free State  tod...

Why do so many of us still cherish Christmas?  And why do so many find it a tough time of year? On Free State today, Joe and Dion reflect on the power of Christmas and what it tells us about us as a people. Joe looks forward to a child’s wonder at Christmas while Dion is looking forward to the Ashes over Christmas. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When he was 11, Leon Diop had his first experience of aggressive racism.  But his identity was something he wrestled with in many ways. In a remarkable interview on Free State, Leon Diop talks about the Ireland he grew up in and being mixed race in that world. He talks about the confusion and shame he felt about his father, a Muslim from Senegal, and how he internalised that shame for many ye...