Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

Martin Sixmith was the BBC's man in Moscow as the Soviet Union collapsed and Vladimir Putin came to power. In today's podcast he talks about his time in Russia, the fight for the billions lost and his time working on The Lost Child of Philomena Lee. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jeffrey Donaldson sits in a prison cell, waiting to be sentenced for the most horrific crimes.  On Free State today we look at the rise and fall of Jeffrey Donaldson. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Donald Trump destroys everyone in his orbit. His transactional nature means that eventually whoever is close to him is ruined Gianni Infantino might soon know how that feels. ‘I regularly discuss matters related to the FIFA World Cup with the President of the United States,’ Infantino said as he explained how FIFA had lifted the suspension on the USA forward Folarin Balogun.  “During our conv...

You might not have heard of Helenio Herrera but without him, you might not have the modern football manager. Herrera was a lowdown and a dirty football manager who wasn't so much a pragmatist as an absolutist. He was full of contradictions: he hated his players having sex but he ruined many lives with his own pursuit of sex. He would do anything to win and stopped at nothing for victory. He wasn't...

The World Cup continues to captivate. France stunned the world with their performance against Sweden, with a display of pace and skill that was as good as anything witnessed in the competition. But what is the hidden World Cup? What is the secret anguish that this and all sporting events facilitate. In their final episode in this series looking at the dangers of online gambling, Joe and Dion look...

How many times do you look at your smartphone each day? How often do you pick it up? How aware are you of how it makes you feel? On Thursday’s Free State we looked at how gambling has got out of control. Today Dion and Joe examine how what we are dealing with is an entirely new phenomenon, a supercharged addiction of smartphone and gambling, a dopamine hit of huge power.  We look at the...

When Fintan Drury wrote his first book on Palestine - Catastrophe, Nakba II , the manner in which it resonated with people told its own story. Now he has written Genocide - Sponsoring the destruction of Palestine, another searing and detailed account of how the Palestinian people have been failed. He talks to Dion about why now is the time to act. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more in...

The 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act prohibited betting on baseball, basketball, American football and most other sports in nearly every US state. In 2018, the Supreme Court declared the act unconstitutional, opening up America to a stampede of betting. On Free State today we look at how the gambling industry achieved such prominence and how they made gamblers feel that the prob...

‘I have come to sell a product called soccer.’ The former FIFA president Joao Havelange announced himself in 1974 with these words. They have been the model for the expansionist, grasping FIFA that has existed to this day. But maybe what matters was not the product but everything but the product? On Free State today we look at why the World Cup matters and why it might be everything that Donald Tr...

In Power Ballad, Rick, played by Paul Rudd, a washed-up wedding singer, and Danny, a fading boy band star, bond over music and a late-night jam session. On Free State today, old friends Dion and Peter McDonald, co-writer and co-start of Power Ballad, discuss their own late night escapades, Peter's time in the theatre and and his extraordinary time working with the legendary Robert Altman. Hosted o...

There are no atheists in the foxholes and in the darkness of the night there is nobody who won’t find consolation in the World Cup. On Free State today Joe talks about his own World Cup journey. Joe and Dion look at why the tournament captivates and what it tells us about communities as opposed to the leaders of those communities. At a time when Elon Musk had become the world’s first trillionaire,...

How have Donegal got themselves in this mess? Has Jim McGuinness’s obsession with Kerry blinded him to the other threats. On Free State today, Joe examines why some counties accumulate All Irelands and others fail, while Dion surprises him with his knowledge of Roscommon’s football history. Joe and Dion also look at how the Belfast Riots happened.  For months the PSNI were warned that houses...

The World Cup has begun but will there ever be a tournament like Mexico '86 dominated by Diego Maradona? On Free State today, Dion talks to David Arrowsmith about his book on Maradona, the impulses that drove Maradona and how he escaped from poverty but could never escape the sense of being an outsider. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Belfast has burned this week. The horrific knife attack on Monday night shocked everyone. But nobody was surprised by what came next. In Belfast, In Glasgow and around Britain, people came out on the street. Some were there to protest, others were there to intimidate. In Belfast, the intimidation took over. On Free State today, Joe and Dion consider the riots in Belfast and whether there is a diff...

The FAI have decided to move Ireland’s game against Israel to a neutral venue. But is this a pragmatic move or another attempt to avoid making a principled decision? On Free State today Joe and Dion talk to Sinead Gibney of the Social Democrats about why this is a cop out.  Would there be consequences for Ireland if they refused to play the game or would it lead to others following? Sinead Gi...

John Kampfner doesn’t believe there is a better way, he believes there is only one way for western democracies to survive. On Free State today he talks about what democracies have to do to survive. They - we - are drinking in the last chance saloon he says. He explains why there has to be a reckoning and why so many politicians do not have the capability to change. He speaks about his new book Bra...

Have you been watching Love Island? As part of his deep research for the podcast, Dion has and on today’s Free State he shares his concerns about Fitzy and the world he has walked in to. Joe encouraged Dion to watch it but hasn’t done so himself but he marvels at the Love Island universe and what it contains. Yet it is the universe of the late great Frank McGuigan that holds his attention. Joe rec...

Aziz Abu Sarah’s older brother Tayseer was like a father to him. Azis was ten years old when his brother died after he had been tortured and beaten in an Israeli jail. Aziz says his brother’s death sent him to his own prison where all he wanted was revenge. Maoz Inon’s parents were killed by Hamas on October 7th. A couple of days later, he and his family released a message. “For the death of our p...

Sally Hayden is a fearless journalist. She has covered war and conflict around the world. She lives in Lebanon where, early in her new book, she notes that ‘in the past fortnight, Israel has killed more than one thousand people’. Her book opens with a quote from Elon Musk: ‘The fundamental weakness of Western civilisation is empathy.’ On Free State today Sally Hayden explains her journey to dispro...

What do Sinn Fein stand for? What do they believe? And do the other left wing parties believe they believe it? On Free State Joe and Dion look at the state of Sinn Fein following the recent by-elections. Does it tell us something about the scrutiny Sinn Fein are under that there is more analysis of them than of Fianna Fáil which got a comically low vote? Dion and Joe disagree about what Sinn Féin’...

What do great art and great sport have in common? Why do the moments that transport us to another dimension in sport and art have such power? On Free State today, Dion reflects on the spiritual experience of seeing Paul Simon and Joe reflects on writing Kerry off. What does the game between the All Ireland champions and Donegal tell us about the summer to come? And what does it tell us about Jack...

On today’s Free State, Dion talks to Louise Brangan about The Fallen, her book about the Magdalene Laundries and what they tell us about Ireland, then and now Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you feel like lower value human capital or do you believe you should be on Love Island?  Who declares who is of value and who isn’t? Will the future belong to those who refuse to be defined by what the tech overlords decide they should be?  On Free State we look at how the climate emergency is being accelerated by data centres and why nobody has the will to stop them.  And we pro...

Bertie Ahern says he rejects ‘racism in all its forms’. So what is it if not racism when a former Taoiseach says ‘we can’t be taking in people from Congo and all these places’? On Free State today we ask how do you talk about immigration and not get mistaken for a racist? Is it best not to say things that a racist might say to begin with? Ahern defended himself by saying ‘I don’t think there is an...

When Israel’s contestant in the Eurovision appeared on stage in Vienna on Tuesday night, a lone voice shouted ‘stop, stop the genocide.’ The Israeli contestant kept singing and nothing stopped. On Free State today we look at why the Eurovision became a key part of Israel’s propaganda war. We examine the money that was spent ensuring Israel’s entries got votes and we ask why.  We also look at...