Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

What does the selection of John McGahon as a general election candidate tell us about Fine Gael and their attitude to power? On Free State today, Dion and Joe look at the controversy, what it tells us about Irish politics and how power has been acquired in Ireland through the generations. Will people continue to vote as their forebears vote or has that vanished in Ireland today? Joe also considers...

What are the election candidates’ favourite biscuit? Who is the best runner? Who can pour the best pint? Given the photo ops that have marked the election campaign so far these would seem to be the issues convulsing Ireland. On a Free State Saturday special, Dion and Joe ask if these stage managed stunts are what will decide the election. Or will the issues that matter to people like housing and t...

What is Mary Lou McDonald’s vision for a United Ireland? On the second part of a Free State Special, Mary Lou McDonald talks about the Ireland she believes in and the 32 county country she imagines. With half a million new voters added to the register this year, McDonald outlines how she wants to change Ireland. She explains what led Sinn Fein to alter their policy on immigration and why the...

Mary Lou McDonald is promising change but will Sinn Fein be able to deliver? On the first Free State election special, Mary Lou McDonald joins Dion and Joe for a major podcast interview. She talks to Dion and Joe about the challenges facing her party and why she believes the media is hostile to Sinn Fein. Will Dion indulge in ‘IRAing’ or are these legitimate questions to be asked of the...

When historian Rick Perlstein is asked what awaits America under Donald Trump’s second presidency, he quotes Clubber Lang in Rocky III - Pain. On a Free State Special, Perlstein talks to Dion and Joe about the long rise of the right in the US. Through his books Nixonland and Reaganland, Perlstein has chronicled the Republican Party and their journey to the world beyond truth. He tells Dion and Joe...

How do you destroy democracy and will anyone notice if it happens in America? On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at how Donald Trump became US president again. Was it the economy, stupid, was it the weakness of Kamala Harris or did America embrace the hateful elements Trump has tapped into. Joe Biden’s role in Trump’s return can’t be overlooked. What will Trump do with the power which is comin...

America gets ready to vote but what is really at stake? Kamala Harris doesn’t have a radical plan to tackle the inequality that plagues America. Donald Trump might have a radical plan, but it looks a lot like fascism. On Free State Dion and Joe look at the polarisation of America, Trump’s Project 2025 plan which attacks democracy at its heart and why Trump might not care about the polls. Joe also...

What drives people to behave recklessly? What is it that motivates men to send dick pics without a thought to the consequences? On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at the anatomy of scandals and how they unfold. They move on to disagree about the developments in the Brian Stanley affair. They also consider the new drama Say Nothing and argue about the damage it may or not do to Sinn F...

Are you happy with the Ireland you live in? Are you happy with the Ireland your children are going to grow up in? When the General Election is called, it won’t be a parlour game, but a chance to shape Ireland for the better. On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at the media coverage of the crises that have engulfed Sinn Fein and how it affects the opportunity for change. Will the election be sha...

Roddy Doyle is the great chronicler of Dublin in our time. On the latest Free State special, he talks to Dion about working with Roy Keane, the housing crisis and an encounter in a toilet with Liam Gallagher. Doyle’s new book The Women Behind the Door has been nominated for an A Post Irish Book Award. Doyle talks about his long journey with the main character Paula Spencer from the seminal series...

What is at the heart of the media response to the Sinn Fein ‘omnicrisis’? On Free State today, Joe and Dion debate the coverage of Sinn Fein. Is it just a new form of IRAing, a way of denying Sinn Fein a platform to talk about how they would change Ireland or are these serious issues being covered seriously by the media. Joe argues that the talk of glove puppets and unseen controllers insults thos...

The world is divided into the bereaved and unbereaved. On Free State today, Dion talks about the death of his mother, the enduring pain of loss and how some sadness has deepened with time. Dion and Joe ask the question we all will face-how do we keep going when death visits us? They talk about the rituals we have to cope with death and they also make up after a weekend falling out. Free...

What is the difference between winning and losing? In 2023, Ireland lost another World Cup quarter final to New Zealand, but was this different to their other failures? In the second part of the Johnny Sexton interview, he talks to Dion and Joe about how Ireland had only one goal in 2023 and what failure felt like. He speaks about other obsessives, the agonies he put his body through and why...

What drove Johnny Sexton? What did he have that separated him from other players? On a Free State Special, one of the world’s great rugby players joins Dion and Joe to talk about obsession, falling out with people and Irish rugby culture. He explains why telling the truth in his autobiography was difficult and he gets to the bottom of a story involving Tadhg Furlong and duck eggs. Free State with...

"Almost nobody in the world who has ever got power has wanted to lose it,” author Robert Harris tells Dion during this special episode of Free State. Harris was once a political journalist and he became close to Tony Blair but absorbed the change in Blair as he moved from everyman to a messianic figure. Dion and Harris discuss what drives politicians and how they are different from the r...

In 2002, Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the US congress as the drums for war in Iraq beat louder and louder. “If you take out Saddam I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region,” Netanyahu said. He supported the decision to invade Iraq. “The choice of Iraq is a good choice, it’s the right choice.” Netanyahu was horrifically wrong but he had established his creden...

Since the horrors of October 7, Israel has waged war on the people of Gaza with genocidal intent. The slaughter now has spread to Lebanon with the west offering little but hollow words and repeating the mantra that Israel has the right to defend itself. On Free State, Joe and Dion look at how it reached this point and how the media has failed not only Palestinians but the world. There’s also the l...

If you are building a bike shed in the Oireachtas or the new children’s hospital, Ireland is a good place to live. But what about those marginalised who ask: what does Ireland stand for? Whether it is Gaza, Lebanon, housing or asylum seekers, the ruling elite recoils from action that would have meaning. On Free State, Joe and Dion look at how Ireland is entering a dark place, unable to resist...

How do you reason with a 13-day-old baby? On Free State, Joe deals with the after effects of a night trying to soothe an unsoothable newborn while Dion feels like he’s taken a role in Falling Down. They look at Israel’s attack on Lebanon. Israel is preparing for a ground invasion of the country. Will the west do anything to stop them after the sickening failure to stop the slaughter in G...

In one of the most personal episodes of Free State, Joe talks to Dion about his childhood growing up surrounded by violence and trauma. He talks about how it shaped who he was as a TV personality and a barrister who wanted acclaim and recognition. But too much was never enough so he reached a point where he knew it would have to change. He speaks honestly about the decision to seek help and h...

Today’s Free State is the podcast you didn’t know you needed. Joe provides tips on nappy changing, getting babies to sleep and dealing with the unreasonable demands of a newborn baby. Joe was in Belfast last week. He saw the families protesting over the Legacy Act lay out the shoes of their loved ones. It was an act of memory and honour. It was a reminder of the trauma endured by so many. Dion and...

When the British government announced a public inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane, the news was met with the same noises from the usual chorus. On Free State, Joe tells the real story of the Finucane family, a story of a mixed marriage and children raised to be non sectarian. Pat Finucane was murdered in 1989, a brutal time in what Heaney called ‘the man-killing parishes’ that Northern Irelan...

On Free State today we celebrate life. Joe spent the weekend on the maternity ward and he speaks with joy and wonder about the experience of being present as a new life come into the world. He is equally in awe of those who work in hospitals and provide guidance and inspiration during the darkest hours before the dawn. One of those who contacted Joe this week was John Finucane. John Finucane watch...

Donald Trump was undermined by his own narcissism in his presidential debate. Kamala Harris took him apart with a lawyer’s precision. On Free State, Joe considers how he would deal with Trump in a debate but also how the genocide in Gaza is being normalised. Dion and Joe look at the story of the Two Nice Jewish Boys podcast and how they joked about ‘erasing’ Gaza. What does it tell us about the hu...

The Tánaiste Micheál Martin condemned the booing of God Save The King by Irish fans before Ireland played England on Saturday. The Daily Mail called for England manager Lee Carsley to be sacked before the game because he said he wouldn’t sing the anthem. On Free State today, Joe and Dion wonder why this plastic patriotism is indulged and why real patriotism can transform a country. Dion was a...