Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

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...

Causes, as we know, are notoriously bloodthirsty,’ James Baldwin wrote.  What does it do to do somebody when they have crossed the boundary into a world of killing and destruction? How do they enforce their code in a place untethered from the one the rest of us inhabit? On Free State today, Joe and Dion follow on from Tuesday’s episode on Stakeknife by looking at how rules of organisations li...

When the state sanctions it, is it murder? When the state protects its agents from the consequences of their crimes, how long before cynicism corrupts society? On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at the dark and dirty existence of Freddie Scappaticci, MI5 and the British state. They argue about what the report tells us about the IRA and the British government, while Joe tells the extraordinary...

In 1948, Herbert Simms, under increasing pressure from the demands of his job, took his own life. The pressure came from his job as Dublin’s housing architect. Between 1932 and the time of his death, Simms was responsible for building 17,000 homes for the ordinary people of Dublin. On Free State today Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin O Broin talks about his beautiful new book on Simms, produc...

During the heroin epidemic in Dublin in the 1980s, one drug baron infamously remarked as he was jailed, ‘ If you think we’re bad, wait til you see what’s coming after us .’ Australia banned social media for under 16s this week but will the next wave of online consumption be devastating for us all?  If we thought social media was bad, what is coming next in terms of AI and the artificial frien...

When Gianni Infantino created FIFA’s Peace Prize, how could he have imagined that the inaugural winner would be his great friend Donald Trump. But there Trump was on stage in Washington, presenting himself with the peace medal. On Free State , Joe and Dion look at how FIFA cosied up to autocrats, snake oil salesmen and Trump. They examine how money not only drives professional sport but has become...

“I believe to the core of my soul that the response Israel is taking, and with it the American support both for that response and for the status quo of the occupation, will only lead to more and deeper suffering for both the Israeli and the Palestinian people.” With these words, in October 2023, Josh Paul quit the US State Department. He was protesting over the Biden administration’s ongoing fundi...

Are there reasons to embrace AI? Are the doomsayers wrong and the apocalyptic warnings overstated? What if an ordinary person can access medical or legal advice for fraction of the cost and difficulty it takes today? But what if there is no room for an ordinary person?  On Free State today Dion and Joe look at the next frontier. In the technological revolution, we have allowed ourselves to be...

Daniel Lambert is many things, football man, band manager and activist. Kneecap’s manager was the driving force behind the motion approved by the FAI last month to ban Israel from international football. On Free State today he talks to Dion and Joe about how the motion was about breaking the rules not the genocide in Gaza.  He speaks too about Kneecap and the extraordinary resilience they sho...

Oisin Murphy has been the Champion Jockey in Britain for the past two years. He will travel the country and beyond in pursuit of a winner. Horse racing is an addiction but it is not his only addiction. On Free State today Oisin Murphy speaks about his alcoholism and how he fooled himself into believing he could drink like a gentleman. He discusses with Dion the ways a drinker will fool himself and...

When Donald Trump’s Education Secretary Linda McMahon called ‘AI’ ‘A-One’ it was treated as a gaffe that said a lot about the intellectual calibre of his cabinet. But it told us something else too. On Free State today we look at how the world has been conned by AI to advance the ambitions of the new colonists, the Tech Bros. Does it matter that many expect the AI bubble to burst or is the relentle...

Sport is what sustains so many of us through the winter. Ireland is a sporting country but what does that mean? On Free State today, we ask if Ireland is really a sports mad country or are we just a nation of bandwagon jumpers, willing fleeced by those charging huge money for tickets? We ask if the communities who get so much from sport deserve more support and wonder how much is too much for a ti...

Colin Davidson is one of Ireland’s great artists. In a raw and powerful conversation, he joins us on Free State today to talk about a childhood that saw him find an escape into art. He speaks of how he approaches his subjects and what he is trying to find when he paints people as diverse as Martin McGuinness and the Queen. And he considers the question, is there anyone he wouldn’t paint? Hosted on...

What are the things that matter in this world? What do we mean by the common good? On Free State today Joe talks about the extraordinary beauty and grace he is witnessing in the Mayo Hospice at the moment. When life and death visit us we understand what is important and we grasp what is valuable.   Joe and Dion also talk more about the extraordinary week of football and the achievements...

Troy Parrott has transformed the mood of the nation.  On Free State today we ask why the player and the Ireland team have had the impact they had? What is it about a game like football, even at a time when it is scarred by money and greed, that brings people together in a profound way? Dion looks at Troy Parrott and wonders about Ireland’s need for a saviour. Parrott was tipped for greatness...