Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

Who was Charlie Kirk and what had he got to do with Ireland? On a heated episode of Free State , Dion and Joe argue about how to respond to the murder of Charlie Kirk. Is it right simply to commiserate or do the ideas he advanced need to be challenged?  They look at the rise of Kirk and how the MAGA movement has reacted to his killing. Do people who disagree with everything he stood for...

Diarmuid Lyng led the life many believe is the dream. But it wasn’t his dream. On Free State today he talks about how there has to be another way. How there has to be a version of ourselves outside the consumer western narrative that occupies so much of our lives. He explains what he is hoping to achieve with Wild Irish Retreats. And why the answers are all around us. Hosted on Acast. See acast.co...

What is it like to cover the Donald Trump White House? How should the media engage with the presidency in a time of crisis? On Free State today, Niall Stanage talks to Joe and Dion about his time in America speaking truth to power. He recalls his encounters with the Biden official John Kirby over Gaza.  Has the deferential nature of the media in America led too many to take a step backwards?...

The Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson declared last week that Donald Trump had been an FBI informant working to take down Jeffrey Epstein. He subsequently said he might have got it wrong.  In Britain Reform had their party conference with the BBC’s political editor gushing about the ‘insurgency vibe’. On Free State , Joe and Dion ask if the media knows how to handle the ris...

Ireland is a rural country. We believe that the values that sustain us are values that have been shaped by our struggle for land and our struggles on the land. But as the climate emergency reaches a point of no return, how damaging have these foundational myths about Ireland been? On Free State today John Gibbons talks about Ireland’s failure in tackling climate change. He explains why farming tod...

When Nigel Farage arrived in Washington this week, a US congressman Jamie Raskin spoke the truth about this snake oil salesman.  In Britain the worst of Farage’s impulses are now indulged. On Free State today, Dion and Joe look at what the writer Tanjil Rashid has called ‘the age of deportation’. How have countries slipped closer to the authoritarian way of life and why is it being allowed to...

Why does Jim Gavin want to be president?  What does a man in the prime of his life with a record of success and achievement gain from going to the Aras? On Free State today Joe explains what makes his friend Jim Gavin tick. He explains his gift of leadership and how he serves his ego by giving power to others. Dion offers a reason that a Jim Gavin presidency would be important. They also look...

Last Monday night, Newcastle United played Liverpool in a game which told the story of the Premier League. One club is owned by Saudi Arabia, the other belongs to an American multisports holding conglomerate. It was played at St James’ Park in front of 50,000 frothing Newcastle supporters who were enraged that their best player had gone on strike because he wants to play for Liverpool. This was a...

"Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s." In Donald Trump’s America you can render unto Donald Trump what is God’s as well. On Free State today, Dion and Joe look at the gangsterism that is taking over Britain and America and how the media fail to challenge it. Trump is intimidating and seizing power in America while Nigel Farage is being elevated by a media that knows what...

‘Northern Ireland,’ Margaret Thatcher said once, ‘is as British as Finchley’ But what if Britain is as Northern Irish as Ballymena?  On Free State today we look at what unites the right wing Tories and the unionist parties. Is it the racism? Is it the punching down on minorities? And what is it about the genocide in Gaza that they admire so much?  In Britain Operation Raise the Colours i...

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 today Keith Don...

Why does Michael Flatley want to be president? Why would anyone want him to be president? On Free State today, Joe and Dion reluctantly engaged with the Irish presidential debate. They look at Michael Flatley and Heather Humphreys as candidates and ask if the country can do better than this. Is Joe in listening mode? What are his own intentions? Dion tries to put Joe on the spot Hosted on Acast. S...

Volodymyr Zelensky put on suit for his meeting with Donald Trump in the White House. During his row with Trump and JD Vance last February, a reporter asked him why he wasn’t wearing a suit. Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov turned up wearing a CCCP sweatshirt, an obvious challenge to Trump. A challenge he failed. Easy to bully Zelensky. Not Russia. This time Zelensky didn’t take any chances....

Would you vote for an AI politician or Simon Harris? Or a robot or Donald Trump? Thomas R Weaver’s dystopian fiction Artificial Wisdom: A Novel imagines a world where by 2050 people are choosing between a human and an AI politician? On Free State we talk to him about the reality of AI and what science fiction can tell us about the world in 25 years’ time.  People would never vote for AI to ru...

When you go out to get a pint of milk, do you bring your essential survival kit in case of attack from rampaging gangs or immediate societal breakdown? If not, why not? On Free State today, Joe and Dion are afraid and have recorded from their panic rooms. Maybe they have been watching too much Fox News. Last week the channel asked ‘What Happened to Dublin?’ and rolled out questionable statistics a...

“If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice.” These words were published on Anas Al-Sharif’s X account after his death. Sharif was a journalist with Al Jazeera and he was killed by Israel while in a tent for journalists outside a hospital in Gaza. The headlines said that ‘global outrage’ was mounting over the killing of Sharif and six others, but...

‘I probably need to start with the s***,’ Tim MacGabhann writes in his memoir. On Free State today, Tim MacGabhann talks about the shit and the salvation. His book is a story of addiction and recovery, a life trying to find something and then finding it in the place he didn’t think it would be. It’s a story of replacing the s*** with something better. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mor...

When Muhammad Ali visited Ireland in 1972, the country was a different place. Nobody believed the greatest sportsman the world has ever seen would fight in Dublin except the men who made it possible. On Free State today Dave Hannigan tells talks about his book The Big Fight - When Ali Conquered Ireland . It is a tale of men with dreams from Kerry and Brooklyn who made it happen. It is also a story...

As Dion celebrates a personal milestone, on Free State today Joe and Dion look at how to live without drink. They consider how dark it can get for those on the other side and what helps people become free. Joe reflects on those he has seen struggle with alcohol and those he has seen create a new and rewarding life for themselves. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the summer of 1976, the world was a different place. In Ireland and Britain, it was a summer of a heatwave. But were there cultural and political changes brought about by the long hot summer of 1976?  On Free State today John Williams, author of a new book Heatwave - the Summer of 1976, Britain at Boiling Point, is our guest. John tells us how that summer changed a country and how the heat...

Have you locked yourself in a panic room? Have you got your tinned foods and toilet rolls in for when the Russians invade? If not, why are you so complacent? Why don’t you understand the threats Ireland faces in the modern world? On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at how Ireland is being told to be afraid. Is there anything to fear or are the warnings designed to create opportunities for...

After Sunday's All Ireland final proved yet again why David Clifford is Superman in shorts, Joe wonders can any team stop a new Golden Years style reign for the Kerry footballers? On Free State today he also looks back on Knockmore Juniors' win over the weekend and explains why the All Ireland final can never quite measure up to the winning feeling with your club. Producer Cormac O'Malley drops in...

As a young reporter Phoebe Greenwood worked as a war correspondent in Gaza. She inhabited the world of fixers where journalists stayed at the Al Deira hotel and Israeli government spokespeople provided statements that contradicted what reporters had witnessed. Greenwood was there during the 2012 conflict and now she has written a novel, Vulture, which is described as a satire, but might as easily...

How do you stop a genius? How does a genius thrive?  David Clifford is the greatest Gaelic football who has ever lived but will that be enough on its own to bring Kerry an All-Ireland? On Free State today, Joe explains the different type of genius that is Jimmy McGuinness. McGuinness has taken advantage of the new rules, the way he took hold of the old but can the spirit of Clifford be contai...

Did Cork lose the All-Ireland hurling final at half time or was defeat guaranteed long before? On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at what a sporting humiliation does to a team and if they can ever recover. Joe identifies failings in the Cork management that led to the defeat on Sunday but it doesn’t end there. He looks at the strike action when Cork were marshalled by Donal Óg Cusack, the cons...