Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

The great Michael Lewis is one of our favourite ever guests on Free State . On an October morning at the end of a long book tour, he asked us to talk about anything at all, not just his latest book.  In this timeless piece he talks about life, love, loss, and the pain of losing his daughter Dixie in a car crash. (Originally aired in two parts - October 31st/November 2nd 2023) Hosted on Acast....

In 2012, while swimming in the Galapagos Islands, Delphine Kelly suffered an aortic aneurysm and drowned. On Free State today, Julia Kelly talks about her extraordinary memoir Still which is a conversation to her mother, built around the cold and austere language of the post mortem. She talks about her troubled relationship with her father the Fine Gael politician John Kelly who died when she was...

Is Donald Trump right for once? Is this the deal to end all deals? And could anyone else have pulled it off? On Free State today, Donald Trump’s role as the last American emperor is examined. Is his Gaza peace deal an example of how his ego and self interest drive people to achieve things normal politicians couldn’t?  Is this his great legacy or will it fall apart because like so many things...

Ian Paisley Jr says he might be open to persuasive arguments over a United Ireland. The DUP says it is not interested in engaging or being persuaded on ‘the so called merits’ of a United Ireland. On Free State today, we ask what does this tell us about the worthy concept of reconciliation and is it now effectively a unionist veto on a United Ireland? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...

Is there any point to the presidential election anymore?  Maria Steen who failed to get on the ballot has called for the presidential election to be cancelled and run again following Jim Gavin’s withdrawal. On Free State today, we ask why Maria thinks democracy has failed?  Joe and Dion disagree on her chances of getting elected if she’d been a candidate. But she isn’t, so does it matter...

What was Jim Gavin thinking? What was going through his head when he decided he would like to be Fianna Fail’s candidate for president. On Free State today Joe talks about the conversations he has had with Jim Gavin and why he was a good man, going for the wrong role with the wrong people.  Joe and Dion look at what brought Gavin down and why the campaign was doomed even before the weekend re...

In January 2025, Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Socialist, running for mayor of New York had an eight per cent chance of winning the race. Today, he has an 83 per cent chance and Donald Trump calls him a “100 per cent communist lunatic. The story of how Mamdani has defied not only the odds but the establishment is a story of how many are rejecting the media narratives. Mamdani spoke out against th...

Where did Catherine Connolly’s belief in social justice come from? If she is elected president, how will she use the presidency to advance those beliefs? On a Free State special, Catherine Connolly talks to Dion and Joe about the truth about her presidential bid. She explains why her comments about Hamas only reflected the reality of life for people in Gaza and why the media search for sensational...

The Freedom Flotilla is reaching a critical point in its journey to Gaza. In the next 24 hours, those aboard the 50 ships will reach what is believed to be the danger zone for interception by the Israelis. Nobody knows what will happen next. On Free State today, Joe and Dion talk to Caoimhe Butterly, one of those on one of the ships in the flotilla.  She explains the serenity that those on bo...

“He wasn’t the kind of person who ever greeted you,” Ireland’s former president Mary McAleese says of David Trimble, who was a law student at Queen’s University when Trimble was a lecturer. But on this day he did. He was seeking people out and telling them it was a “wonderful day”. The day was the Monday after Bloody Sunday and McAleese believed she knew why. “It wasn’t actually a reference to the...

When Dave Zirin flew home to America last week, as a precaution he wrote the telephone numbers of a lawyer and an Irish politician on his arm. He had been away for only a week but a week is a long time in an authoritarian state.  While he had been gone, JD Vance had declared an article about Charlie Kirk’s death in The Nation, the magazine Dave works for, to be ‘soulless and evil’.  Dave...

When Mary Lou McDonald announced a ‘game changing’ candidate many eyes looked to Joe Brolly. But was he ever in the running and would Dion have voted for him? On Free State today, Dion and Joe look at what Sinn Féin’s backing of Catherine Connolly means for the presidential campaign.  They also wonder if Jim Gavin can redeem himself after farmgate and Joe reflects on Gavin’s words about Gaza....

What happens when a man tries to take up hurling at 41? What does he learn about himself and Ireland’s relationship with its fabled national game. On Free State today, Second Captains co-host Ciaran Murphy tells us what he learned about Ireland when he joined his father’s old club in West Waterford. Are the obstacles to more people playing hurling all to do with the skills demanded or are there ot...

At the age of 45, Leo Varadkar decided to resign as Taoiseach. Many people wondered why. In an extraordinarily frank interview on Free State today, Leo Varadkar talks about how finding peace in his personal life dulled his political ambition. He speaks about his failings as a politician and a man. He explains why he believes in a united Ireland but isn’t a nationalist. He criticises Keir Starmer’s...

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...