Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

One of Ireland’s great writers Joseph O’Neill is today’s guest on Free State. O’Neill’s novels Netherland and Godwin have reflected the centrality of sport in people’s lives. He talks about why sport matters so much and why in Ireland it matters even more than that. He reflects on his own upbringing and how he was raised in Holland before becoming a barrister and practising law in London. He has l...

The Fairground Park pool in St Louis Missouri was the largest pool in America when it was built in 1919. It had enough room for 10,000 swimmers. All of them white. But when integration came to Missouri, rather than allow all races to swim, the Fairground Park pool closed.  This phenomenon was explored by writer Heather McGhee and on Free State today, Joe and Dion examine the drained pool poli...

Jim McGuinness isn’t a pragmatist. He is, Joe says, a pragmatic extremist. On Free State , Joe and Dion look at the clash between genius and control.  Through the history of sport, geniuses have always made their own way and systems have been devised to stop them. Will this be the case when David Clifford’s Kerry play McGuinness’s Donegal? We look at how McGuinness saw the opportunity in the...

In January, Timothy O’Grady joined Dion and Joe on the podcast to talk about Say Nothing and what it got wrong. What stayed in people’s minds was his reading from his novel Monaghan. With the publication of that novel this summer, Tim returns to Free State to talk about what he has learned about war and killing through years talking to people involved in the Troubles. He explains how it shaped his...

When the pictures emerged of the loyalist bonfire in Moygashel in Co Tyrone, most people were horrified at the migrant boat effigy at the top.  Politicians condemned it and called for action but others insisted it was in fact an act or ‘artistic protest’. On Free State , Joe and Dion look at the celebrations around the Twelfth of July, not as the desperate acts of a lost people, but as an art...

What kind of world do you think you’re living in? Most people when asked will have one view but on Free State today, Joe explains a surprising truth.  Joe was in Portugal last week when Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva died so tragically. As Joe watched the funeral he noticed things about the community of Gondomar where Jota and his brother were from. Joe and Dion talk about the times w...

Sahar Delijani was born in Evin Prison in Tehran. Her mother, who had been part of the movement that toppled the Shah in Iran, had been jailed as the new regime silenced some of the coalition that brought it to power. Her uncle was subsequently one of many political prisoners executed by the regime in 1988. Sahar Delijani wrote about those experiences in her bestselling novel, Children of Jacarand...

In the aftermath of having their US visas revoked following their comments at Glastonbury, Bob Vylan issued a statement saying they were “a distraction from the story”. “We are not for the death of Jews, Arabs or any other race or group of people,” their statement said. “We are for the dismantling of a violent military machine … a machine that has destroyed much of Gaza.”  On Free State today...

On Sunday at Croke Park the glory belonged to Kerry but who was responsible for this victory and will Joe have to apologise? On Free State today Joe and Dion look at how Kerry beat Armagh and David Clifford‘s role in the All-Ireland champions’ downfall. Joe accuses Dion of failing to read beyond the headline of his column which was referenced in the aftermath by Kerry manager Jack O’Connor. ...

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 how Ireland...

The world seems to be intent on tapping into humanity’s worst instincts. Tech companies ensure the algorithms keep us enraged and fearful, but is there a resistance movement?  On Free State today Dion tries to persuade Joe that Test match cricket is part of a broader cultural phenomenon but will Joe buy it? Joe looks at how Kilkenny was transformed from a cricket county to the cradle of hurli...

When Donald Trump gave the order to bomb Iran, the language of war was mobilised. It is a language where death and misery means peace and love. On Free State , Joe and Dion look at how war is sold and why the language of war is hard to distinguish from erotica.  The Old Testament was cited by many in America as why they stood with Israel. But did the contributions of AIPAC have more to do wit...

Fintan Drury trained as a journalist before becoming a hugely significant figure in Irish corporate life, something he has talked about previously with honesty and some regret. He returned to his journalistic roots and the tragedy in Gaza compelled him to speak out. His new book Catastrophe is the story of Nakba II.  On Free State today, he explains why he had to go to the West Bank to find o...

When Kneecap arrived at Westminster Magistrates Court, the scene was like Beatlemania if the Beatles’ fans were supporting a Free Palestine. Kneecap were in court for the first hearing in the case against Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, whose stage name is Mo Chara. On Free State today Joe explains why he isn’t part of the legal team and what will happen next. They look at the politically motivated charges an...

The world is moving closer to annihilation and still people beat the drumbeats for war. On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at how Israel’s attack on Iran is a case of history repeating itself.  Iran is the bogey man that allows warmongering to prosper and no matter how many times this has happened before, the noises are still the same and as bloodthirsty. Joe also explains why Mayo footba...

“Political history, not natural history, turned a potato failure into a famine.” Between 1845 and 1851, one million people on the island of Ireland died of famine-related causes. Another 1.5 million people emigrated.  On Free State today, historian Padraic X Scanlan, author of the outstanding history of the Famine, Rot, joins us to discuss what caused Ireland to suffer as it did. He considers...

In Ballymena this week, those who have come from abroad to make their lives in the town were putting union jacks in the window in the hope it would prevent them being attacked. In the random and brutal rioting that saw the homes and businesses of foreigners attacked and terrorised this was they did to protect themselves and their families.  On Free State today, Joe and Dion ask what is the ro...

“The kids were coming down for breakfast when these five men wearing cargo pants, big jackets arrived. They came into the third floor, stood in front of the bedroom door, took the three kids back in and told them to pack up. We heard them say: ‘You are going to be deported.’ As soon as the other children heard then they were all crying. It was such a horrific scene.” This was how a resident in an...

TP O’Connor was elected as MP for the Liverpool constituency of Liverpool Scotland in 1885. He represented that constituency from then until his death in 1929. TP O’Connor was an Irish Nationalist MP and he is the only Irish Nationalist ever elected to a constituency outside the island of Ireland. On Free State today, we look at the story of Liverpool and Ireland and the tensions that travelled fr...

When a jury found in Gerry Adams’s favour in his case against the BBC, executives from the British Broadcasting Corporation sounded like they had won. On Free State today, Joe and Dion disagree about the importance of the verdict in the libel trial. Joe explains why the jury reached that verdict and why the BBC’s evidence was flawed. They look at how the BBC was a propaganda tool in the north for...

“Our revenge will be the laughter of our children,” Bobby Sands famously said. But what happens in a land where children are being killed in their thousands? On Free State today, trauma surgeon Morgan McMonagle provides a harrowing insight into his time working in the Nasser Hospital in Gaza. Morgan went to Gaza for the first time in 2024 and returned in 2025. He talks about how Israel’s onslaught...

How do we make sense of a world when it no longer contains the people we love? How do we make peace with the past when it’s still a mystery? On Free State today, writer Oona Frawley talked about her new memoir This Interim Time. A book about the loss of her parents and the gratitude that comes from her children. She talks about her own father’s struggle with alcoholism and Dion reflects on how dri...

In a recent survey, supporters of Nigel Farage ranked ‘being English’ ahead of ‘being a parent’ as a signifier of who they are. How has it come to this? Even as the dissatisfaction with Brexit grows, Farage who drove so much of the vote by playing on the most irrational fears, is England's most popular politician.  On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at the rise of English nationalism and...

When Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh was charged with terror offences, it made global headlines. The world reported the charge that the man had allegedly displaying a flag in support of proscribed organisation Hezbollah in November 2024. Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh is better known as Mo Chara of Kneecap and he is alleged to have committed the act at a gig in Kentish Town in London 18 months ago. He denies the charge. O...

On the 20th December, 2004, £26.5 million was stolen in plain sight from the Northern Bank in Belfast. This wasn't a victimless crime, but some saw it as a caper. Most believed only one organisation was capable of pulling off an operation of this scale. On Free State today, the great writer Glenn Patterson joins us to discuss his new book on the Northern Bank robbery and what it tells us about Ire...