Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

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 rule them we believe, but is that realistic? Is it any more preposterous than the idea of Donald Trump as president was ten years ago? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 about rising crime in the city.We look at why these stories resonate. Why are so many people determined, not just to believe the worse, but to believe things that aren't happening at all?But in this climate of fear, opportunists prowl. Men like Conor McGregor are hoping that if people feel lost, they will look for salvation where they have never looked before. On Free State today, Dion and Joe tell us why, actually everything is going to be ok. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“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 what does that mean?How is that outrage has become so pointless, lacking as it does nothing but the weasel words of support from western governments?On Free State today, Dion and Joe ask if words can help at this point? They look at the post on X from Mo Salah and the impact it had and they consider the statements from Bono and U2.Why does one have the power to make a difference and the other does nothing except salve the conscience of a rock star activist who has stayed silent for too long?Why do the words of Anas Al-Sharif haunt us and the words from Bono remind us of how the west has failed? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

‘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 more information.

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 of how Ali responded to the unconditional love he encountered and how it changed him. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 heatwave brought people to the brink in ways nobody could have imagined. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 the defence industry? Their companies have names designed to disguise their true intentions. Are we being asked to surrender to them if not the Russians? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 into the hot seat while Dion is away on today's episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 be described as the truth.On Free State today she talks about how journalism has failed in Gaza, a failure brought about the desire for false balance.She recalls her own time in Gaza and how the place she knew has gone, destroyed utterly in a genocide where once again much of the media have failed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 contained in Croke Park?Joe and Dion also look at the princes who have taken the stage at Croke Park before. Dion looks at old Kerry lore and remembers the players he was told about by his Kerry father. He also reveals a family split that will become apparent on final day. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 consequences of which are still being felt today. Only that can explain what happened in the second half. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 lived in New York for a generation and he reflect on how the media and the Democrats have enabled the rise of a dictator. And on All Ireland hurling final weekend, he shares the story of the time his father played hurling for Cork. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 politics of unionism and the Orange order in Northern Ireland. When the North Down Cricket Club cross-community sports camp sports was blocked following an online backlash it was a perfect example of how narrow mindedness hurts everyone. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 new rules before anyone else and what that tells us about his managerial genius. Dion has been at the England-India game at Lord's and he talks about the instinctive uncoachable genius that can often undo any system. But will genius be enough to undo Jim McGuinness's? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 novel and he talks about the work he's doing with his friend Stephen Rea on the actor's memoirs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 artistic installation.Have we failed to understand the subversive power and artistic merit of Loyalism for generations? Or should we look at this artistic protest as a brutal sign of a community punching down as they search for people to blame? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 when community matters and when we lose sight of it. Dion also offers a solution to a problem that doesn't exist: how to fix hurling Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Jacaranda Tree.On June 23 Israel bombed Evin Prison during their attacks on Iran and 71 people including jailed dissidents were killed. On Free State today Sahar Delijani recounts her own experiences in Iran and why those experiences have made her more fearful of the west and Israel's demonisation of Iran. She talks about how the dangerous talk of regime change threatens ordinary Iranians. She explains why people have lost faith in the west and why Israel's attempts to look for change would be laughable if it wasn't so dangerous. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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, Joe and Dion look at why Bob Vylan are not a distraction, it is more dangerous than that. Instead they explain why they, like Kneecap, are being turned into a futile sacrifice, not to distract from the genocide but to brainwash the gullible into believing they aren't seeing what they know they're seeing.In the week that Palestine Action were banned alongside two neo Nazi groups, they ask what has happened to a society that foams with outrage over comments on a stage but remains quiet about a genocide. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Dion confesses to his own doubts about Clifford. But does Joe have anything to apologise for or should the world be apologising to him for misunderstanding what he does? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 is on the frontline of this imperialist project. Water and energy resources will be drained as empires are built while humans will be expendable.Karen also tells us why the term Artificial Intelligence was a marketing term in the first place which set the technology on a destructive path. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 hurling.They also consider the All Ireland quarter finals and Dion's credentials as a Kerry supporter are challenged by Joe, who definitely isn't buying it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 with than the bible? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 out the truth and why Netanyahu is running rings around the US when it comes to war with Iran. He explains why the establishment desperately wants to take his side. He talks too about why Joe Biden, not just Netanyahu, should be facing charges at the International Criminal Court. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 and why taking a stand against genocide and Israel's warmongering matters more than ever.Emotions are tested in the podcast when Joe accuses Dion of both-sidesing what is happening in Iran. The argument gets heated and ends in an unexpected fashion... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 footballers aren't serious people after their defeat to Donegal. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“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 the main characters like Charles Treveleyan and the failure of an ideology that believed in the pure virtue of the market. “The blight was a consequence of a novel pathogen spreading among fields of vulnerable plants,” Scanlan writes. “But the famine—a complex ecological, economic, logistical, and political disaster—was a consequence of colonialism.”Scanlan looks at how Ireland has dealt with the famine and how the potato itself became a symbol for those who blamed the Irish people themselves for the great hunger. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 root cause of this savagery which the police described as feral. Is it hatred or fear, supremacy or inferiority? Joe looks at how hate has been transferred from nationalists to other minorities - with plenty held back for nationalists too and projects like Casement Park. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“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 IPAS centre in West Dublin described the scenes when families were deported last week and sent back to Nigeria.“This is not a pleasant part of my job,” Jim O'Callaghan said on RTE. On X he said, “Another deportation flight left Dublin last night and landed safely this morning in Lagos, Nigeria. There were 35 people on board who had received but had not complied with Deportation Orders.”On Free State today, Dion and Joe asked who these messages are aimed at? What is Ireland doing to combat the fantasies being spun by people like Conor McGregor about a lost Ireland that never existed?Is appealing to those with concerns about immigration necessary to head off the far right or is this world without compassion and empathy Ireland's dystopian future? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 from Ireland to the city. While it returned a nationalist MP, it also had 50 Orange Order lodge by the start of the 20th century and a 12th of July parade still takes place in the city today. Writer David Swift discusses his book Scouse Republic. We ask if the city's Irish heritage contributed to its sense of separateness and its determination to fight the establishment when attacked by Thatcher and the media that demonised the city after Hillsborough.They also ask if Jurgen Klopp's Christianity contributed to his status in the city and tell the extraordinary story of the time capsule Jim Larkin buried in Liverpool. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 too long and why this verdict might be a long awaited turning point. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“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 over the past 20 months has destroyed a land and a people.He talks about the playgrounds that are no longer playgrounds but graveyards for the children who used to play there. They have no other use in a land where genocide is taking place and more than 50,000 children have been killed by the IDF.Morgan speaks about the four pillars of humanitarian work and why he has been compelled to speak out since he returned. It is not about taking sides, he says, it is about advocating for the truth. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 drink and its consequences can be handed down through generations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 what it means for the rest of Britain, as well as Ireland.They look at the frenzy within minutes of the Liverpool Parade crash to find the identity of the suspect, but only if it fitted with their existing prejudices.They identify how nationalism always ends in an assertion of supremacy.While Joe has some good things to say about Fintan O'Toole and Dion offers a solution to the Celtic Soul Brothers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.On Free State today, Joe provides a legal insight into the charge and what it is intended to do. They look too at the story of Hezbollah and why they are a more complex organisation than some allow.They also consider the chilling effect when artists worldwide are silenced and why it is happening now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Ireland. Patterson talks about his own identity too, growing up in a Protestant estate. Belfast has changed he says, but he reflects on what he believes is still holding integration back. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gary Lineker will leave the BBC this weekend but why has it come to this?On Free State, Joe and Dion look at how Lineker had a target on his back for years but when he spoke out about Gaza, the clock was ticking. As Israel's actions in Gaza become more atrocious and babies starve, more and more people are becoming tarred. How has the western world allowed this to happen? How have so many people been silenced when it comes to speaking out on genocide?Joe recalls a situation in his own life when he had to defend himself from accusations of antisemitism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Keir Starmer said Britain risked becoming an ‘island of strangers', in whose interests was he speaking?When Gary Lineker left the BBC, was it because he unwittingly shared an antisemitic post - which he subsequently apologised for - or because he had been outspoken on the genocide in Gaza?On Free State today Dion and Joe look at how the world is ordered and what needs to change. They examine how inequality is now hardwired into systems and ask what can be done about it.Joe also has a story of inequality of his own and naturally it involves the Mayo footballers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Jon Trigg was sent to Northern Ireland as a young officer, he was going to war. It wasn't the Troubles or a conflict but a war.Trigg served his tour of duty in 1993 and moved on, but, unusually he returned, not as a soldier but as a writer.In an extraordinary conversation today, Jon Trigg talks to Joe and Dion about his new book on the IRA in Derry. Joe and Jon speak frankly, and sometimes with tension, about the conflict, but also recall the figures from the IRA they both knew.He tells of his difficulty in getting former IRA men to trust him and where they found common ground. Jon recalls too the decisions that led to the Paratroopers moving into Derry on Bloody Sunday and the massacre that followed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When is a cocaine spoon not a cocaine spoon? When is a tissue a wrap of an illegal substance?On Free State today look at how a story spreads online as it did over the weekend when Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer and Friedrich Merz were filmed on a train going to Kyiv. Soon the idea that drug paraphernalia was in the carriage took hold online. The story was dismissed as fantasy and Russian propaganda but does it demonstrate something more profound: a severe distrust in what people have been asked to believe in the west?Dion doesn't think so and he rants at Joe about the story. But is he just a gullible centrist or is Joe in danger of falling for the craziest online fantasies? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lisa Harding's stunning new book The Wildelings is set in a fictional university in Dublin. On Free State today, Lisa talks to us about her own time at Trinity in the 90s, when students would be rated on their looks. She talks to Dion about the male gaze and their shared experiences of drink and how when she became an actress she turned to tequila to take the edge off her anxiety. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Since we launched the podcast, we have never been afraid to ask the big questions. This has sometimes come at a cost but that is the way it has to be. Today we ask one of the questions that will define this generation: what is a skort?On Free State, Joe and Dion wonder why this issue which should be so simply resolved in favour of women in sport became so complicated and laced with bullshit. There are working groups and committees working to resolve the issue going forward to the satisfaction of all stakeholders.More importantly, what does it tell us about the world today and its obsession with triviality that the skort takes up so much airtime? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"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.On Free State today Omar El Akkad joins Joe and Dionto talk about how the world looked away. His magisterial new book One Day Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This details the complicity of the west. Gaza is enduring a famine and Israel maintains a blockade where children's hunger is a weapon of war and an instrument of monumental cruelty. Omar's voice is a compelling and necessary counterpoint. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rosita Sweetman wanted to change the world. Like many of her generation, she was inspired by the civil rights movement in the US. She became a founder of the women's liberation movement in Ireland. She was fearless and it was fun.But her life wasn't. On Free State today Rosita Sweetman talks about her new memoir Girl With A Fork In A World of Soup. She tells us about having to divorce her family and the extraordinary scene when at a family meeting, her sisters were asked by a psychiatrist if any of them had slept with her ex husband. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"We know no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality,” a man once said, When it has come to the pursuit of Kneecap, the ridiculousness has extended far beyond the British public to its media and politicians too. It has reached the Irish political class and media as well.Kneecap have apologised to the families of murdered MPs but still they are pursued by those lost in what Philip Roth called the “ecstasy of sanctimony”.On Free State, Joe and Dion ask what does it tell us about the ability to comment freely in the modern world? At a time when n it seems critical to be able to speak out, it is under constant threat.Dion also recalls a GAA road trip while Joe explains why he considers Jesus Christ a role model. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Micheál Martin has called on Kneecap ‘to urgently clarify' their views on Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as killing Tory MPs. Why? How is society served by the Taoiseach involving himself in this confected outrage?On Free State today Joe and Dion look at the hysteria surrounding Kneecap since their Coachella appearance and their statements in support of Palestine.While some might believe they are just experiencing the usual backlash from the establishment to any anarchic act, the attempt to silence them is in fact part of something more insidious. The response to the Louis Theroux documentary is part of the same motivation. But is the truth about Gaza, the West Bank and Israel no longer something that can be silenced? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Each of the entries included in the book has the same ending.” Peadar Thompson wrote those haunting words in his introduction to Lost Gaels, the story of GAA members killed in Ireland during the Troubles. On Free State today Peadar Thompson is the guest and talks about his extraordinary book. It details, not just the horrific nature of how these GAA people lost their lives, but also their lives within the community and, most profoundly, within the GAA.“To be a GAA member in the north back then was to put your head above the parapet,” Peadar says. He provides the profiles in courage of those who wanted nothing more than to lead ordinary lives but who became targets often because of nothing more than a love of the GAA. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Pope Francis's death was announced by the Vatican this week, the world found the words to pay tribute.From Kings to Prime Ministers to Presidents, everyone reached for the most appropriate tribute. Even Donald Trump was looking forward to the funeral.But what does the reaction from unionist parties in the north tell us about the loyalist mindset?On Free State, Dion and Joe look at what the pope, the Irish language, Casement Park and a border poll tell us about the supremacist mindset.They argue about Micheál Martin's talk about reconciliation before a united Ireland and wonder what does it actually mean? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Eamonn Sweeney's life changed on a June day in the year 2000.He was a sportswriter enjoying the traditional rhythm of the GAA summer as he arrived at Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney.Suddenly he was hit by a bomb and couldn't put one foot in front of the other.It was the beginning of a descent into isolation and fear.On Free State today, Eamonn Sweeney talks about the terror of those days when travelling became a nightmare and he retreated into a cocoon.He speaks about his new book and how writing it helped to restore him as he found purpose again. It is a story about the community and the power of the GAA Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The history of the far right in Ireland is long and dark. From the Blueshirts and Eoin O'Duffy to the Nazi collaborator Sean Russell and the return in modern times. On today's Free State, historian Padraig Óg Ó Ruairc talks about his new book on the far right and how he entered into the world of conspiracy to learn more about the movement.He talks about the Blueshirts and how close Ireland came to a coup and why even when the far right seem absurd they can't be underestimated. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.