Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

Robert Harris's book have always been about power. His latest Agrippa tells the story of the close friend of the Emperor Augustus as they take power folloing the assassination of Julius Caesar. Harris talks to Dion about how power erodes and all empire die as he looks to the modern world and how democracy is failign. You can learn more about Robert's new book here - https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/463350/agrippa-by-harris-robert/9781529154412

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‘I am not complicit’ Ed Sheeran said in his statement after Macklemore was dropped as a support act on his US tour.

Macklemore had been dropped because he said the words ‘Free Palestine’ on stage. 

Sheeran blamed the promoters and the billionaire Robert Kraft said he put pressure on Sheeran to drop Macklemore.

On Free State today we ask what lies beneath the pressure to silence Macklemore .

What does it tell us about the world that is being shaped by billionaires? Does the response by those including Sheeran’s other support acts tell us something too about a resistance to this world order? Is there a determination to do something about the helplessness so many people feel about a genocide and much more?

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What a weekend for Ireland. Donald Trump flew in and across the land, people whooped and hollered as if these were the greatest days of their lives.

Before he left, Trump had presented the Irish Open trophy to Shane Lowry, removed tariffs on Irish whiskey and united Ireland.

On Free State, Dion and Joe consider the significance of Trump’s comments and whether it brings the prospect of a border poll closer.

Who was in more discomfort from his words, Micheal Martin or the unionist politicians who believed Trump was an ally.

But there are no allies as far as Trump was concerned. Will those cheers at Doonbeg ensure Ireland and unity are looked on favourably? Or will they, as is so often the case with Trump, be viewed as just another transaction which only has significance until the next payment is due?

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The great historian Jill Lepore joins Dion on today's Free State to talk about the history of the artificial state and what we can learn from past movements which attempted to advance the cause of machines. Jill takes us on a journey from the Technocracy movement through to today's AI evangelists.

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When Ed Miliband announced that the UK would take action and sanction illegal Israeli settlements, the response was swift. 

Britain had lost its moral compass, these moves would only aid Benjamin Netanyahu, the real victims were the Palestinian people were among the lines of attack. 

Miliband, who is Jewish, was called a ‘Jew hater’ by Mike Huckabee, the US’s ambassador to Israel.

On Free State today we look at how Israel went on the attack and why it is not a pariah but a model for the future. 

We examine the range of the criticism for anyone who deals in the reality of life in Gaza and the West Bank and details the ethnic cleansing and war crimes that have been committed. 

Will Israel’s approach be viewed dimly in time or will it be seen as a template for the post democratic apocalypse we’re entering?

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What will it take to unite Ireland? In a live Free State we took that question (and Dion) to West Belfast. 

We were joined by Paul Howard, author of the brilliant new novel ‘A Nation Once Again’ about the government department secretly planning for a United Ireland.

In front of a packed crowd, Paul took us through the absurdities of the situation and why bureaucracy says no even if the people say yes.

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Joe and Dion look at the 'cruel and unknowable' Donald Trump, and how Qatar are regretting getting friendly with the 'hyena' in the White House. Meanwhile, the Man With Zero Political Convicton, Keir Starmer, is stepping down as a MP mere weeks after relinquishing his role as Prime Minister - in sharp contrast to Jeremey Corbyn who has remained on to serve his constituents long after leaving his role as leader of the Labour Party.

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Should Andy Burnham have a say in the future of Northern Ireland? Could "Kitchen Appliances : The Musical" be the next big thing at the Fringe? And will Dion be shunned by the Dungiven whatsapp group when he heads to Belfast this Thursday with Joe to interview Paul Howard?

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Referees are abused and derided. They are mocked and pursued but what does their demonisation tell us about the world we live in today? William Ralston talks to Dion about his deep dive into the world of refereeing. He talks about his own attempts to referee at the lowest level and the lack of humanity shown to officials - people - at all levels of sport.

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Few things make Irish people feel more inadequate than being told how well everything functions in Scandinavia. 

We are constantly told about their education systems, its welfare system and its work-life balance.

But have we got it wrong?

On Free State, Philip O’Connor, who has been based in Sweden since 1999, talks to us about the upcoming election in Sweden.

He explains the rise of the Sweden Democrats and how a party with Neo-Nazi origins may now hold the balance of power.

He also tells us how they did it, how they switched from talking about race to talking about culture even if their message is the same. And he explains why Ireland should be concerned.

A reminder that on Sept 3rd, Free State will be live in Belfast with Paul Howard to talk about his brilliant new book ‘A Nation Once Again’. Book your free ticket here - https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/the-free-state-podcast-live-paul-howard-in-conversation-tickets-1998226075984?aff=oddtdtcreator

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‘We recognise sometimes its signature is written in pencil’

With these words Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney declared a trade war with its unreliable neighbour, the United States.

On Free State today, we look at why so few want to assert what Carney stated so baldly, that America under Donald Trump cannot be trusted.

This is a reality the world knows but the leaders instead of acknowledging it, run from it as they try and pretend the world is still the same.

A reminder that on Sept 3rd, Free State will be live in Belfast with Paul Howard to talk about his brilliant new book ‘A Nation Once Again’. Book your free ticket here - https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/the-free-state-podcast-live-paul-howard-in-conversation-tickets-1998226075984?aff=oddtdtcreator

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Annie Jacobsen deals in scenarios. As she says on today's Free State, there are other scenarios around biological war. They are worse. Jacobsen talks to Dion about the world's failure to learn from the pandemic, the Wuhan lab theory and what we can do to prepare for an even more devastating lab leak.

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James McClean’s return to Derry hasn’t worked out as anticipated.

But beyond the headlines, what was at stake when he was on the receiving end of abuse on social media, in the English media and from the football grounds of England?

On Free State today, Dion and Joe look at how McClean was reduced to caricature and how the outrage machine shaped it. 

We also have some Free State news. On Sept 3rd, Free State will be live in Belfast with Paul Howard to talk about his brilliant new book ‘A Nation Once Again’. Book your free ticket here - https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/the-free-state-podcast-live-paul-howard-in-conversation-tickets-1998226075984?aff=oddtdtcreator

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On August 14, Jason Arday was found unresponsive at his home in Battersea in London.

In a statement, his family said they were "in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son".

They added that the “campaign of misinformation was too much for Jason, who was a gentle man and who always wanted to see the best in everyone."

On Free State today, we look at the life and death of Jason Arday. A man who made mistakes in his life but was pursued relentlessly by sections of the media until it became too much.

Was it just sport for them or was there something more sinister at stake?

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"Can you tell us how he died, where and why?" On August 9, 2025, Mo Salah tweeted this above a Uefa post which said "Farewell to Suleiman al-Obeid, the Palestinian Pele". Salah's tweet has been viewed 140 million times. On Free State today, Melissa Reddy talks to Dion about the cultural importance of Mo Salah, how he has been held to a different standard and why his last year at Liverpool wasn't what it seemed.

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Darragh McGee understands sport. As a Donegal man he understands the hold and the importance sport has across this land. So as an academic when he went to investigate the betting industry, he didn’t expect to discover all that he learned about its hold on so many individuals and on society.

On Free State today. Darragh McGee talks to Joe and Dion about his book Imitation Games - How Gambling Hijacked Sport. He explains why the digital age caught everybody by surprise, but while the betting industry was quick to grasp what it could do, the legislators were asleep at the wheel and then slow to act.

He explains what happens to someone who bets and why we are all sitting ducks.

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David Hearn was once an Olympic canoeist. He was facing ten years in a federal prison for allegedly vandalising the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington DC before all the charges were dropped.

‘It’s a relief, but there’s a detachment to that relief of extreme concern for other people and for our country,’ Hearn said,

On Free State today we explain why the story of the Reflecting Pool is a perfect example of how Donald Trump works. 

We look at how Donald Trump captured the United States and what the new book by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Sean tells us about that operation.

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Michael Thomas found the kind of success most writers dream of with his first novel, Man Gone Down, but his life and career took a different direction. Now he has returned with an astonishing memoir, The Broken King. On Free State, he talks to Dion about addiction, race, and retiring to Ireland.

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July was the driest July on record in Ireland and the second hottest since 1900. 

Most of us have enjoyed this summer but should we just now accept our Mediterranean climate and whistle past the climate graveyard.

On Free State today we look at how climate and migration became weapons to protect the elites and sustain inequality. 

Dion and Joe look at the way the events in Ceuta were seized upon. It provided a backdrop for misinformation and fear and another chance to tell you your freedoms were under attack while your freedoms were being trampled on somewhere else.

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In the 1980s, there were 21 days when the temperature in London reached 30 degrees. In 2026 there have been 24.

In Greece, two died in a midair collision between helicopters fighting wildfires. France has seen the greatest civilian evacuation outside wartime as people flee the danger areas. 

And yet people will take issue with what they are seeing.

On Free State we look at the movement that turned climate science into a climate debate. We examine how the methods that were used by big tobacco transferred to the climate arena. We look at how Brexit may be the model as the same alliance that drove the UK out of the EU, question the science as the world can burn so long as it doesn’t affect the bottom line

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Running agents during the Troubles has become one of the darkest element of the history of the north. John Ware has covered this story since the 1970s and produced a ground breaking Panorama on the topic. Ware talks to Dion today about a lifetime covering this subject and the stories of Brian Nelson and Freddie Scappaticci.

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Can you put a price on what we watched at Croke Park on Sunday? What would you sell a Mayo victory in the All Ireland for?

We know that what we watched affects us in ways that money can’t buy but Gianni Infantino thinks he can sell the essence of sport.

On Free State today Dion and Joe look at why sport is so important and why men like Infantino are a danger to the things that are most important in our lives.

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Everybody wants to know how Mayo did it, but when something like this happens what is more important is why Mayo did it.

Why did these players play without fear? Why did the world weep along with Mayo people on Sunday when they won the All Ireland?

On Free State today we look at why Mayo were able to do what they did against Kerry.

In a county that has been waiting for so long, Joe and Dion look at how Andy Moran didn’t run from the emotion but instead made it an ally and created an adrenaline loop for his side.

Joe reflects on his comments about Mayo earlier in the year - and earlier in the decade and earlier in the century - and talks about what it was like to watch it unfold on Sunday.

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Will the world have changed thanks to the World Cup? Or did the world change while the World Cup was taking place and people were too busy watching the World Cup to notice.

On Free State today, the great novelist Joseph O’Neill talks to Dion about what he learned watching the World Cup and how the authoritarian US regime prospered during the tournament as other authoritarian regimes prospered in the past.

He talks us through his own views on the tournament and tells us the identity of the one team he can support unconditionally.

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Mayo have been denied in All Irelands in every way possible - balls bouncing over the bar, the referee blowing up early, own goals... they've also taken a few pastings along the way, but what will they do with the freedom they will have on Sunday?

Somehow Mayo have reached an All Ireland final this year against all odds, but does that make this year different? Does everything change because it would be one of the most stunning shocks in history if Kerry lost? Does that give Mayo a freedom they’ve never had before or will it make no difference?

On Free State today, we look at the lengths some teams go to win and the ways some find to lose. Does luck play a part when you lose by a point or is it about something more.

Joe explains too why he will have a Mayo jersey with him on Sunday and why he hopes that finally the curse is ended.

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Did the World Cup final hit different from the million dollar seats or was the best thing about them the helicopter that flew you back to New York City?

On Free State, today we ask who mourns the end of Gianni Infantino’s dance with Donald Trump and the depraved nature of football today?

Dion does and he explains why football still matters despite the decadence at the top of the game. Things get heated as they discuss it and Dion wonders if he’s talking to Joe or Fr Dougal.

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On the weekend of the World Cup final, Eamon Dunphy is our weekend guest. Dunphy reflects on his astonishing career in journalism, the price he paid for being an outsider and why he didn't care when he left the RTE panel.

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England lost at the semi final stage again but what does how players are shaped for professional football tell us about how they perform? 

England lose when they play a team more cunning than them but they have a system designed for obedience.

Kids will be dreaming of playing in a World Cup but what is the reality of professional sport.

On Free State today we look at how the attritional nature of succeeding in sport can break so many who try to make it. And we ask what it does to those who succeed.

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And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make. It made sense for Paul McCartney and it makes sense when we consider why we engage with whatever gives us pleasure in life. 

On Free State today we look at the meaning of sport. Why winning doesn’t matter as much as how sport makes you feel. Does this mean Mayo can win the All Ireland? Does it matter?

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Martin Sixmith was the BBC's man in Moscow as the Soviet Union collapsed and Vladimir Putin came to power. In today's podcast he talks about his time in Russia, the fight for the billions lost and his time working on The Lost Child of Philomena Lee.

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Jeffrey Donaldson sits in a prison cell, waiting to be sentenced for the most horrific crimes. 

On Free State today we look at the rise and fall of Jeffrey Donaldson.

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Donald Trump destroys everyone in his orbit. His transactional nature means that eventually whoever is close to him is ruined Gianni Infantino might soon know how that feels.

‘I regularly discuss matters related to the FIFA World Cup with the President of the United States,’ Infantino said as he explained how FIFA had lifted the suspension on the USA forward Folarin Balogun. 

“During our conversation, I explained that there was an ongoing legal process involving FIFA’s independent judicial bodies and that the case would be decided in due course by the competent bodies. That is how FIFA’s system works, and it is a principle that I will always uphold.”

On Free State, we look at those principles and how they fit in with Donald Trump’s. The White House insists that Trump’s only concern is the American people. As he spends every hour thinking about them, he just happens to have made more than a billion dollars from crypto in his first year back in office.

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You might not have heard of Helenio Herrera but without him, you might not have the modern football manager. Herrera was a lowdown and a dirty football manager who wasn't so much a pragmatist as an absolutist. He was full of contradictions: he hated his players having sex but he ruined many lives with his own pursuit of sex. He would do anything to win and stopped at nothing for victory. He wasn't a pragmatist, it was more pathological than that.

On Free State today, Dion talks to Richard Fitzpatrick about HH and how he shaped the modern football world, for better and for worse. Although not a lot of it was for the better.

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The World Cup continues to captivate. France stunned the world with their performance against Sweden, with a display of pace and skill that was as good as anything witnessed in the competition.

But what is the hidden World Cup? What is the secret anguish that this and all sporting events facilitate.

In their final episode in this series looking at the dangers of online gambling, Joe and Dion look at how the dopamine hit is so carefully regulated and how the ebb and flow of sporting events became another hook.

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How many times do you look at your smartphone each day? How often do you pick it up? How aware are you of how it makes you feel?

On Thursday’s Free State we looked at how gambling has got out of control.

Today Dion and Joe examine how what we are dealing with is an entirely new phenomenon, a supercharged addiction of smartphone and gambling, a dopamine hit of huge power. 

We look at the demographic most affected and ask when will people do enough to help them?

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When Fintan Drury wrote his first book onPalestine - Catastrophe, Nakba II, the manner in which it resonated with people told its own story. Now he has written Genocide - Sponsoring the destruction of Palestine,another searing and detailed account of how the Palestinian people have been failed. He talks to Dion about why now is the time to act.

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The 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act prohibited betting on baseball, basketball, American football and most other sports in nearly every US state.

In 2018, the Supreme Court declared the act unconstitutional, opening up America to a stampede of betting.

On Free State today we look at how the gambling industry achieved such prominence and how they made gamblers feel that the problem wasn’t them it was you. 

With tens of billions being bet on the World Cup and prediction markets like Polymarket allowing people to take a position on everything, we wonder where it will end?

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‘I have come to sell a product called soccer.’ The former FIFA president Joao Havelange announced himself in 1974 with these words. They have been the model for the expansionist, grasping FIFA that has existed to this day.

But maybe what matters was not the product but everything but the product?

On Free State today we look at why the World Cup matters and why it might be everything that Donald Trump’s America is not.

From David Clifford and Kerry to Messi and Argentina, sport is what it is because of the communities that are brought together.

Could it be that as America experiences the World Cup, they see that the world is a better place than their leaders want them to believe?

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In Power Ballad, Rick, played by Paul Rudd, a washed-up wedding singer, and Danny, a fading boy band star, bond over music and a late-night jam session. On Free State today, old friends Dion and Peter McDonald, co-writer and co-start of Power Ballad, discuss their own late night escapades, Peter's time in the theatre and and his extraordinary time working with the legendary Robert Altman.

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There are no atheists in the foxholes and in the darkness of the night there is nobody who won’t find consolation in the World Cup.

On Free State today Joe talks about his own World Cup journey. Joe and Dion look at why the tournament captivates and what it tells us about communities as opposed to the leaders of those communities.

At a time when Elon Musk had become the world’s first trillionaire, we look at the hatred he is trying to foment. 

And we look at the story of Palestine Action and what it tells us the authoritarian direction of the world today.

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How have Donegal got themselves in this mess? Has Jim McGuinness’s obsession with Kerry blinded him to the other threats.

On Free State today, Joe examines why some counties accumulate All Irelands and others fail, while Dion surprises him with his knowledge of Roscommon’s football history.

Joe and Dion also look at how the Belfast Riots happened. 

For months the PSNI were warned that houses were being identified and that people were stockpiling food for fear their homes would be attacked but according to reports nothing was done.‘My daughter was crying, saying she doesn’t want to die,’ one father said of the terror his family endured during the riots.

Why has this happened and what is the hypocrisy at the heart of loyalism that allows this hate to prosper?

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The World Cup has begun but will there ever be a tournament like Mexico '86 dominated by Diego Maradona? On Free State today, Dion talks to David Arrowsmith about his book on Maradona, the impulses that drove Maradona and how he escaped from poverty but could never escape the sense of being an outsider.

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Belfast has burned this week. The horrific knife attack on Monday night shocked everyone. But nobody was surprised by what came next. In Belfast, In Glasgow and around Britain, people came out on the street. Some were there to protest, others were there to intimidate. In Belfast, the intimidation took over.

On Free State today, Joe and Dion consider the riots in Belfast and whether there is a difference there than in other places. Joe looks at the inherent supremacy in the loyalist mindset and why it has made that community more susceptible to the hysteria driven by social media.

As people take to the streets in Dublin and elsewhere, can any politician challenge the power of the technology and the propaganda advancing this cause?

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The FAI have decided to move Ireland’s game against Israel to a neutral venue. But is this a pragmatic move or another attempt to avoid making a principled decision?

OnFree Statetoday Joe and Dion talk to Sinead Gibney of the Social Democrats about why this is a cop out. 

Would there be consequences for Ireland if they refused to play the game or would it lead to others following?

Sinead Gibney explains why this is a moral issue and even if Ireland were removed as hosts of the Euros in two years, they should refuse to play. The decision to move the game doesn’t address the moral core of the problem.

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John Kampfner doesn’t believe there is a better way, he believes there is only one way for western democracies to survive.

On Free State today he talks about what democracies have to do to survive. They - we - are drinking in the last chance saloon he says. He explains why there has to be a reckoning and why so many politicians do not have the capability to change.

He speaks about his new book Braver New World which we have discussed on the podcast and where in the world countries are doing things differently. If the rest of us don’t do the same, there will be trouble ahead.

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Have you been watching Love Island? As part of his deep research for the podcast, Dion has and on today’s Free State he shares his concerns about Fitzy and the world he has walked in to.

Joe encouraged Dion to watch it but hasn’t done so himself but he marvels at the Love Island universe and what it contains.

Yet it is the universe of the late great Frank McGuigan that holds his attention. Joe recalls a player of preternatural gifts whose genius drew people to him and whose vulnerability ensured they always willed him on.

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Aziz Abu Sarah’s older brother Tayseer was like a father to him. Azis was ten years old when his brother died after he had been tortured and beaten in an Israeli jail. Aziz says his brother’s death sent him to his own prison where all he wanted was revenge.

Maoz Inon’s parents were killed by Hamas on October 7th. A couple of days later, he and his family released a message. “For the death of our parents on October 7,  

my family is seeking no revenge. What we are seeking is peace and equality.”

On Free State today Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon talk to us about their extraordinary friendship and their determination to find a way to peace in the Middle East.

They speak about their attempt to understand each other as Israelis and Palestinians and why there must be justice and equality as well as peace.

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Sally Hayden is a fearless journalist. She has covered war and conflict around the world. She lives in Lebanon where, early in her new book, she notes that ‘in the past fortnight, Israel has killed more than one thousand people’.

Her book opens with a quote from Elon Musk: ‘The fundamental weakness of Western civilisation is empathy.’

On Free State today Sally Hayden explains her journey to disprove Musk’s claim. ‘I encounter love daily - more than fury, revenge, greed or abuses of power.’ She writes about how love endures in the middle of genocide and how the powerful use it, as well as everything else, as a weapon against humanity.

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What do Sinn Fein stand for? What do they believe? And do the other left wing parties believe they believe it?

On Free State Joe and Dion look at the state of Sinn Fein following the recent by-elections. Does it tell us something about the scrutiny Sinn Fein are under that there is more analysis of them than of Fianna Fáil which got a comically low vote?

Dion and Joe disagree about what Sinn Féin’s intentions are when they talk about immigration. Joe also responds to the Jim McGuinness developments.

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What do great art and great sport have in common? Why do the moments that transport us to another dimension in sport and art have such power?

On Free State today, Dion reflects on the spiritual experience of seeing Paul Simon and Joe reflects on writing Kerry off.

What does the game between the All Ireland champions and Donegal tell us about the summer to come? And what does it tell us about Jack O’Connor? Has he been found out by the new dynamic Gaelic football or were the seeds of Kerry’s destruction planted long ago?

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On today’s Free State, Dion talks to Louise Brangan about The Fallen, her book about the Magdalene Laundries and what they tell us about Ireland, then and now

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Do you feel like lower value human capital or do you believe you should be on Love Island? 

Who declares who is of value and who isn’t? Will the future belong to those who refuse to be defined by what the tech overlords decide they should be? 

On Free State we look at how the climate emergency is being accelerated by data centres and why nobody has the will to stop them. 

And we provide a major update on the potential Love Island appearance of the Galway footballer ‘Fitzy’.

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Bertie Ahern says he rejects ‘racism in all its forms’. So what is it if not racism when a former Taoiseach says ‘we can’t be taking in people from Congo and all these places’?

On Free State today we ask how do you talk about immigration and not get mistaken for a racist? Is it best not to say things that a racist might say to begin with?

Ahern defended himself by saying ‘I don’t think there is anything wrong talking about what the people are talking about’.

But what does this mean? What is the requirement of a leader, even a former leader, when people are troubled and anxious? Do you resort to the lowest common denominator or do you provide a vision? What did Bertie Ahern do?

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When Israel’s contestant in the Eurovision appeared on stage in Vienna on Tuesday night, a lone voice shouted ‘stop, stop the genocide.’ The Israeli contestant kept singing and nothing stopped.

On Free State today we look at why the Eurovision became a key part of Israel’s propaganda war.

We examine the money that was spent ensuring Israel’s entries got votes and we ask why. 

We also look at some of the less notable Irish entries over the years and Joe tries out his own power ballad.

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There was a huge response to last week’s episode on Universal Basic Income.

On Free State, Dion and Joe look at the arguments made in the emails and comments.

But as they go through the comments, the atmosphere changes and Free State reaches another crossroads…

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A study after the covid pandemic established that in care homes controlled by private equity firms the death rate was more than 50 per cent higher than in other homes.

On Free State today we look at how private equity is capitalism cannibalising itself. Hettie O’Brien, author of The Asset Class, is on with us to talk about how this happened, how governments retreated from the public realm and left private equity take over the world.

She explains how they took over the things we have to have, electricity, childcare, housing when governments retreated. And as they did, things became worse. 

She explains how ideology took hold and while the masses were scolded for acquiring debt, private equity found they could live with it, or somebody else could die with it.

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More than 60 per cent of Irish jobs are in positions highly exposed to the threat from AI. So what do we do in the face of this threat? Give everyone free money.

On Free State today we look at universal basic income and how it could transform lives.

How does it work and why would it be profound? And why does the opposition to this sound like the opposition to every other great transformations in society?  

On Free State today we explain why.

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What does Ireland in 1926 tell us about Ireland today? What do absences tell us about the lives we live whether it is in Ireland a hundred years ago or at a graduation in Gaza today? On Free State, Joe and Dion look at loss and absence. They examine the emotion that can pack a punch from a hundred years ago and the lives that are ripped apart today

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It would be harder, Jamie Bartlett says, to open a sandwich shop in Dublin than to release a large language model of near infinite power into general public use. On Free State, Bartlett talks about his new book on how to talk to AI and what we are doing when we hand agency to a personality type that is drawing from the worst of impulses. How do we protect ourselves? Is the only winning move not to play but is that even possible?

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What does the world look like when the world has turned away? On Free State today we ask about the loss of faith that will echo through the generations following the genocide in Gaza. We examine how leaders failed and are left taking comfort in the circus of a visit from a king to the court of Donald Trump. We also wonder how far someone can let themselves go that they don't iron their shoelaces.

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“I’m getting in touch because I’ve written the attached open letter as a serving Garda,” this email was one of many we received since Sinead O’Sullivan came on the podcast. 

“I’ve never done anything like this before,” it continued, “but I felt I had to say something given how things are going. I wrote it out of a genuine sense of frustration with the direction the country seems to be heading. More than that, I’m writing as a father of a young family, and I’m increasingly worried about what kind of Ireland my kids are going to grow up in.”

On Free State today we ask why people hurting has been turned into an urban versus rural debate when everyone is affected. Does this tell us something about the inability of the ruling class to see beyond the short term? Why is there always a defensive attack or a short term fudge rather than leadership?

And when it comes to lack of leadership? Could things actually get worse for Mayo?

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“The bravest man it fell to my unhappy lot to execute.” These were the words of the hangman who took Roger Casement to the scaffold in Pentonville Prison in 1916.

Roger Casement’s final years were lived in pursuit of Irish independence. But was he a driver of rebellion or a hopeless romantic whose brainwaves did more harm than good? 

On Free State today, Rory Carroll talks about his book A Rebel and a Traitor about Casement and Reginald Hall, the man who pursued him.

He talks about the lover who betrayed Casement, why Irish prisoners of war in Germany didn’t trust him and the complicated legacy that persists to this day.

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What allows a manager to bring a group with them? What is it? How do they possess it and what happens when they lose it? On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at how managers fall to earth and consider how Ger Brennan can make it work as Dublin manager. They look at the power and control Alex Ferguson had and what happens when a manager becomes toxic and indiscipline spreads. They also consider the shocking developments in Howth where people aren't saying hello to Vogue Williams.

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When Sinead O'Sullivan created a graph which she believed illustrated the problems in Ireland, she hadn't realised what would happen next. She found herself in the middle of an argument about data with many including Leo Varadkar. It raged over what Ireland did and didn't do well. But did it highlight the real problem in Ireland today? A defensiveness from the establishment which could be seen in a broader context in relation to the protests.

Sinead O'Sullivan joins Dion and Joe on today's Free State to talk about what when wrong in Ireland, why the country is like this and how it can be changed.

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As a young Roy Keane headed on the train to Dublin from Cork for a coaching course, he saw some railway workers toiling by the track.

‘Look at them fuckers out there and they’re going like the hammers,’ he said. ‘I have to make it as a footballer.’

On Free State today we look at what drives a man like Roy Keane and how is the boy the father of the man?

Dave Hannigan, author of We Need to Talk About Roy, discusses how Ireland and Keane have got along and not got along. He explains the force that took him from Mayfield to England when many expected he would soon be back. But Keane stayed and succeeded in ways nobody could have imagined.

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This week Irish life returned to normal and Irish politics resumed its normal parlour games.

The resignation of Michael Healy Rae was described repeatedly as a ‘bombshell’ and the political parties shouted at each other in the Dail.

Outside protestors and malcontents hovered but will their protests take on those who are really exploiting the ordinary people?

Since Israel and the US launched their war against Iran, the top 100 oil companies are making an additional unearned ‘war profit’ of $30 million an hour. There are calls for a windfall tax but who will take the side of the ordinary consumer over big oil?

On Free State today we look at the real divide in society and we consider the moment when Leo Varadkar ran out of diesel

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‘Nobody has a right to blockade our country,’ Micheal Martin stated when announcing what the government would be doing in response to the protests that brought the country to a halt.

But what does it tell us about the fraying of the social contract that people felt they had to take to the barricades in their country to demonstrate how desperate things have become?

On Free State today Joe and Dion look at a week that might have changed Ireland and why the establishment doesn’t know how to respond. We ask who were the bad actors who tried to attach themselves to the protest and explain why they are being used as a distraction to avoid dealing with the fundamental problems in the country.

Joe and Dion also discuss the piece by Sinead O’Sullivan which you can read here https://www.butthistime.com/p/mind-the-gap.

Feel free to email info@freestate.podcast.com with your own thoughts.

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“It is a low bar to ask that people aren’t killed so that I can fill up my car.” Alex Perry is an investigative journalist who has uncovered an extraordinary story.

It is a story where the backdrop is the new imperialism. If the first scramble for Africa was led by the imperial nations in the 19th century, the second has been by the oil companies that have so much power in the world today.

In Ireland, we have seen this week the power of oil and gas, but on Free State today, Alex Perry talks about the incredible story of Palma in Mozambique. He tells us about the massacre that took place there in 2021 which the world knows nothing about and why so many who should know more also say they know nothing.

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How close did the world come to annihilation this week? What will happen the next time Trump parades his negotiating skills and can the world always be sure that Trump Always Chickens Out?

On Free State, Dion and Joe reflect on a ceasefire which was a defeat for Trump and ignored by Benjamin Netanyahu.

Does this mean peace or does it mean we should enjoy the little things that make life worth living? 

Since the death of his friend Michael Lyster, Joe has been reflecting on what made Lyster the man he was and he shares a story which captures his magic.

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Stalin was reported to have asked ‘How many divisions does the pope have?’ when told of the Vatican’s view on world affairs.

On Easter Sunday, Pope Leo addressed the crowds at St Peter’s Square and said, "Let those who have weapons lay them down. Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace."

Shortly afterwards, Donald Trump gave his view on world affairs. “Open the F***in’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”

On Free State today we ask who will stand up to Donald Trump? Are the church leaders who are supposed to provide leadership in terms of morality being forceful or are they dealing simply in wooly abstractions that are of no use?

When Trump is becoming increasingly deranged and there is a need for firm and moral leadership, will someone stand against him or will they continue to use language that is vague and uninspiring?

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Olivier Norek says he has never met a killer who wasn’t eaten inside by what they’d done. Before he became a writer, Norek was a policeman in the most dangerous parts of Paris and a humanitarian worker in the former Yugoslavia.

On Free State today, Norek tells the story of Simo Hayha, the sniper known as the White Death, who fought for Finland during the Winter War when the Soviet Union invaded the country.

He tells the story of how Finland, abandoned by the world to fight alone, stood against the Red Army, fighting for their communities.

Norek researches his books the way he would investigate a crime and in preparation for the Winter Warriors, he spent a winter in Finland, experiencing the subzero temperatures in which Finns fought to defend their country.

He tells us what the Winter War meant to Finland and how it shaped the world we live in today.

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When a California court ruled that Meta and YouTube had deliberately designed addictive products, many declared that this might be the Big Tobacco moment for the tech companies.

The plaintiff was awarded $6 million damages. Meta’s revenue in three months last year was 60 billion dollars. Their share price was unaffected.

On Free State today we ask what will it take to make a difference? 

If the social media companies are relaxed about the finding, is it because they know that there is no appetite to make real change?

We look at the power of the addiction and the power Big Tech utilises to enforce its position.

These powers rule the world now and one ruling may not make much difference.

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Trust the process has become one of world’s worst cliches. But what if the alternative was worse? What if ‘trusting the emotions all around’ was the other option?

On Free State today Joe and Dion wonder why Ireland lose. 

The country will not be at the World Cup this summer. How much was this down to the Irish players’ inability to keep their heads and be led by the emotion that was all around them?

Are teams more susceptible to this in an age when information and anxiety are all around them? 

What is the cure for the headlong rush to emotion and will Ireland ever experience it?

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Toby Harnden was sent to Northern Ireland for the first time in 1995. A reporter for the Daily Telegraph, it was an assignment that was not expected to produce much at a time when the peace process was the dominant story. But Harnden became fascinated with the republican movement and in particular how South Armagh had become a place that, not only could not be touched by the British government, but was controlling much of the IRA’s military campaign in England and Ireland. On Free State, Toby Harnden talks to us about his classic book Bandit Country, getting to know the people of South Armagh and the remarkable time he spent in the Royal Navy alongside Prince Andrew

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“The White House does not tolerate any administration official illegally profiteering off of insider knowledge, and any implication that officials are engaged in such activity without evidence is baseless and irresponsible reporting.”

Fifteen minutes before Donald Trump posted that there had been ‘productive conversations’ with Iran, $580 million in oil bets were made in a period of 60 seconds.

Who knew to place those bets? Did anyone have insider information? 

“The only focus of President Trump and Trump administration officials is doing what’s best for the American people,” a White House spokesperson said.

On Free State today we look at the con that was Trump’s war on Iran, a war that he is trying to end and which Iran prolongs any way it can knowing his desperation.

Thousands have lost their lives in this latest example of American aggression and Trump now talks about peace.

But does he know how to control the forces that are unleashed in a war? Or, as with Vietnam, has he set America on a course that will lead to greater human misery?

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When Michael Lyster started presenting The Sunday Game, Ronald Reagan was seeking reelection as president of the United States. When he stopped presenting it, Donald Trump was president for the first time.

For 34 years Lyster was the presenter who shaped our summer days. He was the accompaniment to the drama and the tension, the celebration and the argument. It is no wonder that when his death was announced, the country felt as one,

On Free State today Joe remembers his friend Michael Lyster. He recalls his calm and poise and ability to relax a studio so that the audience was entertained. He remembers Lyster’s ability in a rally car and his love of life. Above all, he remembers a friend from the time when they were kings.

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Adam Doyle, the artist known as Spicebag, achieved some notoriety when his art depicting evictions became a talking point in the national media.

He is an artist of significance and he is also doing significant work.

On Free State today he tells us about the project he is involved where his merchandise has funded a centre for children in Gaza The Ionad Hind Rajab is an Irish–Palestinian solidarity initiative based in Al-Mawasi, Khan Yunis, Gaza.

Adam tells us the story of Hind Rajab and why art is always political.

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Micheal Martin emerged from his meeting with Donald Trump on St Patrick’s Day with the commentariat purring.

He had stood up for Europe, for Keir Starmer and, in part, for Winston Churchill but that didn’t matter. He had survived.

On Free State today we ask does any of it matter. As oil and gas fields in Iran, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are attacked, oil prices rise and governments insist they will protect their people. But what can they do?

On Free State, we look at how commodity traders control the movement of the world’s resources. We examine the astonishing claims in the book The World for Sale. We ask in this world, what good can politicians do? Let us know what you think - info@freestatepodcast.com

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When the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission threatened to revoke broadcasters’ licences because of their coverage of the war, some complained that it violated the First Amendment, guaranteeing freedom of speech.

On Free State we look at what those rights mean in a country where Trump must get what he wants.

We go back to what happened in Iraq when the country was broken apart, its resources plundered and its people scattered. Is Donald Trump following in that tradition or is what he is doing in Iran potentially worse? Contact us at info@freestatepodcast.com

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Riham Jafari has heard the stories of her grandparents. The stories of a time before the Nakba when her family lived a simple existence in a village outside Jerusalem. They enjoyed farming the land and their independence.

It was a “beautiful life” her grandparents said before occupation came.

After the Nakba, they lived in a camp one square kilometre, crowded with nowhere for children to play.

Riham was born in the Dheisheh camp near Bethlehem. Today Riham Jafari works for Action Aid and when she came to Dublin last week she spoke about the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank.

On Free State today she talks to us about life under occupation, why the Occupied Territories Bill has to pass and why a two-state solution with an independent Palestine could be a reality if the world was determined to see it.

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The story of Casement Park is a metaphor for post conflict Northern Ireland.

Once there was a dream about a shining stadium on a hill, a stadium which would benefit everyone in the north when it hosted matches at the European Championships in 2028.

Two years ago, that dream ended when the British government said they would not fund the cost of the stadium which had ‘risen dramatically’ during years of obstruction and resistance. 

The benefit to all communities of Euro 2028 was gone but for some it mattered more that a GAA stadium would not be built. 

On Free State we look at what the ongoing battle to build Casement tells us about Northern Ireland. Gordon Lyons, the minister responsible, says there is a ‘funding gap’. But is the real chasm something more fundamental?

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“Based on what I’ve seen, it was done by Iran.” When Donald Trump spoke on Air Force One about the bombing of a school in southern Iran, he was, of course, lying.

That is what Trump does but in the attack on Iran he has also tapped into the American fantasy about their righteousness that can only be fully displayed through military force. 

When Stanley Kubrick made Dr Strangelove, he was fascinated by what he saw as ‘the delicate balance of terror’ that was part of the Cold War. To give his satire power he realised it needed ‘inspired lunacy’. 

That inspired lunacy now drives Trump’s military strikes where satire is meaningless and death is what happens to other people.

On Free State, we look at how far America will go in Iran. What happens when Trump loses interest? What happens when Netanyahu wants something else?

Let us know what you think - info@freestatepodcast.com

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Professor Charles Knowles is a very smart man. He is a surgeon and clinical researcher. He is able to apply logic and reason to find solutions to most things. But logic and reason made no sense when it came to his own drinking.

On Free State today Charles Knowles explains why we drink and why we drink too much.

He talks to Dion about his own struggles and why there is a genetic reason for many people drinking.

They discuss the line of Kurt Vonnegut that ‘Alcoholics Anonymous is America’s greatest contribution to the 20th century’ and Charles explains why modern science agrees with Vonnegut.

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When a US submarine torpedoed an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, 150 Iranians were believed to have been killed. ‘It thought it was safe in international waters,” Pete Hegseth the US’s self styled Secretary of War proclaimed. “Instead it was sunk by a torpedo, a quiet death.”

More than a thousand civilians have been killed since the US and Israel launched their offensive. This is a campaign they are advancing ‘without mercy’ Hegseth said.

On Free State today we look at what the US, Israel and Donald Trump want. 

Are their aims of total control in the Middle East achievable? Or will the ambitions of the US and their allies spiral out of control as they have before but not before there is endless human misery?

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A few minutes before 1pm on the Saturday of the 2026 GAA Congress some protestors forced their way inside.

The response to this protest may have far reaching implications for the GAA.

On Free State we look at how the GAA has failed to deal with the understandable anger about the Allianz sponsorship deal.

Dion and Joe argue about how they should be addressing it and Jarlath Burns’s comments on Saturday. 

Is this a turning point for how volunteers view the GAA, certainly the GAA as represented by Croke Park?

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Labour Together was set up in the summer of 2015 as a way of uniting the UK Labour Party, but with the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader it soon became something very different. Driven by Morgan McSweeney, it became a means of destroying Jeremy Corbyn‘s leadership ‘by any means necessary. Keir Starmer was the vessel to take Labour away from Corbyn‘s politics.

On Free State today, Peter Geoghegan talks to us about the extraordinary and chilling practices of Labour Together. He tells the story about the decision to hire a PR firm to investigate the motivations of journalists who were reporting on their funding. As Keir Starmer faces threats from all sides, will this be the scandal that upend him. Is this the scandal that is grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented?

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In the House of Commons, a Labour minister described Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor as a ‘man on a constant self-aggrandising and self-enriching hustle; a rude, arrogant and entitled man who could not distinguish between the public interest, which he said he served, and his own private interest’.

This is undoubtedly true but is Andrew the exception or the norm?

On Free State we look how the establishment has protected the monarchy at all costs.

We recall the horrific abuse in Kincora and the work done by Chris Moore to uncover Louis Mountbatten’s part in that scandal.

When the future of the monarchy is discussed, is what has been revealed in the Epstein files an aberration or simply another chapter in a long history of self enriching hustle and worse?

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What links Bono and Tony Blair? You may be asking, what doesn’t? 

Both men have made the news as U2’s new EP was released and Blair addressed the world as part of Donald Trump’s Board of Peace.

But what is the fervour that drives them?

On Free State today we look at Blair and Bono and what happens when a man believes he can change the world.

What is Blair’s goal on the Board of Peace and why is he there? Some people ask the same about U2 and their music…

Let us know what you think - info@freestatepodcast.com

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In March 1922, a relatively unknown member of the IRA was asked by journalists if they could take from his answers that Ireland would have a military dictatorship.

‘You can take it anyway you like,’ he replied.

On Free State today we look at the life of Rory O’Connor who was prepared to go to any lengths for the Republic of his ideals. 

We talk to the author of a new biography of O’Connor Gerard Shannon about the fanaticism that drove him.

O’Connor became the public face of opposition to the Treaty but he also became the most human face when he was executed in December 1922, following a decision by the Free State cabinet including his great friend Kevin O’Higgins.

O’Connor had been best man at O’Higgins’s wedding a year before and now O’Higgins was part of the brutal decision to have him executed. 

Shannon explains too why O’Connor faded from memory after his death and the extraordinary coincidence behind the killing of O’Higgins as he walked home from Mass in 1927.

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In the 19th century, Manchester first began to be a destination for immigrants. 

It was Scottish, Welsh and Irish in huge numbers who shaped the city and made it their home.

Over the next hundred years, immigrants from across the world turned Manchester into the city it was. It was this vibrant and complex city that Matt Busby loved and which saw him shape the great Manchester United sides in its image. 

As a lifelong supporter of Manchester United, Jim Ratcliffe might have known that. 

Last week the Manchester United minority owner said the U.K. had been ‘colonised by immigrants’. 

On Free State today we explore what drives the billionaire class to demonise the most vulnerable in society. 

Ratcliffe apologised if ‘my choice of language has offended some people’ but in doing so he revealed more about what drives him.

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When the Irish football team was drawn against Israel last week, many people in Ireland immediately hoped the game wouldn’t happen.

Instead as the days have passed, the game seems more likely not less. 

On Free State today we look at what has stopped Israel being banned from sport while Russia have been. 

Dion wonders what a boycott would achieve and explains how Uefa and Fifa have failed to act.

Joe disagrees and calls on the Ireland team to represent the Irish people and take a stand.

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David McCloskey says he was once a clandestine journalist. Another way of putting it is that he once worked for the CIA.

McCloskey is now a spy novelist. His first book took readers inside the CIA, now he is exploring Mossad, Israel and Iran in his new novel The Persian.

On Free State, he talks about the shadow war between Israel and Iran.

He explains what has happened to agencies like the CIA under Trump and why as more true Trump believers are appointed, the demand is not for truthful intelligence. They do not just believe what they see, they only see what they believe.

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‘Doors open at the Watergate’. Those words in June 1972 signalled a break in at the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate Building. They were picked up on a police scanner by a reporter at the Washington Post. They began a chain of events which would eventually bring down a president. 

Last week the paper of Woodward and Bernstein, of Ben Bradlee and publisher Katharine Graham, laid off a third of its staff. The paper that stood up to the White House and took down a president now has an owner in Jeff Bezos who can’t do enough to be a supplicant.

On Free State today we look at how democracy dies in the darkness. We explore how history has a lesson for what happens when oligarchs and authoritarians come together and why it isn’t only democracy that ultimately dies.

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When Gregory Campbell approached President Connolly in Derry last week, what was the purpose of his intervention?

Was he trying to make a good faith case for Protestant and unionist people in Derry or was he just throwing some red meat to his base?

OnFree State today Dion and Joe look at the life and times of Gregory Campbell.

Dion and Joe argue about the merits of his argument and whether who is saying it matters.

Joe explains how progressive unionism has been denied oxygen while Dion offers Gregory Campbell an invitation to come dance with him in Ireland - or at least south Dublin.

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In Ireland, we like to think that the class system is something that dominates Britain. But it shapes this country too.

RTE’s new comedy drama These Sacred Vows is a series which challenges what we believe about class, identity and religion in Ireland in 2026.

On Free State today, the show’s creator John Butler talks about what he wanted to say in the series about the middle class, the priesthood and homosexuality.

He explains how he was only now able to write comfortably as a gay man about Ireland and he talks with Dion about their own school days and the oppressive culture of the time. 

They also consider the new conformity. They wonder what has really changed and ask what it tells us about the country when the religion of old has now been replaced with saunas.

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In the House of Commons, Keir Starmer said that Peter Mandelson had ‘betrayed our country, our parliament and my party’.

But what was that betrayal and who was actually complicit?

On Free State today we look at the rise and fall of Peter Mandelson. We explain why the election of a football mascot monkey as mayor in Hartlepool was an early sign of who Mandelson was. 

We explain how Mandelson worked to undermine Jeremy Corbyn and advance a corporate agenda where New Labour would be ‘intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich’.

We also examine the link between Starmer’s right hand man Cork’s Morgan McSweeney and Mandelson. 

In the House of Commons Starmer said ‘if I knew then what I know now, Mandelson would never have been anywhere near government.’

We show how it was impossible not to know who Peter Mandelson was. Only more details have been revealed.

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‘If they showed this film on a plane, people would still walk out.’

As Melania, the documentary about the US First Lady, opened at the weekend, this line seemed to capture the feelings of critics.

But, like so many things in Trumpland, even this line of criticism may not be all that it appears.

On Free State today Dion and Joe look at what the Melania documentary tells us about the court of Donald Trump.

Amazon has invested $75 million in the documentary, money they will never get back, at least not through the box office.

But what is really at play here? A movie that is panned by the critics is not the story. A movie that flatters the sun king Trump and enriches his family has other advantages. This is how America works. The question is how will anyone stop it?

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In the Orwellian world we now live in, gaslighting is now standard. When Donald Trump creates a Board of Peace, we know that where it says one thing, the opposite is the truth.

On Free State today Peter Oborne joins us to talk about how we reached this point in the Middle East.

Peter’s new book Complicit looks at Britain’s role in sustaining the genocide in Gaza and why there might be consequences.

He explains why the U.K. is moving from democracy to oligarchy. He also tells Dion about a book he has just finished on cricket.

You can order his book here - COMPLICIT: Britain's Role in the Destruction of Gaza | Peter Oborne | OR Books.

Email us your thoughts on the episode info@freestatepodcast.com

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When the president of the German football club St Pauli said it was "clearly time to at least discuss a boycott" of the World Cup in the US this summer, he was quickly reminded of his station. "He hasn't been with us long," the president of the German football federation said. The idea of a boycott was completely "misguided" he said.But why? On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at why the World cup could be boycotted and, more importantly, why it won't.When FIFA created a peace prize, did they think about what would happen if they entered the peace business? Did they reflect that people might seriously ask them to consider peace, especially in a country which is going to war on everyone including its own people? They also look at Allianz's ongoing sponsorship of the National Football League and wonder why the protests have been so muted?

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