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PODCAST

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

Gold Hat Productions

Free State is a podcast for the curious that stimulates, provokes, challenges and entertains, while never taking itself too seriously. Free State covers topics from sport to politics, love to loss, the human condition and how to fix the world, with guests from across the planet including Nigerian princes, former Prime Ministers, ex convicts, footballers, boxers and extraordinary people from every walk of life.Free State is presented by Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning. Brolly is a barrister, an original

news politics

All Episodes

52:58

Allianz’s National Football League, Trump’s World Cup...

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning ·

2026/01/29

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

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48:09

ICE Cold in America: The Execution of Alex Pretti

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning ·

2026/01/27

“We have all seen the video and our eyes don’t lie,” a friend of Alex Pretti said in the aftermath of Pretti’s murder.He was speaking as Donald Trump’s administration advanced a lie, undeterred by what people had seen in the video which dismantled the story spun by ICE and their protectors.On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at the rise of authoritarianism in America and what comes next.As ICE rampage as the Black and Tans once did in Ireland, they also look at the money that is going to ICE and

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42:04

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning ·

2026/01/24

What would it mean to be free of financial insecurity? Why does money scare us so much?On Free State today money expert Eoin McGee talks about how we can achieve financial freedom and faces one of his greatest challenges: Dion’s attitude to money.In doing so, he talks about things far more profound than money. What do we really want from life and Dion explains why your wedding day is not the best day of your life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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46:17

Trump backs down on Greenland and is Tony Blair the...

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning ·

2026/01/22

When Donald Trump backed down on Greenland, he tried to make it sound like a victory.But what caused him to cave? Western leaders have tried to placate Trump and continued this approach at Davos until Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney laid out the truth about the world today.‘The strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must,’ he said quoting Thucydides.This is the reality of the world and somebody naming it shook Trump.On Free State today we look at where he goes next and

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48:51

Trump renounces pacifism and invites Putin to Gaza...

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning ·

2026/01/20

When the Senegal team walked off the pitch in the last seconds of the AFCON final, were we witnessing a moment of brave resistance or gamesmanship?Was this a stand against the technology which is destroying sport or a stroke?On Free State today we ask if injustice has to be part of sport?Joe makes his case for video evidence in Gaelic football.Joe and Dion also look at Trump’s determination to land the biggest real estate deal in American history as he pursues Greenland. Is this a negotiation or the

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45:29

'The two things DJ Carey looked for were attention...

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning ·

2026/01/17

What drove DJ Carey? What did he believe of the fraud and deception that ended up with him being sent to prison? And as he faces life as a social pariah, what does he think today of his crimes?On Free State today Eimear Ni Bhraonain, author of The Dodger, the bestselling book about DJ Carey looks at what drove one of Ireland’s greatest sportsmen.She considers the childhood of excellence and isolation and what removed DJ Carey from the world around him and sent him into the field of deception and

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44:20

Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann - the musical wing of the IRA

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning ·

2026/01/15

In August Belfast will host Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann. More than half a million people will visit the city from around the world for the festival which is a global event. Last year nearly a million people attended the Fleadh in Wexford.But be warned. All this music and culture is not what it appears. A DUP councillor has warned that a spin off event in Bangor has potential to cause ‘ill feeling’ because it takes place on the same day as the Ulster Championships for Pipe Bands.On Free State today Joe

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48:48

Nigel Farage’s Reform Prison Blues

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning ·

2026/01/13

‘A society,’ Dostoevsky said, ‘should be judged not by how it treats its outstanding citizens but how it treats its prisoners.’In the U.K. Nigel Farage is promising to build bigger prisons and send prisoners to Estonia and El Salvador. There are more people in prison in the US than in any country in the world.On Free State today we look at how society gave up on prisoners. We examine why populism and media scares matter more than any idea of rehabilitation.And there is news on the GAA quiz which was

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1:13:24

A Few Good Men: The past pupils who took on Blackrock...

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning ·

2026/01/10

In November, 2022, the principals of Blackrock College and its two junior schools issued a statement. It followed a public apology that had been made by the Spiritan Order over abuse that took place in its schoolsThe statement by the schools spoke of the “great harm done” to pupils over an extended period.It added that “Philip Feddis, Corry McMahon, Louis Hoffman and John Coulter, all of whom left school at the end of the 1970s, showed extraordinary courage in bringing the scale of the problem to

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36:36

The Marinera Tanker and the Russian Invasion of...

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning ·

2026/01/08

As the US military pursued the Russian tanker Marinera in the North Atlantic, a village in South Tyrone might have been paying close attention.The world is not a safe place for many these days but in this time of danger, the residents of Fivemiletown are particularly at risk.On Free State today we look at why Fivemiletown appeared on a Russian strike list. What does it tell us about the drumbeats for war that the residents of the village are being told to prepare for nuclear annihilation?Meanwhile

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48:50

Make Venezuela Great Again

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning ·

2026/01/06

When Nicolás Maduro, the deposed Venezuelan leader, appeared in a federal courtroom in lower Manhattan, he insisted ‘I am still president of my country.’Maduro was labouring under a misapprehension, not just about his own country but about how things now work.On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at the new age of empire as Donald Trump’s gangsterism spreads across the world.America now has Venezuela’s oil but it also has exercised muscle and for a bully like Trump that is its own reward.They

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1:10:50

Swimming song - Staying afloat against impossible odds

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning ·

2026/01/01

"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/TwitterOn Free State today Omar El Akkad joins Joe and Dionto talk about how the world looked away. His magisterial new bookOne Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against Thisdetails the complicity of the west.Gaza is enduring a famine and Israel

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59:41

Best of Free State - How AI colonised the planet....

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning ·

2025/12/30

There are those who believe Artificial Intelligence will lead to the extinction of mankind. There are those who believe AI will save the world.OnFree Statetoday, 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

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1:00:22

Colm Toibin - ‘The problem in life is always middle...

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning ·

2025/12/27

Colm Toibin returns to the Free State studio for what is now the traditional Christmas interview.He reflects on the year when he turned 70, why there is too many men watching rugby on television and why it’s important to take the 99 out of Irish politics forever.He talks too about the death of his father when he was 12 and how the great Irish psychiatrist Ivor Browne tried to open him up to the trauma in the most extraordinary way. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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59:33

Best of Free State - Keith Donald

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning ·

2025/12/25

First there was the music. Keith Donald was always looking to escape.Music offered the first exit. Then came drink.Keith Donald was abused as a child by his headmistress. He found that jazz had the power to transform his existence.As a teenager he began to play music wherever he could. He played for a band on the Twelfth and toured the country with showbands.OnFree Statetoday Keith Donald talks about the music and the mayhem and how he found peace. He speaks about founding Moving Hearts and why even

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31:00

A Free State Family Christmas

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning ·

2025/12/23

Why do so many of us still cherish Christmas?And why do so many find it a tough time of year?On Free State today, Joe and Dion reflect on the power of Christmas and what it tells us about us as a people.Joe looks forward to a child’s wonder at Christmas while Dion is looking forward to the Ashes over Christmas. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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41:11

'If I was in despair I wouldn’t get out of bed in the...

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning ·

2025/12/20

When he was 11, Leon Diop had his first experience of aggressive racism.But his identity was something he wrestled with in many ways.In a remarkable interview on Free State, Leon Diop talks about the Ireland he grew up in and being mixed race in that world.He talks about the confusion and shame he felt about his father, a Muslim from Senegal, and how he internalised that shame for many years.He explains how education changed him as he realised the difference between standing up for yourself and

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35:44

Rule West Britannia

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning ·

2025/12/18

Causes, as we know, are notoriously bloodthirsty,’ James Baldwin wrote.What does it do to do somebody when they have crossed the boundary into a world of killing and destruction? How do they enforce their code in a place untethered from the one the rest of us inhabit?On Free State today, Joe and Dion follow on from Tuesday’s episode on Stakeknife by looking at how rules of organisations like the IRA were enforced.Joe talks about what made his father lose faith in the republican movement.He also

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47:33

Stakeknife, MI5 and the dirtiest war

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning ·

2025/12/16

When the state sanctions it, is it murder? When the state protects its agents from the consequences of their crimes, how long before cynicism corrupts society?On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at the dark and dirty existence of Freddie Scappaticci, MI5 and the British state.They argue about what the report tells us about the IRA and the British government, while Joe tells the extraordinary story of Danny Morrison and Sandy Lynch. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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56:40

Eoin Ó Broin - Why the government doesn’t want to fix...

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning ·

2025/12/13

In 1948, Herbert Simms, under increasing pressure from the demands of his job, took his own life.The pressure came from his job as Dublin’s housing architect. Between 1932 and the time of his death, Simms was responsible for building 17,000 homes for the ordinary people of Dublin.On Free State today Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin O Broin talks about his beautiful new book on Simms, produced in conjunction with the photographer Mal McCann.He looks at how Simms transformed the city and suburbs

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