Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning
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 thinker with a fascinating backstory, who donated a kidney to a stranger and then led a crusade to transform organ donation on the island of Ireland, and Fanning is an award-winning interviewer and author. They are not motivational gurus or life coaches. They will never try to sell you a penis scented candle. They are two people from very different worlds, with one core belief uniting them - this is not a high performance podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
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?
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 run...
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 ...
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 thei...
“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 ...
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 p...
“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...
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 ret...
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 b...
“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 ...
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 ...
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...
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 le...
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...
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 hardwire...
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...
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...
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.
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 ...
Popular Podcasts
Joyce Sapp, 76; Bryan Herrera, 16; and Laurance Webb, 32—three Miami residents whose lives were stolen in brutal, unsolved homicides. Cold Case Files: Miami follows award‑winning radio host and City of Miami Police reserve officer Enrique Santos as he partners with the department’s Cold Case Homicide Unit, determined family members, and the advocates who spend their lives fighting for justice for the victims who can no longer fight for themselves.
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!