Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

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.

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.

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.

‘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.

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?On Free 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.

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.

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.

‘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?

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