Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

When Arsenal announced they were cutting 60 jobs at the home of the Premier League champions, the manager Mikel Arteta said he had been told it was to "achieve the success we want to create".With the help of management consultants, Arsenal identified savings while simultaneously awarding Arteta a new contract worth £20 million a season.On Free State today we look at what this story of a sporting club tells us about capitalism and inequality. Dion and Joe look at how sport was sold as everything else was sold and they wonder what happens next. Sport has been sold not just to the highest bidder but to those who believe in a version of society which is the opposite of community. What will be next?

There was an extraordinary response to Jamie Bryson’s appearance on the podcast.What does that tell us about what people want in the north and what people are talking about in the south? On Free State today we ask if these are significant days for the future of unionism. What does it mean when the Belfast Newsletter, the paper of the unionism, says that Bryson is leading unionism down a dead end.Dion and Joe talk about how communities have emerged that challenge how people felt things would be and they ask the important question: would you surrender to a sea border?

Damien Pearse is a psychologist and he is also a football fan. Why does it affect him so much when his side loses and what does it tell us about the modern world? On Free State today he talks to Dion about why we want to belong and why we identify with the tribes we do.

Who is Jamie Bryson and what does he want? On Free State today Jamie Bryson talks to Joe and Dion about Garvaghy Road, the Orange Order and a United ireland.His conversation with Joe is heated and contentious as they talk about these and other issues. What aspects of his cultural identity does he share with people in England and what would his view be if there was a violent response to a border poll being called?Let us know what you think - info@freestatepodcast.com

Anne Cadwallader covered the Drumcree events in the late 1990s. She remembers the tension of those days and the work Rosemary Nelson did at that time. On Free State today she talks to Joe and Dion about Rosemary Nelson's murder. She talks too about Lethal Allies her book about collusion and the Glennane Gang. She explains how she first arrived in Northern Ireland and how as a 'well brought up girl' from London, she had one view of what was happening which changed with time and experience. She also tells us how Tina Turner's intervention led to her receiving death threats from loyalists.Anne's novel Crossing Over is available here - https://www.mercierpress.ie/books/crossing-over/

“This man's issue and the reason why he did what he did changes the world,” Ben MacIntyre says. “He changed the world that we now live in. Without this person we would probably be living in a different world.”On today’s Free State we learn the story of Vladimir Kuzichkin, a Soviet spy working in Iran whose codename was ‘Redwood’.Redwood had a problem, a sexual problem and the author Ben Macintyre tells us of this problem and why this spy and what he did might have changed the course of history. He explains what drew him to the story and the key ingredient in delivering a book as compelling as this.More details on Redwood can be found here https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/739964/redwood-by-ben-macintyre/

Drumcree is now a peace dividend. Where once the attempt to march led to violence, destruction and death, now it leads to court wranglings, endless negotiations and the support for the Garvaghy Road residents from Noel Gallagher.On Free State, Dion and Joe look at this death rattle for anachronistic unionism and what it means for a new Ireland. Joe and Dion argue about whether calling a border poll would help. Let us know what you think, email info@freestatepodcast.com

Thousands gathered on Garvaghy Road determined that there would be no going back. A new generation, confident and assured, are determined that the north chooses a different road.But what is it about a parade of elderly orange men that causes these emotions?On Free State today Joe explains why Garvaghy Road represents a new and confident community.Joe and Dion discuss what it means for a United Ireland. What that Ireland would look like might be even more important than a border poll.

Louise Kennedy's first novel Trespasses was a beautiful and heartbreaking story of the Troubles. In her new novel Stations she deals with the loss and sacrifice of emigration. Louise talks to Dion about moving from the north to Naas when she was 12 and the truth about emigration and why Ireland has yet to acknowledge it.