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Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning
Hello Mary Lou. A Free State Special with the leader of the opposition, Part 1 (no hamsters were harmed in the making of this podcast)
Mary Lou McDonald is promising change but will Sinn Fein be able to deliver? On the first Free State election special, Mary Lou McDonald joins Dion and Joe for a major podcast interview.
She talks to Dion and Joe about the challenges facing her party and why she believes the media is hostile to Sinn Fein. Will Dion indulge in ‘IRAing’ or are these legitimate questions to be asked of the leader of Sinn Fein? When does IRAing come to an end and normal politics begins? When it does will Sinn Fein bring the same radical change as Bernie Sander and Jeremy Corbyn promised? Or will they be destroyed by the system before addressing Ireland’s fundamental problems. Will this be the first podcast where one of the interviewers storms out? And will any hamsters be harmed in the making of the podcast?
Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning is a Gold Hat Production in association with SwanMcG.
For more on Free State: https://freestatepodcast.com/
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203. When Trumpish Eyes are smiling. Micheal Martin goes to the White House.
53:45||Ep. 203Micheál Martin walked out of the Oval Office feeling triumphant. He had left the lion’s den - or the bully’s lair - without humiliation. Donald Trump demands craven obedience and while history might look differently on those who humoured him, the Taoiseach wasn’t thinking about history. On Free State today, Dion and Joe ask if Micheál Martin had any choice but to laugh along as Trump played his hits? Was his responsibility to those in Ireland who depend on American firms for employment more important than taking a stand? What does it tell us about how the world is ordered that he must behave like that? What does it tell us about Trumpworld that this is the only behaviour tolerated?Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning is a Gold Hat Production in association with SwanMcG.For more on Free State: https://freestatepodcast.com/202. The trouble with Simon & Micheal. The end of Irish neutrality, the RTÉ/FF/FG pact and standing with Israel.
45:58||Ep. 202The Irish establishment is softening people up to sacrifice the country’s neutrality. But why? On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at how countries throughout history have been organised to prepare for war. They trade on anxiety and fear to push towards increased militarisation. Joe looks at Simon Harris’s recent interview with RTÉ about Israel and why the government is looking to retreat from whatever position it said it would take.Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning is a Gold Hat Production in association with SwanMcG.For more on Free State: https://freestatepodcast.com/201. Colum McCann on Trump, Gaza and the secrets at the bottom of the ocean
54:27||Ep. 201Colum McCann won’t look back. His life as a writer has always drawn him to the edge. In an exhilarating conversation on Free State today, McCann talks about what is needed to change the world at this time of peril. He speaks about his new novel Twist and how the connected world we take for granted exists precariously in the darkness of the ocean. This new colonialism demonstrates why the real power today rests with the tech companies rather than any nation. With a mother from Derry, he recalls the lack of interest in the South in what was happening during the Troubles. He reflects on the experiences of the two men, Palestinian and Israeli, he made the central characters of his book Apeirogon and the conversations he’s had with them since October 7th.Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning is a Gold Hat Production in association with SwanMcG.For more on Free State: https://freestatepodcast.com/200. I Fought The Law (and the law lost): Kneecap, Roy Keane, and Steve Coogan. With Trevor Birney.
53:08||Ep. 200When Trevor Birney was arrested by the PSNI in 2018, he was thrown in a police cell and told an incredible tale. His documentary No Stone Unturned had named the man many believed was responsible for the Loughinisland Massacre in 1994. Birney was told by the police that this man’s business was being damaged by the documentary and for this reason they could charge him with breaching the Official Secrets Act. On Free State today, Trevor Birney tells the story of how he fought the law and won. He talks too about the day a brave former tabloid journalist from London told him he had seen the future and its name was Kneecap. He looks forward to another contentious project, a movie about Saipan and recalls a day with Roy Keane when it became clear he wouldn’t make a film.Miss Part 1 of our conversation with Trevor Birney? Listen here https://shows.acast.com/641338125bde790011089c5b/67c231a315abd9ea5faeac4bFree State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning is a Gold Hat Production in association with SwanMcG.For more on Free State: https://freestatepodcast.com/199. Trumpworld: Hell for Zelensky, paradise for bullies, rapists and woman haters
53:52||Ep. 199Volodymyr Zelensky walked into a trap when he sat down beside Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Friday. He was surrounded by bullies who were emboldened by the knowledge that totalitarians around the world had their backs. Trump and JD Vance toyed with Zelensky, dismissing him as a weak man when he has shown more courage than they ever did. On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at Trumpworld, the planet inhabited by the world’s worst men. The billionaire class - including Vladimir Putin - will get rich in Trumpworld but the heist will leave nothing for the marginalised. Anyone who questions it will be humiliated as Zelensky was, no matter how high a price we all pay.Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning is a Gold Hat Production in association with SwanMcG.For more on Free State: https://freestatepodcast.com/198. Shooting Crows - Trevor Birney on Mass Murder, State Collusion and Press Freedom
48:52||Ep. 198On the evening of June 18, 1994, Ireland stopped. At the Giants Stadium in New York, Ireland were playing Italy in the first match of the World Cup. Across the country, people were making plans to watch the game.In The Heights Bar in Loughinisland Co Down, the small community had gathered on a Saturday evening with the added excitement of the game. In Belfast and other places there were fears of sectarian killings, but not in Loughinisland. In Loughinisland, the Troubles were something that happened somewhere else. On this night it happened here. With eyes on the game, nobody noticed the UVF killers walking in to The Heights Bars. Six men were murdered that night, the oldest of them 87 years old.On Free State today, Joe and Dion are joined by Trevor Birney to talk about the state collusion that was part of that massacre and his documentary No Stone Unturned, which led to a dawn raid on his house from the PSNI one summer morning.Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning is a Gold Hat Production in association with SwanMcG.For more on Free State: https://freestatepodcast.com/197. Trump & the Gaza Riviera. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
38:45||Ep. 197When Donald Trump shared an AI video of Gaza, the world responded as it often does to Trump’s behaviour, with a mixture of disbelief, shock, resignation and laughter. “Gaza 2025…What’s next,” read the caption before delivering a vision of what’s next. "Donald's coming to set you free,” the video’s song’s declared, “bringing the light for all to see, no more tunnels, no more fear: Trump Gaza's finally here.” There were no more Gazans either in the video as Trump relaxed on a lounger sipping cocktails beside Benjamin Netanyahu. Because it is Trump, the world also laughs, something we continue to do even as his gangster fascism extends from Ukraine to the Middle East.On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at the truth behind these videos, the erasure of the people of Gaza. Joe talks about Omar El Akkad’s stunning new book 'One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This' which details the complicity and silence of the west. In that context, knowing what we know, what are we doing when we laugh at Trump's video?Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning is a Gold Hat Production in association with SwanMcG.For more on Free State: https://freestatepodcast.com/196. From student priest to IRA commander. The momentous life of Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane.
50:03||Ep. 196Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane’s life could be a metaphor for The Troubles. When he was 16, Bik McFarlane left Belfast to train as a priest in North Wales for two years. But with the nationalist community under siege, he cut short his studies and joined the IRA. During the hunger strikes, he was the commander of the IRA in the H-Blocks, with the unenviable task of being the man whose duty it was to let Bobby Sands and others die. But this was not the whole of Bik McFarlane’s life. On Free State today, Joe and Dion discuss the man who in 1975 was part of the IRA unit that murdered five people at the Bayardo Bar in Belfast during the height of sectarian killings in the north. How does a man like Bik McFarlane, remembered by so many for his intelligence and charm, end up committing acts such as these? Joe remembers his friend who became a key champion of the peace process, while Dion wonders what it tell us about Sinn Fein in 2025, that they can be so effusive in their tributes to Bik McFarlane? Is he missing the point about what was endured during The Troubles or does his view have merit?Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning is a Gold Hat Production in association with SwanMcG.For more on Free State: https://freestatepodcast.com/195. The art of the deal. Donald Trump and his Charlie’s Angels.
48:28||Ep. 195It was a week when decades happened. By the end of it, Steve Bannon was doing a Nazi salute, as Trump continued his policy of siding with the strongmen and rewarding their acts of war and aggression. On Free State, Dion and Joe look at what comes next. As Germany prepares for elections this weekend, will there be a further sense that whenever things have hit rock bottom there is further still to fall. But what explains Donald Trump? Joe looks at the story of Trump’s election, the sycophants he has surrounded himself with and the narcissism that drives him. This explains why he will stop at nothing and why America itself will soon be unable rto escape his grip.Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning is a Gold Hat Production in association with SwanMcG.For more on Free State: https://freestatepodcast.com/