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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/
More episodes
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198. Shooting Crows - Trevor Birney on Mass Murder, State Collusion and Press Freedom
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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.
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39:51||Ep. 193The last episode of Free State ended with Joe and Dion arguing while guest Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc kept the peace. Today, they continue the conversation about how Ireland deals with the trauma of the wars fought on this island over the past 100 years. What would have become of Michael Collins if he hadn’t been killed? Would he have continued to simply be a fine finance minister as some Fine Gael politicians said or would he have taken a turn in another direction? Joe and Dion continue to disagree about how the past is dealt with. They look at the Bandon Valley Massacre and why the truth about these events must be confronted.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/192. The Restless Dead: How the Irish establishment turned the good old IRA into a propaganda opportunity with historian Padraig Óg O’Ruairc
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39:26||Ep. 190On Sunday evening, Donald Trump became the first sitting American president to attend the Superbowl. His attendance, in the eyes of many, sealed the union between American Football and American Nationalism. On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at how the NFL became part of the US war machine. From Vietnam to Iraq, the sport embraced militarisation but insisted that sport and politics should never mix. At the same time, Britain escalated the wearing of a poppy from a muted tribute to war dead into a pageant of insistent patriotism, designed to sportswash imperial crimes. Everyone had to bend the knee, including the Cookie Monster. In an America being bent to the will of Donald Trump, they wonder who will provide the resistance and what price will they pay for dissent?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/