Share

cover art for Mo Salah, Bono and how language became the spearhead of a genocide

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

Mo Salah, Bono and how language became the spearhead of a genocide

Ep. 267

“If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice.” These words were published on Anas Al-Sharif’s X account after his death. Sharif was a journalist with Al Jazeera and he was killed by Israel while in a tent for journalists outside a hospital in Gaza.

The headlines said that ‘global outrage’ was mounting over the killing of Sharif and six others, but what does that mean?

How is that outrage has become so pointless, lacking as it does nothing but the weasel words of support from western governments?

On Free State today, Dion and Joe ask if words can help at this point? They look at the post on X from Mo Salah and the impact it had and they consider the statements from Bono and U2.

Why does one have the power to make a difference and the other does nothing except salve the conscience of a rock star activist who has stayed silent for too long?

Why do the words of Anas Al-Sharif haunt us and the words from Bono remind us of how the west has failed?

More episodes

View all episodes

  • 422. Mo Salah: The Most Important Footballer in the World?

    55:24||Ep. 422
    "Can you tell us how he died, where and why?" On August 9, 2025, Mo Salah tweeted this above a Uefa post which said "Farewell to Suleiman al-Obeid, the Palestinian Pele". Salah's tweet has been viewed 140 million times. On Free State today, Melissa Reddy talks to Dion about the cultural importance of Mo Salah, how he has been held to a different standard and why his last year at Liverpool wasn't what it seemed.
  • 421. Total Eclipse of the Heart: How the Gambling Industrial Complex stole sport. With Darragh McGee

    51:47||Ep. 421
    Darragh McGee understands sport. As a Donegal man he understands the hold and the importance sport has across this land. So as an academic when he went to investigate the betting industry, he didn’t expect to discover all that he learned about its hold on so many individuals and on society.On Free State today. Darragh McGee talks to Joe and Dion about his book Imitation Games - How Gambling Hijacked Sport. He explains why the digital age caught everybody by surprise, but while the betting industry was quick to grasp what it could do, the legislators were asleep at the wheel and then slow to act.He explains what happens to someone who bets and why we are all sitting ducks.
  • 420. Regime Change: Inside the White House of Emperor Trump

    49:09||Ep. 420
    David Hearn was once an Olympic canoeist. He was facing ten years in a federal prison for allegedly vandalising the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington DC before all the charges were dropped.‘It’s a relief, but there’s a detachment to that relief of extreme concern for other people and for our country,’ Hearn said,On Free State today we explain why the story of the Reflecting Pool is a perfect example of how Donald Trump works. We look at how Donald Trump captured the United States and what the new book by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Sean tells us about that operation.
  • 419. Writer Michael Thomas on breaking the chains of the past

    01:05:17||Ep. 419
    Michael Thomas found the kind of success most writers dream of with his first novel, Man Gone Down, but his life and career took a different direction. Now he has returned with an astonishing memoir, The Broken King. On Free State, he talks to Dion about addiction, race, and retiring to Ireland.
  • 418. Embrace the Mediterranean life. Embrace death.

    42:01||Ep. 418
    July was the driest July on record in Ireland and the second hottest since 1900. Most of us have enjoyed this summer but should we just now accept our Mediterranean climate and whistle past the climate graveyard.On Free State today we look at how climate and migration became weapons to protect the elites and sustain inequality. Dion and Joe look at the way the events in Ceuta were seized upon. It provided a backdrop for misinformation and fear and another chance to tell you your freedoms were under attack while your freedoms were being trampled on somewhere else.
  • 417. Merchants of doubt. The men who conspired to destroy the planet.

    47:48||Ep. 417
    In the 1980s, there were 21 days when the temperature in London reached 30 degrees. In 2026 there have been 24.In Greece, two died in a midair collision between helicopters fighting wildfires. France has seen the greatest civilian evacuation outside wartime as people flee the danger areas. And yet people will take issue with what they are seeing.On Free State we look at the movement that turned climate science into a climate debate. We examine how the methods that were used by big tobacco transferred to the climate arena. We look at how Brexit may be the model as the same alliance that drove the UK out of the EU, question the science as the world can burn so long as it doesn’t affect the bottom line
  • 416. How John Ware searched for the truth in the darkness of the Troubles

    01:02:16||Ep. 416
    Running agents during the Troubles has become one of the darkest element of the history of the north. John Ware has covered this story since the 1970s and produced a ground breaking Panorama on the topic. Ware talks to Dion today about a lifetime covering this subject and the stories of Brian Nelson and Freddie Scappaticci.
  • 415. Mayo vs Gianni Infantino

    36:36||Ep. 415
    Can you put a price on what we watched at Croke Park on Sunday? What would you sell a Mayo victory in the All Ireland for?We know that what we watched affects us in ways that money can’t buy but Gianni Infantino thinks he can sell the essence of sport.On Free State today Dion and Joe look at why sport is so important and why men like Infantino are a danger to the things that are most important in our lives.
  • 414. How Mayo Shook Up the World (and Joe Brolly)

    44:30||Ep. 414
    Everybody wants to know how Mayo did it, but when something like this happens what is more important is why Mayo did it.Why did these players play without fear? Why did the world weep along with Mayo people on Sunday when they won the All Ireland?On Free State today we look at why Mayo were able to do what they did against Kerry.In a county that has been waiting for so long, Joe and Dion look at how Andy Moran didn’t run from the emotion but instead made it an ally and created an adrenaline loop for his side.Joe reflects on his comments about Mayo earlier in the year - and earlier in the decade and earlier in the century - and talks about what it was like to watch it unfold on Sunday.