Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

When 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/

Volodymyr 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/

On 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/

When 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/

Brendan ‘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/

It 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/

At the age of 16 Joe Lynskey joined a monastery with the intention of becoming a Cisterian monk. He spent six years in Mount Melleray monastery in Waterford but he decided to leave the order. He joined the IRA instead. He became a founding member of the Provisional IRA and the intelligence officer for the Belfast Brigade. They called him ‘the Mad Monk’ but he also reclaimed the youth he had abandoned to the monastery and pursued women. On Free State today, Joe and Dion tell the story of how Joe Lynskey went from monk to becoming the first of The Disappeared. They look at how Joe Lynskey’s love affairs led to an extraordinary sequence of events that sealed his fate. They examine the role of Dolours Price in the story and the trauma and bonds that tied her to Joe Lynskey. Lynskey’s family suffered from the cruelty of his disappearance and murder, as well as the stories spun to keep the truth from them. But more than 50 years since Joe Lynskey's killing, how many knew the truth?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/

The 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/

The story of the disappeared in Irish history is long and murky. Why are some of the tales wrapped up in myth and others part of the barbaric recent past? On Free State today Padraig Óg Ó Ruairc joins Dion and Joe to talk about his book The Disappeared. Dion and Joe turn on each other as they interrogate the past and examine these tragic stories. Why do the restless dead haunt Irish history and what is needed for a proper reckoning with the darkest acts of the past?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/