Share

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning
The GAA is more important than money. For everything else there’s Mastercard.
America has Donald Trump’s Republican convention; Ireland has the All-Ireland hurling final. America has Hulk Hogan; Ireland has Tony Kelly. On Free State, Dion and Joe discuss the cultural importance of the All-Ireland final. What is it that makes hurling compelling? Why is sport at its most powerful such an important unifying force? As Joe Biden departs, America is more divided than ever. On All-Ireland final day we are reminded of what connects us, it is a day when even Cork people are welcomed on the streets of Dublin.
The GAA is more important than money. For everything else there’s Mastercard.
This episode of Free State is sponsored by Manscaped. Visit https://www.manscaped.com/ and get 20% off and free shipping by using code freestate20
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/
To get in touch with the podcast: info@freestatepodcast.com
More episodes
View all episodes

329. The Marinera Tanker and the Russian Invasion of Fivemiletown
36:36||Ep. 329As the US military pursued the Russian tanker Marinera in the North Atlantic, a village in South Tyrone might have been paying close attention.The world is not a safe place for many these days but in this time of danger, the residents of Fivemiletown are particularly at risk.On Free State today we look at why Fivemiletown appeared on a Russian strike list. What does it tell us about the drumbeats for war that the residents of the village are being told to prepare for nuclear annihilation?Meanwhile Dion prepares for a purity test as Joe decides to set a GAA quiz for him. Send your questions to info@freestatepodcast.com
328. Make Venezuela Great Again
48:50||Ep. 328When Nicolás Maduro, the deposed Venezuelan leader, appeared in a federal courtroom in lower Manhattan, he insisted ‘I am still president of my country.’Maduro was labouring under a misapprehension, not just about his own country but about how things now work.On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at the new age of empire as Donald Trump’s gangsterism spreads across the world.America now has Venezuela’s oil but it also has exercised muscle and for a bully like Trump that is its own reward.They explain why international law matters except when it doesn’t and they wonder what this means for the FIFA peace prize.
327. Swimming song - Staying afloat against impossible odds
01:10:50||Ep. 327"One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this." On October 25 2023, novelist Omar El Akkad posted this message on X/TwitterOn Free State today Omar El Akkad joins Joe and Dionto talk about how the world looked away. His magisterial new book One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This details the complicity of the west. Gaza is enduring a famine and Israel maintains a blockade where children’s hunger is a weapon of war and an instrument of monumental cruelty. Omar’s voice is a compelling and necessary counterpoint.This episode originally aired on May 6th 2025
326. Best of Free State - How AI colonised the planet. With Karen Hao
59:41||Ep. 326There are those who believe Artificial Intelligence will lead to the extinction of mankind. There are those who believe AI will save the world.On Free State today, journalist and author of the Empire of AI Karen Hao explains why AI is an imperialist project and how the colonising is already taking place. She says why she believes the doomer vs boomer debate is a distraction and how Ireland is on the frontline of this imperialist project. Water and energy resources will be drained as empires are built while humans will be expendable.Karen also tells us why the term Artificial Intelligence was a marketing term in the first place which set the technology on a destructive path.This episode first aired on June 28th 2025
325. Colm Toibin - ‘The problem in life is always middle aged men’
01:00:22||Ep. 325Colm Toibin returns to the Free State studio for what is now the traditional Christmas interview.He reflects on the year when he turned 70, why there is too many men watching rugby on television and why it’s important to take the 99 out of Irish politics forever.He talks too about the death of his father when he was 12 and how the great Irish psychiatrist Ivor Browne tried to open him up to the trauma in the most extraordinary way.
324. Best of Free State - Keith Donald
59:33||Ep. 324First there was the music. Keith Donald was always looking to escape. Music offered the first exit. Then came drink.Keith Donald was abused as a child by his headmistress. He found that jazz had the power to transform his existence.As a teenager he began to play music wherever he could. He played for a band on the Twelfth and toured the country with showbands.On Free State today Keith Donald talks about the music and the mayhem and how he found peace. He speaks about founding Moving Hearts and why even now music has the power to transform.This show was originally broadcast on August 23rd, 2025
323. A Free State Family Christmas
31:00||Ep. 323Why do so many of us still cherish Christmas? And why do so many find it a tough time of year?On Free State today, Joe and Dion reflect on the power of Christmas and what it tells us about us as a people.Joe looks forward to a child’s wonder at Christmas while Dion is looking forward to the Ashes over Christmas.
322. 'If I was in despair I wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning’ - Leon Diop on building a New Ireland
41:11||Ep. 322When he was 11, Leon Diop had his first experience of aggressive racism. But his identity was something he wrestled with in many ways.In a remarkable interview on Free State, Leon Diop talks about the Ireland he grew up in and being mixed race in that world.He talks about the confusion and shame he felt about his father, a Muslim from Senegal, and how he internalised that shame for many years.He explains how education changed him as he realised the difference between standing up for yourself and fighting for yourself. At a time when Ireland is experiencing more racism, he says he might be frightened but he refuses to despair.
321. Rule West Britannia
35:44||Ep. 321Causes, as we know, are notoriously bloodthirsty,’ James Baldwin wrote. What does it do to do somebody when they have crossed the boundary into a world of killing and destruction? How do they enforce their code in a place untethered from the one the rest of us inhabit?On Free State today, Joe and Dion follow on from Tuesday’s episode on Stakeknife by looking at how rules of organisations like the IRA were enforced. Joe talks about what made his father lose faith in the republican movement. He also accuses Dion of deference to the British Empire which leads Dion to launch a verbal attack on Joe.