Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

Fintan Drury trained as a journalist before becoming a hugely significant figure in Irish corporate life, something he has talked about previously with honesty and some regret.He returned to his journalistic roots and the tragedy in Gaza compelled him to speak out. His new book Catastrophe is the story of Nakba II. On Free State today, he explains why he had to go to the West Bank to find out the truth and why Netanyahu is running rings around the US when it comes to war with Iran. He explains why the establishment desperately wants to take his side. He talks too about why Joe Biden, not just Netanyahu, should be facing charges at the International Criminal Court.

When Kneecap arrived at Westminster Magistrates Court, the scene was like Beatlemania if the Beatles’ fans were supporting a Free Palestine.Kneecap were in court for the first hearing in the case against Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, whose stage name is Mo Chara.On Free State today Joe explains why he isn’t part of the legal team and what will happen next.They look at the politically motivated charges and why taking a stand against genocide and Israel’s warmongering matters more than ever.Emotions are tested in the podcast when Joe accuses Dion of both-sidesing what is happening in Iran. The argument gets heated and ends in an unexpected fashion...

The world is moving closer to annihilation and still people beat the drumbeats for war.On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at how Israel’s attack on Iran is a case of history repeating itself. Iran is the bogey man that allows warmongering to prosper and no matter how many times this has happened before, the noises are still the same and as bloodthirsty.Joe also explains why Mayo footballers aren’t serious people after their defeat to Donegal.

“Political history, not natural history, turned a potato failure into a famine.”Between 1845 and 1851, one million people on the island of Ireland died of famine-related causes. Another 1.5 million people emigrated. On Free State today, historian Padraic X Scanlan, author of the outstanding history of the Famine, Rot, joins us to discuss what caused Ireland to suffer as it did.He considers the main characters like Charles Treveleyan and the failure of an ideology that believed in the pure virtue of the market. “The blight was a consequence of a novel pathogen spreading among fields of vulnerable plants,” Scanlan writes. “But the famine—a complex ecological, economic, logistical, and political disaster—was a consequence of colonialism.”Scanlan looks at how Ireland has dealt with the famine and how the potato itself became a symbol for those who blamed the Irish people themselves for the great hunger.

In Ballymena this week, those who have come from abroad to make their lives in the town were putting union jacks in the window in the hope it would prevent them being attacked.In the random and brutal rioting that saw the homes and businesses of foreigners attacked and terrorised this was they did to protect themselves and their families. On Free State today, Joe and Dion ask what is the root cause of this savagery which the police described as feral. Is it hatred or fear, supremacy or inferiority? Joe looks at how hate has been transferred from nationalists to other minorities - with plenty held back for nationalists too and projects like Casement Park.

“The kids were coming down for breakfast when these five men wearing cargo pants, big jackets arrived. They came into the third floor, stood in front of the bedroom door, took the three kids back in and told them to pack up. We heard them say: ‘You are going to be deported.’ As soon as the other children heard then they were all crying. It was such a horrific scene.”This was how a resident in an IPAS centre in West Dublin described the scenes when families were deported last week and sent back to Nigeria.“This is not a pleasant part of my job,” Jim O’Callaghan said on RTE. On X he said, “Another deportation flight left Dublin last night and landed safely this morning in Lagos, Nigeria. There were 35 people on board who had received but had not complied with Deportation Orders.”On Free State today, Dion and Joe asked who these messages are aimed at? What is Ireland doing to combat the fantasies being spun by people like Conor McGregor about a lost Ireland that never existed?Is appealing to those with concerns about immigration necessary to head off the far right or is this world without compassion and empathy Ireland’s dystopian future?

TP O’Connor was elected as MP for the Liverpool constituency of Liverpool Scotland in 1885. He represented that constituency from then until his death in 1929. TP O’Connor was an Irish Nationalist MP and he is the only Irish Nationalist ever elected to a constituency outside the island of Ireland.On Free State today, we look at the story of Liverpool and Ireland and the tensions that travelled from Ireland to the city. While it returned a nationalist MP, it also had 50 Orange Order lodge by the start of the 20th century and a 12th of July parade still takes place in the city today. Writer David Swift discusses his book Scouse Republic. We ask if the city’s Irish heritage contributed to its sense of separateness and its determination to fight the establishment when attacked by Thatcher and the media that demonised the city after Hillsborough.They also ask if Jurgen Klopp’s Christianity contributed to his status in the city and tell the extraordinary story of the time capsule Jim Larkin buried in Liverpool.

When a jury found in Gerry Adams’s favour in his case against the BBC, executives from the British Broadcasting Corporation sounded like they had won.On Free State today, Joe and Dion disagree about the importance of the verdict in the libel trial. Joe explains why the jury reached that verdict and why the BBC’s evidence was flawed.They look at how the BBC was a propaganda tool in the north for too long and why this verdict might be a long awaited turning point.

“Our revenge will be the laughter of our children,” Bobby Sands famously said. But what happens in a land where children are being killed in their thousands?On Free State today, trauma surgeon Morgan McMonagle provides a harrowing insight into his time working in the Nasser Hospital in Gaza.Morgan went to Gaza for the first time in 2024 and returned in 2025. He talks about how Israel’s onslaught over the past 20 months has destroyed a land and a people.He talks about the playgrounds that are no longer playgrounds but graveyards for the children who used to play there. They have no other use in a land where genocide is taking place and more than 50,000 children have been killed by the IDF.Morgan speaks about the four pillars of humanitarian work and why he has been compelled to speak out since he returned. It is not about taking sides, he says, it is about advocating for the truth.