Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

The power of the GAA is best seen when the people who are its lifeblood support a cause. The sense of a community united for the greater good is what makes the GAA different and special. On Free State, Joe and Dion talk about how the GAA makes a difference and why it contrasts with the one-way street of fandom in the Premier League. Joe explains the importance of the 65 Roses Day, the Fundraising Day for Cystic Fibrosis Ireland, and the phenomenal work the charity is doing. Joe also explains why his views on Mickey Harte haven’t changed despite Derry’s success and why Jurgen Klopp wouldn’t be a great GAA man.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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Late Late Show special on the GAA demonstrated what makes the association special. The people and the communities are where the real glory is found in the GAA, not in the fleeting fame of All-Irelands A UK academic currently studying the GAA spoke of how the association ‘blew his mind’. On Free State today, Joe talks to Dion about how it felt to be back in RTÉ for the Late Late, his Eoin McLove moment and the ties that bind GAA people in life, death and everything in between.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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

They were “young, dumb and full of c**”. The ambitious young men who became traders in the city of London would have been drug dealers if they grew up where Gary Stevenson grew up. And the drug dealers would have been traders if they’d gone to the same public schools as the people he worked with in Canary Wharf.On Free State today Gary Stevenson tells the story of how these insanely ambitious young men have shaped the world we all inhabit. He tells of one trading floor boss who was literally barking mad. Gary was the most profitable trader for Citibank and he saw how the world was distorted by the deals that were made. While everyone he worked with was making money to fit in, Gary Stevenson was taken away from his community by the trillions he dealt in. He tells Dion and Joe how he recovered from that experience and how the voices of dissent who speak out against the inequality built into the system are silenced.Gary Stevenson's book “The Trading Game” is available now.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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gary Stevenson was once the most profitable trader in the world for one of the planet’s biggest banks. He was a working class boy from east London who grew up in the shadow of Canary Wharf. He then went to work in the skyscrapers that had loomed over him and promised him escape.Gary made a fortune. But as he made that fortune, he realised that the game was rigged. On Free State today, Gary Stevenson joins Joe and Dion to talk about his stunning book The Trading Game, his journey to the top of Canary Wharf and the price he paid for success in a banking system that rules our world.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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Simon Harris has risen without trace. Who is he and what he stands for are questions that have rarely been asked.Harris has been described as ‘the white Obama’. He was called the TikTok Taoiseach and hailed as a great communicator. But behind the empty phrases, something is happening in Ireland which needs real leadership. On Free State, Joe and Dion explain why it requires more than tub thumping about taking back the flag to make Ireland great again. And why Harris’s coronation as Fine Gael leader was a symptom of all that’s wrong with Ireland.MIGA. Simon Harris making Ireland great again.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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Leo Varadkar’s resignation was described as a ‘political earthquake’. Some said the political world had been turned upside down. But beyond the parlour games of the political class, does it matter at all? On Free State, Joe and Dion ask what has Varadkar achieved? Did he lead a government or a pr agency. What does the giddiness surrounding his departure tell us about the problems in Ireland today? And is the fate of a parakeet marooned somewhere in England another example of how the trivial distracts us from the real issues?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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Davy Tweed knew exactly how to control those he abused. He did it in a million different ways, big and small.In Part 2 of her interview on Free State, Amanda Brown recalls how Tweed would dehumanise and humiliate her along with the rest of her family. She tells Dion and Joe how she was isolated and how every one of his victims believed they were utterly alone. She talks about how that changed. How Tweed crumbled as the survivors took him on in court and in the community. Amanda explains why she waived her right to anonymity and how they life she has today is a million miles from the hell of her childhood.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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Davy Tweed was an Irish international rugby player. He was a unionist politician. He was a monster. On Free State today, his step daughter Amanda Brown talks about the hell she experienced at the hands of Tweed and her slow, courageous journey to freedom.She tells Dion and Joe about the mental, physical and sexual abuse she endured. And she explains what connected the public figure Davy Tweed to the private monster.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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

History is a nightmare from which Ireland is always trying to awake.On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at how the future is being grasped in the north. But this is a story about the whole island and why the leadership shown by Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly will ripple across the country. Ireland’s history is always with us but the future doesn’t have to be a nightmare. In the spirit of fearlessness, Dion shares with Joe a dream he has - not a nightmare - and immediately regrets it.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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Northern Ireland was once a land divided by symbols. Since Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little Pengelly became First Minister and deputy First Minister it is a place energised by them.On Free State, Joe and Dion look at the leadership shown by O’Neill and Little Pengelly and how those like the Allosaurus (Jim Allister) are on the brink of extinction.When Little Pengelly visited St Paul’s GAA club in West Belfast, it was not just an important gesture, to those who know the history of the area and the club, it was sign that the past is now the past.To face the future with hope and optimism, it’s important to deal with the past with fearless honesty which is why Joe feels it is important to be more like David Trimble and less like Andrew Trimble.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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.