Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

“I thought I came here to talk about books.” John Banville is one of Ireland’s great writers. He won the Booker Prize for his novel The Sea and he has remained one of the foremost figures in Ireland since. John Banville will turn 80 this year. In an extraordinary interview on Free State today, he talks about life, death and why we live too long. He has lived a complicated life and he discusses those complications, the hurt he caused his wife and the other women in his life. He speaks about his hatred of the Catholic Church, how his mother was cheated by the clergy and why he feels the church has never really gone away. He explains why he wants to be cancelled and what will be left when he is gone. “The work will be forgotten and my sins will be remembered.”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/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1984, the British government banned Martin Galvin from entering Northern Ireland. Galvin was a key figure in Noraid, the American organisation raising funds for Republican prisoners. In an explosive appearance on today’s Free State, Martin Galvin tells the story of his journey in the republican movement. Ahead of a brilliant new RTÉ documentary he describes the events of that summer in 1984. Galvin was smuggled into the North and made an appearance at a rally where one man was killed by the RUC as they tried to arrest Galvin Joe and Galvin clash with Dion over the events of that day. They also discuss his work to get Gerry Adams a visa in America and how Sinn Fein went in another direction when they decided it was a time for pragmatists.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/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rosie Schaap grew up leading the archetypal New Yorker lifestyle. Her mother was impossibly glamorous and her father was a sportswriter who befriended a young boxer on the way to the Rome Olympics and stayed friends with him all his life. That boxer was Muhammad Ali. Among Rosie’s most cherished possessions is a picture taken by the legendary photographer Carl Fischer with Ali in a safari suit tenderly looking down at her. The picture is now in her Antrim home. On Free State today Rosie Schaap tells the story of how a New York girl ended up in Glenarm following the death of her first husband from a rare form of cancer. Rosie was just 39. She talks about how she found in Ireland a way of talking about death she hadn’t experienced in New York. She explains how a fascination with Roger Casement led her to Antrim and then to Glenarm where she made a new life and found love again. Rosie also provides some startling revelations about Joe’s Harry Potter life at St Pat’s Armagh.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/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michael Lowry giving Paul Murphy - and everybody else - the fingers has become the defining image of the controversy over speaking time in the Dail. Lowry said it was ‘an errant gesture under provocation’. It captured the headlines but it was meaningless. On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at the real power Michael Lowry now holds and what it means. They ask why Lowry has this power and why was it so important to give him what he wants? Joe explains why the circus in the Dail only distracts from the real intent of the government. And there is news from the Dungiven WhatsApp who are surprised by something they’ve learned about Dion.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/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

George Foreman’s death robbed the world of one of the great sporting figures. It was also a reminder of a time when boxing ruled the world. On Free State today, Joe and Dion look back on the time when Muhammad Ali and Foreman were kings. 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/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Martin Dillon knew Rosemary Nelson. He says he has only met a few people like her in his life. He describes her as someone with "overarching respect for human life". Nelson was a solicitor and in March 1999, she was blown up when a car bomb exploded as she drove to work. On Free State today, the legendary journalist Martin Dillon joins us to talk about the women whose lives were destroyed and lost during the Troubles. In his new book The Sorrow and the Loss, Dillon looks at the shadow cast by the Troubles on so many lives. He returns to the case of Rosemary Nelson and the collusion that was involved in her murder. He talks about the killing of Caroline Moreland and who knows what about her murder. He talks too about Stakeknife. The world knows Stakeknife as Freddie Scappaticci but Dillon says he believes more than one man was Stakeknife.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/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The former England football manager Gareth Southgate warned this week that “callous, manipulative and toxic influencers” are having a dangerous effect on the lives of young men. The Netflix drama series Adolescence has captured the public’s imagination because of what it says about the dangers of social media and the corrupting influence of certain figures who warp the brains of young people. Donald Trump, meanwhile, invites them to the White House. On Free State today, Joe and Dion explain why nobody should have been surprised by Conor McGregor’s visit on St Patrick Day. They look at how an army are being mobilised to hate and fear while the real corruption takes place elsewhere. In a time of alarm and fear around the world, Joe takes heart from the beauty of sport and the importance of community.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/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Conor McGregor’s appearance in the White House for St Patrick’s Day was another insight into Trumpworld. McGregor was claiming to speak for Ireland while the Burkes went to Washington but were left to shout and roar outside. McGregor may seem to have no chance of running for president but Ireland would need to take heed of the forces that have brought Trump to the White House. On Free State today Joe and Dion look at the dark money that has bolstered the elites in Britain and the US. They detail how these movements designed to stop regulation and higher taxes for the richest were repurposed as phoney populist movements.  The Burkes have paid Facebook €45,000 over the past six years for advertising but where has that money come from? Is Ireland immune to these movements or should we be more alert to the dangers of a McGregor presidency?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/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Donald McRae was a young sportswriter, Hugh McIlvanney told him one night at a bar in Las Vegas that as he made a life covering boxing, “ambivalence will be your constant companion”. McRae found the romantic in boxing and particularly in boxers. He was drawn to fighters and trainers rather than promoters and advisers. His gifts as an interviewer meant that men like Tyson Fury revealed their vulnerabilities to him. But, as he writes in his new book, The Last Bell, even “the zealots grow weary”. On Free State today, Don McRae joins Dion and Joe to talk about his obsession with boxing, how he fell out of love with it and why his new book is a journey into the darkness of the ring. He speaks to about the great Belfast trainer Gerry Storey, Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran. He recalls his own father’s incredible life, defying the apartheid laws in South Africa to meet the ANC in Soweto while Nelson Mandela was in jail to bring electricity to the townships. At a time of personal grief, McRae lost himself in boxing again, but in a sport that has grown increasingly ugly, is it possible to be anything but ambivalent? And what does the decline of boxing tell us about the fate of all professional sport?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/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Micheál Martin walked out of the Oval Office feeling triumphant. He had left the lion’s den - or the bully’s lair - without humiliation. Donald Trump demands craven obedience and while history might look differently on those who humoured him, the Taoiseach wasn’t thinking about history. On Free State today, Dion and Joe ask if Micheál Martin had any choice but to laugh along as Trump played his hits? Was his responsibility to those in Ireland who depend on American firms for employment more important than taking a stand? What does it tell us about how the world is ordered that he must behave like that? What does it tell us about Trumpworld that this is the only behaviour tolerated?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/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.