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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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As Elon Musk and Donald Trump take control in America, what is the consequence of resistance? Musk campaigns against the unelected bureaucrats even though he is unelected too. Meanwhile he delivers dog whistles and simple fascist salutes for the far right. But what does it matter in Ireland? On Free State today we look at the international network supporting the far right movement in Ireland north and south. What is its purpose and who is behind it? There’s also an attempt to see if Deep Seek can transform Joe’s view of Mickey Harte

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning is a Gold Hat Production in association with SwanMcG.

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On Sunday evening, Donald Trump became the first sitting American president to attend the Superbowl. His attendance, in the eyes of many, sealed the union between American Football and American Nationalism. On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at how the NFL became part of the US war machine. From Vietnam to Iraq, the sport embraced militarisation but insisted that sport and politics should never mix. At the same time, Britain escalated the wearing of a poppy from a muted tribute to war dead into a pageant of insistent patriotism, designed to sportswash imperial crimes. Everyone had to bend the knee, including the Cookie Monster. In an America being bent to the will of Donald Trump, they wonder who will provide the resistance and what price will they pay for dissent?

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/

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There are times when, as a great writer said, the past beats inside us like a second heart.

The death of Paddy Cullen was, for so many people, one of those moments. It transported them back to the days of Heffo’s Army and the rivalry with Kerry which were the foundation for a million sporting dreams.

On a Free State Special, Joe remembers the Paddy Cullen he knew, a member of that Dublin team who weren’t just extraordinary players, but exceptional men.

He recalls his encounters with Paddy Cullen and the thread of community that runs from that Dublin team to the great Jim Gavin team. Dion meanwhile reveals his role as a Gaelic football missionary in south Dublin.

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning is a Gold Hat Production in association with SwanMcG.

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In 1981, the FBI raided the New York apartment of a 27-year-old Englishman who they believed had been commissioned by the Provisional IRA to murder a unionist politician. On Free State today, Aaron Edwards continues his journey inside the psyche of unionism and reveals the details of that extraordinary story. He talks to Dion and Joe about unionism’s reluctance to change. The goodies and baddies might be different but the attitude is the same. Is it a philosophy or a state of mind? Aaron also talks about his next gripping book and Joe manages to achieve the impossible and rudely interrupt himself.

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning is a Gold Hat Production in association with SwanMcG.

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CS Lewis wrote that there would be no better to place to live than Northern Ireland ‘if only I could deport the Ulstermen’. On Free State today Joe and Dion talk to the world-renowned historian Aaron Edwards about the predicament of unionism today. Is unionism a philosophy or an anxiety? Do unionist politicians have a strategy or are they trapped by parochialism? Edwards talks about his own upbringing on the hardline loyalist Rathcoole Estate in Belfast and why every victory gets turned to defeat.

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning is a Gold Hat Production in association with SwanMcG.

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What were the challenges in being part of the resistance to the Nazis? What was the peculiar torment for women who took on the Reich? On a Free State Special, Dion talks to author Joseph O’Connor about his gripping new book The Ghosts of Rome. It continues the story of the Rome Escape Line, the extraordinary group that smuggled allied soldiers into the Vatican and away from the Nazis. He also looks back on the extraordinary life of the Kerryman Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty who led that resistance in Rome but cared most for horses and the Kerry footballers.  It is an extraordinary interview with one of Ireland’s greatest writers.

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning is a Gold Hat Production in association with SwanMcG.

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When President Donald Trump said he wanted to ‘clean out’ Gaza, where was the condemnation from world leaders? People might dismiss it as just another crazy thing Donald Trump says but it was more revealing that that. On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at how the world is being reshaped by the response of the west to Gaza.  They consider Pankaj Mishra’s new book The World After Gaza and what it means. They also consider the response to President Higgins’ speech at the Holocaust Memorial Day and why his words were necessary and humane

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.