Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

What drove DJ Carey? What did he believe of the fraud and deception that ended up with him being sent to prison? And as he faces life as a social pariah, what does he think today of his crimes?
On Free State today Eimear Ni Bhraonain, author of The Dodger, the bestselling book about DJ Carey looks at what drove one of Ireland’s greatest sportsmen.
She considers the childhood of excellence and isolation and what removed DJ Carey from the world around him and sent him into the field of deception and fraud.
She looks at how DJ might redeem himself and considers the question that even asking makes some people angry: Is it ok to feel sorry for DJ Carey?
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In August Belfast will host Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann. More than half a million people will visit the city from around the world for the festival which is a global event. Last year nearly a million people attended the Fleadh in Wexford.
But be warned. All this music and culture is not what it appears. A DUP councillor has warned that a spin off event in Bangor has potential to cause ‘ill feeling’ because it takes place on the same day as the Ulster Championships for Pipe Bands.
On Free State today Joe and Dion look at how a strand of unionism sees everything as a zero sum game. But it’s a game they are losing.
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‘A society,’ Dostoevsky said, ‘should be judged not by how it treats its outstanding citizens but how it treats its prisoners.’
In the U.K. Nigel Farage is promising to build bigger prisons and send prisoners to Estonia and El Salvador. There are more people in prison in the US than in any country in the world.
On Free State today we look at how society gave up on prisoners. We examine why populism and media scares matter more than any idea of rehabilitation.
And there is news on the GAA quiz which was postponed as Joe questioned Dion’s right to even answer the questions. Send your questions to [email protected]
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In November, 2022, the principals of Blackrock College and its two junior schools issued a statement. It followed a public apology that had been made by the Spiritan Order over abuse that took place in its schools
The statement by the schools spoke of the “great harm done” to pupils over an extended period.
It added that “Philip Feddis, Corry McMahon, Louis Hoffman and John Coulter, all of whom left school at the end of the 1970s, showed extraordinary courage in bringing the scale of the problem to attention. Over the last number of years the determination these four men and indeed many others have displayed, warrants our collective gratitude.”
On Free State today, two of those extraordinarily courageous men Corry McMahon and John Coulter talk to us about their years in Blackrock College and the junior school Willow Park. They talk about the darkness and the light of their schooldays and the joy of friendship which has helped them deal with the horrors.
They speak about the restorative justice programme they have worked on for the past four years and what needs to happen next.
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As 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 [email protected]
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