Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

337 episodes

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
24/1/2026 | 42 mins.
What would it mean to be free of financial insecurity? Why does money scare us so much?
On Free State today money expert Eoin McGee talks about how we can achieve financial freedom and faces one of his greatest challenges: Dion’s attitude to money.
In doing so, he talks about things far more profound than money. What do we really want from life and Dion explains why your wedding day is not the best day of your life.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Trump backs down on Greenland and is Tony Blair the world’s worst person?
22/1/2026 | 46 mins.
When Donald Trump backed down on Greenland, he tried to make it sound like a victory.
But what caused him to cave? Western leaders have tried to placate Trump and continued this approach at Davos until Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney laid out the truth about the world today.
‘The strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must,’ he said quoting Thucydides.
This is the reality of the world and somebody naming it shook Trump.
On Free State today we look at where he goes next and how Tony Blair remains part of the Gaza Peace Board.
We look at Blair’s journey to the heart of power and wealth. Dion and Joe disagree on what drove him to this. Joe outlines how Blair moved closer to Israel during his time in power and why he has always sided with the strong while the weak suffer what they must.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Trump renounces pacifism and invites Putin to Gaza Board of Peace
20/1/2026 | 48 mins.
When the Senegal team walked off the pitch in the last seconds of the AFCON final, were we witnessing a moment of brave resistance or gamesmanship?
Was this a stand against the technology which is destroying sport or a stroke?
On Free State today we ask if injustice has to be part of sport?
Joe makes his case for video evidence in Gaelic football.
Joe and Dion also look at Trump’s determination to land the biggest real estate deal in American history as he pursues Greenland. Is this a negotiation or the actions of a narcissist?
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
'The two things DJ Carey looked for were attention and money’
17/1/2026 | 45 mins.
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?
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann - the musical wing of the IRA
15/1/2026 | 44 mins.
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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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About Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

Free State is a podcast for the curious that stimulates, provokes, challenges and entertains, while never taking itself too seriously. Free State covers topics from sport to politics, love to loss, the human condition and how to fix the world, with guests from across the planet including Nigerian princes, former Prime Ministers, ex convicts, footballers, boxers and extraordinary people from every walk of life. Free State is presented by Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning. Brolly is a barrister, an original thinker with a fascinating backstory, who donated a kidney to a stranger and then led a crusade to transform organ donation on the island of Ireland, and Fanning is an award-winning interviewer and author. They are not motivational gurus or life coaches. They will never try to sell you a penis scented candle. They are two people from very different worlds, with one core belief uniting them - this is not a high performance podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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