Free State is a podcast for the curious that stimulates, provokes, challenges and entertains, while never taking itself too seriously. Free State covers topics ...
Joe spent a weekend at funerals and reflects on two extraordinary lives, his aunt Susan and Duncan O’Neill. He also considers how what we hear about people in churches is an insipid version of those actual extraordinary lives. He tells the tragic story of his in laws and the daughter he and his ex wife raised as their own. Having defended Bono and Michael Healy Rae, Dion now jumps to the defence of Jesus. Joe wonders if he - Jesus, not Dion - really suffered as much as the Christian churches have made out for the past two thousand years.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.
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34:19
Exile On Main Street: Rosie Schaap the New Yorker who found happiness in an Antrim village
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.
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46:15
Two fingers: Michael Lowry and the humiliation of Ireland
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.
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37:55
Remembering Giants: George Foreman and Muhammad Ali
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.
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43:23
The Truth About Stakeknife: Legendary journalist Martin Dillon on the real stories of the Troubles
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.
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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