Eamonn Sweeney’s life changed on a June day in the year 2000.

He was a sportswriter enjoying the traditional rhythm of the GAA summer as he arrived at Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney.

Suddenly he was hit by a bomb and couldn’t put one foot in front of the other.

It was the beginning of a descent into isolation and fear.

On Free State today, Eamonn Sweeney talks about the terror of those days when travelling became a nightmare and he retreated into a cocoon.

He speaks about his new book and how writing it helped to restore him as he found purpose again. It is a story about the community and the power of the GAA

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The history of the far right in Ireland is long and dark. From the Blueshirts and Eoin O’Duffy to the Nazi collaborator Sean Russell and the return in modern times. 

On today’s Free State, historian Padraig Óg Ó Ruairc talks about his new book on the far right and how he entered into the world of conspiracy to learn more about the movement.

He talks about the Blueshirts and how close Ireland came to a coup and why even when the far right seem absurd they can’t be underestimated.

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Are you still talking about Rory McIlroy? Joe has reflected on his comments on Tuesday’s episode and Dion believes his views have changed. Have they? Joe also looks at the uniformity of the celebration and what it tells us about society. Dion sees similarities with Italia 90 but Joe thinks there are echoes of Princess Diana’s death. They look at why all sport requires a suspension of rational thought. There is also more anonymous correspondence about Joe’s remarks.

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning is a Gold Hat Production

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Rory McIlrory ended his quest for the Masters on Sunday night. It was sporting drama which gripped the nation. Well, nearly all the nation. On Free State today Joe wonders if golf really can produce profound sporting drama given that it is ultimately a game of golf. Dion isn’t prepared to defend golf but argues that McIlroy transcends the game because of his inability to wear the mask that the modern sportsman is supposed to wear. And Joe suspects he knows the identity of the anonymous emailer who takes issue with Joe’s comments about the GAA and soccer.

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning is a Gold Hat Production

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Edna O’Brien’s early novels shocked Ireland which plotted its revenge. Her first novel The Country Girls was banned and she had to withstand the whispering of the establishment that she didn’t write her own novels.

Her career would be a rebuttal to the cynics and the priests, but her life had its share of trauma and despair. In the 1970s she began an affair with a renowned and married British politician whose identity has never been revealed. She was consumed by the relationship, unable to work or think of anything else. A new documentary Blue Road tells the remarkable story of Edna O’Brien. On Free State today, Blue Road’s director Sinead O’Shea talks about the Edna O’Brien she got to know at the end of her life and why she remained so fiercely independent. She looks at O’Brien’s life ridiculed and castigated by the establishment, firstly for writing about sex and then for writing about Gerry Adams.

Sinead also tells the story of the acid trip that altered Edna O’Brien’s life forever when she had to be rescued by James Bond.

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

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When Donald Trump paused tariffs for 90 days after a week of chaos, once again the world tried to interpret his actions. When people tell you who they are believe them and Trump has told us plenty of times. These were not the actions of a man playing 4D chess but of an infant trying not to choke on the pieces. Trump is the idiot wind blowing through America bringing anarchy and misery across the world. On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at the man behind the actions and those who have decided to support him. They identify the grift in the middle of the pandemonium and wonder if the bully who wants the world to grovel will be undone by the chaos he can’t control.

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

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As the world sinks deeper into madness, Joe and Dion remember the time of wonder that was the Kerry team under Mick O’Dwyer. What was it that drove O’Dwyer on? Joe recalls his own encounters with Mick O’Dwyer. Dion tells of when his father lined up alongside O’Dwyer in a Kerry team in 1960. They look at what drove Mick O’Dwyer and that Kerry team to greatness and why certain myths had to be rejected. Joe also reveals some non sheep nuts related news about his sex life that absolutely nobody will be interested in.

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

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“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.

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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.

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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/

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