When Dave Zirin flew home to America last week, as a precaution he wrote the telephone numbers of a lawyer and an Irish politician on his arm.

He had been away for only a week but a week is a long time in an authoritarian state. 

While he had been gone, JD Vance had declared an article about Charlie Kirk’s death in The Nation, the magazine Dave works for, to be ‘soulless and evil’. 

Dave wondered again what kind of country he was coming back to.

On Free State today, Dave Zirin explains why Ireland has been conned by the NFL game taking part in Croke Park this weekend. He laments that a venue so historic as allowed itself to be hijacked for a sportswashing exercise. He details why the NFL has no place in Ireland but why Kneecap give him hope.

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