Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

As a young man, he fled the racism of Louisiana. His father could take no more: violence or exile was the next step. He began what at first was an unpromising basketball career before becoming the most inspirational leader in the history of the NBA.On the final part of The Captain Class, Joe and Dion look at the extraordinary life of Bill Russell. Russell was the man who shaped the Boston Celtics even as he was being racially abused by his own fans. He had no interest in fame or the trappings of celebrity but as a captain he found a higher purpose for himself and his team.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/To get in touch with the podcast: info@freestatepodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Leinster missed a drop goal in the final seconds of the European final were they just unlucky? Or were they, like Mayo, missing chances or losing three finals in a row because something fundamental was missing? On Free State today, Joe and Dion continue their exploration of the great teams and captains in sport.Is team spirit just an illusion glimpsed in victory or is there another reason why these team succeed and others experience relative failure? They look at what the great teams had in common, the factor that drove them towards relentless success and why luck had nothing to do with it.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/To get in touch with the podcast: info@freestatepodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Roy Keane drove Manchester United and Ireland on through the force of his personality. He was the most important player in Alex Ferguson’s side but was he a man apart or the invisible essence of the team? On Free State today, Joe and Dion debate Roy Keane and where he belongs in the captain class. They look at those who led a different way, who didn’t let heart attacks or jibes about being a water-carrier stop them leading.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/To get in touch with the podcast: info@freestatepodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is it that unites the greatest teams in sport?What is the factor that ensures a team remains successful over a prolonged period?When the American journalist Sam Walker began to study the greatest teams in sport, he found a common denominator that shocked him.On Free State today, Joe and Dion discuss Walker’s book The Captain Class and the individuals who drove the greatest teams, even if, in one case, it resulted in his testicle being ripped out.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/To get in touch with the podcast: info@freestatepodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Ulster final was a study in winning and losing. A perfect example of the question everyone in sport has wrestled with for generations: what makes one team win and another team lose?What makes one team confident as they reach the dying moments of a game while another becomes tense, tight and anxious?What separates Dublin from Mayo or Donegal from Armagh? What distinguishes Alex Ferguson from David Moyes?On Free State today, Dion and Joe look at the difference between winning and losing. Joe talks about the time he spent with the men from the great Kilkenny sides recently and what he discovered from those conversations about the secret of success. And when they talk about winning, naturally the conversation leads back to Jim McGuinness.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/To get in touch with the podcast: info@freestatepodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joe Klecko always had mayhem on his mind. Klecko, the legendary defensive linemen for the New York Jets, is regarded as the strongest man in the history of American Football.When Joe Klecko was inducted into the Hall of Fame, he invited Joe Brolly to Cleveland to be part of the event.On Free State today, Joe Klecko talks to Joe about his life on the front line of the most demanding sport of all. But it came easy to a man who once wrestled a bear and another time pulled the doors off Burt Reynolds’s tour bus. How he dealt with Joe was another story…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/To get in touch with the podcast: info@freestatepodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Roger Casement’s executioner described him as ‘the bravest man it fell to my unhappy lot to execute’. In part 2 of a special Free State on Casement, his biographer Roland Philipps explains the doomed and heroic final act of Casement’s life when he was driven by an obsessive desire for Irish freedom. He talks to Dion and Joe about the love affair which helped to condemn an impractical romantic. If Roger Casement’s life had ended after he had exposed the barbarity in the Congo, he would have been hailed as one of history’s great humanitarians. But his final years were taken up with the cause closest to his heart: Irish freedomFree State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning is a Gold Hat Production in association with SwanMcG.For more on Free State: https://freestatepodcast.com/To get in touch with the podcast: info@freestatepodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Roger Casement was hanged in Pentonville Prison in 1916, he died an Irish hero and a traitor to the British Empire.On Banna Strand in 2016, President Higgins described Casement as “not just a great Irish patriot, he was also one of the great humanitarians of the early 20th century”.On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at the many lives of a man who so impressed a tribe of cannibals with his courage that they didn’t eat him. Casement’s lives were varied, and some of them were secret, but he also, as President Higgins said, exposed “the darkness that lay at the heart of European imperialism”. His biographer Roland Philipps joins Joe and Dion to talk about this modern story. A story of a man who exposed the rotten heart of empire. It was a life that changed Ireland and the world. Nobody will ever live a life like Roger Casement’s again.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/To get in touch with the podcast: info@freestatepodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What drives Jim McGuinness? Why does he inspire such devotion and how does he command such loyalty?On Free State, Joe explains his own complicated relationship with Jim McGuinness.In a world where GAA managers are conformist and conservative, McGuinness is a man apart. Is this why he was able to dismantle Derry? And Joe reveals what he was shouting at Mickey Harte from the stand.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/To get in touch with the podcast: info@freestatepodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Christy Moore has been a giant in Irish life. In the final part of the Free State special he talks to Joe and Dion about the songs and the people who have guided him along the way.He plays the songs whose success surprised him and he talks about the ones that were censored. What word led the BBC to ban ‘St Brendan’s Voyage’? How did a review of ‘The Time Has Come’ lead to it being taken off the airwaves? He also tells the extraordinary story of how he was given the lyrics to ‘Back Home In Derry’ which were written by Bobby Sands in the H Blocks.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/To get in touch with the podcast: info@freestatepodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When the Stardust Families were on their own, Christy Moore stood with them. On Part 2 of the Free State Special, Christy Moore remembers the dark days of the tragedy in 1981. When Christy found himself in court in 1985 charged with contempt because of one line in his song about the fire ‘They Never Came Home’, the Stardust Families stood with him. Christy also talks about the impact his father’s death had on him and the rest of his family. He also turns the tables on Joe and has a few questions of his own.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/To get in touch with the podcast: info@freestatepodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Christy Moore has been the voice of the nation for more than fifty years.Christy has been on the side of the underdog, called out the establishment and has never taken a backward step. In the first part of a Free State special, Christy Moore joins Dion and Joe to reflect on his extraordinary life. Christy recalls his own parents’ time in politics, his involvement with the hunger strikers and why he still finds a live show such a special and unpredictable place.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/To get in touch with the podcast: info@freestatepodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When it comes to a united Ireland, economists might know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Except they’re not even sure of the price. On Free State, Dion and Joe consider the report which said a united Ireland could cost €20 million a year for 20 years and look at all it didn’t say.Are these numbers being used to scare voters in the south by an establishment which fears becoming irrelevant in a united Ireland? Or do they show the need for a conversation that everyone can be part of? One commentator said Simon Harris knows where Fine Gael’s erogenous zones are and Joe and Dion wonder exactly what they could be and they also have news about some very special episodesFree State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning is a Gold Hat Production in association with SwanMcG.For more on Free State: https://freestatepodcast.com/To get in touch with the podcast: info@freestatepodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ireland’s new Taoiseach Simon Harris says he belongs to a generation more familiar with Berlin and Paris than Belfast or Derry. To the Irish citizens of Belfast and Derry, it may have been a surprise but not a shock to hear the Taoiseach speak of them as if they were a strange and distant people. Or maybe they’ll be relieved he didn’t say Londonderry.On Free State today, Joe and Dion talk about a united Ireland. Ireland is the only country with a constitutional aspiration for unity so why do the government parties find it so hard to talk about?As Fine Gael lionise Margaret Thatcher, is it any wonder they continue to view the north in a negative way. Joe and Dion argue about the recent report into the cost of unity and if there is a significance that one of the authors of the report is the son of Garret FitzGerald.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/To get in touch with the podcast: info@freestatepodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The power of the GAA is best seen when the people who are its lifeblood support a cause. The sense of a community united for the greater good is what makes the GAA different and special. On Free State, Joe and Dion talk about how the GAA makes a difference and why it contrasts with the one-way street of fandom in the Premier League. Joe explains the importance of the 65 Roses Day, the Fundraising Day for Cystic Fibrosis Ireland, and the phenomenal work the charity is doing. Joe also explains why his views on Mickey Harte haven’t changed despite Derry’s success and why Jurgen Klopp wouldn’t be a great GAA man.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/To get in touch with the podcast: info@freestatepodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Late Late Show special on the GAA demonstrated what makes the association special. The people and the communities are where the real glory is found in the GAA, not in the fleeting fame of All-Irelands A UK academic currently studying the GAA spoke of how the association ‘blew his mind’. On Free State today, Joe talks to Dion about how it felt to be back in RTÉ for the Late Late, his Eoin McLove moment and the ties that bind GAA people in life, death and everything in between.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/To get in touch with the podcast: info@freestatepodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

They were “young, dumb and full of c**”. The ambitious young men who became traders in the city of London would have been drug dealers if they grew up where Gary Stevenson grew up. And the drug dealers would have been traders if they’d gone to the same public schools as the people he worked with in Canary Wharf.On Free State today Gary Stevenson tells the story of how these insanely ambitious young men have shaped the world we all inhabit. He tells of one trading floor boss who was literally barking mad. Gary was the most profitable trader for Citibank and he saw how the world was distorted by the deals that were made. While everyone he worked with was making money to fit in, Gary Stevenson was taken away from his community by the trillions he dealt in. He tells Dion and Joe how he recovered from that experience and how the voices of dissent who speak out against the inequality built into the system are silenced.Gary Stevenson's book “The Trading Game” is available now.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/To get in touch with the podcast: info@freestatepodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gary Stevenson was once the most profitable trader in the world for one of the planet’s biggest banks. He was a working class boy from east London who grew up in the shadow of Canary Wharf. He then went to work in the skyscrapers that had loomed over him and promised him escape.Gary made a fortune. But as he made that fortune, he realised that the game was rigged. On Free State today, Gary Stevenson joins Joe and Dion to talk about his stunning book The Trading Game, his journey to the top of Canary Wharf and the price he paid for success in a banking system that rules our world.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/To get in touch with the podcast: info@freestatepodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Simon Harris has risen without trace. Who is he and what he stands for are questions that have rarely been asked.Harris has been described as ‘the white Obama’. He was called the TikTok Taoiseach and hailed as a great communicator. But behind the empty phrases, something is happening in Ireland which needs real leadership. On Free State, Joe and Dion explain why it requires more than tub thumping about taking back the flag to make Ireland great again. And why Harris’s coronation as Fine Gael leader was a symptom of all that’s wrong with Ireland.MIGA. Simon Harris making Ireland great again.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/To get in touch with the podcast: info@freestatepodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Leo Varadkar’s resignation was described as a ‘political earthquake’. Some said the political world had been turned upside down. But beyond the parlour games of the political class, does it matter at all? On Free State, Joe and Dion ask what has Varadkar achieved? Did he lead a government or a pr agency. What does the giddiness surrounding his departure tell us about the problems in Ireland today? And is the fate of a parakeet marooned somewhere in England another example of how the trivial distracts us from the real issues?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/To get in touch with the podcast: info@freestatepodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.