The Trump Dictatorship with writer Joseph O’Neill
One of Ireland’s great writers Joseph O’Neill is today’s guest on Free State.O’Neill’s novels Netherland and Godwin have reflected the centrality of sport in people’s lives. He talks about why sport matters so much and why in Ireland it matters even more than that. He reflects on his own upbringing and how he was raised in Holland before becoming a barrister and practising law in London. He has lived in New York for a generation and he reflect on how the media and the Democrats have enabled the rise of a dictator. And on All Ireland hurling final weekend, he shares the story of the time his father played hurling for Cork. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Blocking a cross-community cricket camp. Unionists are draining the pool so no one can swim
The Fairground Park pool in St Louis Missouri was the largest pool in America when it was built in 1919. It had enough room for 10,000 swimmers. All of them white.But when integration came to Missouri, rather than allow all races to swim, the Fairground Park pool closed. This phenomenon was explored by writer Heather McGhee and on Free State today, Joe and Dion examine the drained pool politics of unionism and the Orange order in Northern Ireland. When the North Down Cricket Club cross-community sports camp sports was blocked following an online backlash it was a perfect example of how narrow mindedness hurts everyone. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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The Sherlock Holmes of Donegal. Jimmy McGuinness and the winning formula.
Jim McGuinness isn’t a pragmatist. He is, Joe says, a pragmatic extremist.On Free State, Joe and Dion look at the clash between genius and control. Through the history of sport, geniuses have always made their own way and systems have been devised to stop them. Will this be the case when David Clifford’s Kerry play McGuinness’s Donegal?We look at how McGuinness saw the opportunity in the new rules before anyone else and what that tells us about his managerial genius. Dion has been at the England-India game at Lord’s and he talks about the instinctive uncoachable genius that can often undo any system. But will genius be enough to undo Jim McGuinness’s? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Writer Timothy O’Grady on the trauma of war, imagining the life of a sniper and writing Stephen Rea’s memoir
In January, Timothy O’Grady joined Dion and Joe on the podcast to talk about Say Nothing and what it got wrong.What stayed in people’s minds was his reading from his novel Monaghan.With the publication of that novel this summer, Tim returns to Free State to talk about what he has learned about war and killing through years talking to people involved in the Troubles. He explains how it shaped his novel and he talks about the work he’s doing with his friend Stephen Rea on the actor’s memoirs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Postmodernism and the Twelfth. In Moygashel, they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats
When the pictures emerged of the loyalist bonfire in Moygashel in Co Tyrone, most people were horrified at the migrant boat effigy at the top. Politicians condemned it and called for action but others insisted it was in fact an act or ‘artistic protest’.On Free State, Joe and Dion look at the celebrations around the Twelfth of July, not as the desperate acts of a lost people, but as an artistic installation.Have we failed to understand the subversive power and artistic merit of Loyalism for generations? Or should we look at this artistic protest as a brutal sign of a community punching down as they search for people to blame? 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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