Irish Independent podcast series scoops award at prestigious New York Festivals Radio Awards

The six-part series I’m Not Here To Hurt You tells the story of Ireland’s most polite bank robber, who led gardaí on a hunt across Dublin for months in 2004.

The podcast, hosted by Kevin Doyle, won the bronze award in the Serialised Podcast category. Other entrants included major brands such as CBS News, BBC, NPR and The Australian.

The New York Festivals Radio Awards had entries from stations, networks, and podcasters from around the world. It is considered by audio producers to be the most prestigious award for which they can compete.

The win comes just days after the podcast finished in the top three at the WAN-IFRA European Digital Media Awards.

I’m Not Here To Hurt You was the Irish Independent’s first venture into long-form audio journalism.

The project involved investigating the story of John O’Hegarty, a highly-educated entrepreneur who ended up spending a chunk of his life in prison after a drug-fuelled crime spree.

For years after his release, O’Hegarty tried to hide from his crimes. However, over the course of a year he opened up to Doyle about a fatal accident that led to him being nicknamed ‘The Killer Courier’ and sent him spiralling out of control.

The Irish Independent probed his version of events through official records and secondary interviews to build a true story of how one tragic moment can derail the lives of so many.

The series has been described by The Guardian as “fascinating”, while The Spectator called it a “gripping tale”.

Doyle, who is Executive Editor of the Irish Independent, said: “The podcast is a perfect example of a project that grew out of that tradition of storytelling. But rather than be confined to one or two pages in a newspaper, it was fully explored over three hours in audio.

“It is rare to have somebody like John O’Hegarty agree to be interviewed about his past and then to have him describe his crimes, life behind bars and personal struggles so deeply.

“The podcast took almost a year to make and involved significant input from other journalists in the Irish Independent newsroom and our legal team. To see it recognised alongside global players who specialise in audio at the New York Storytellers Gala was remarkable.”

He added that the work done behind the scenes by series producer Garrett Mulhall and sound designer John Smith helped make the podcast “both thought-provoking and challenging”.

The executive producer was Mary Carroll, while others directly involved in the project were Gavin Hennessey (sound), and Amy Molloy and Conor Feehan (reporting).

The podcast has had more than half a million downloads. Some 60pc of these were in Ireland – but the reach extended to the UK, USA, Australia and across Europe at a much higher rate than might be expected. Overall, it has been downloaded in 184 countries.

Carroll, who is group audio producer for Mediahuis Ireland, said: “This award is recognition at international level of the work The Indo Daily podcast team and wider newsroom does every day to bring our stories to life in an audio format and reach a new audience.

“I want to thank John O’Hegarty for trusting us to tell his story in a fair manner that deals both with his own trauma but also the distress his actions caused for others, in particular the family of the late Roger Handy.”

There was a second big win for Mediahuis Ireland, publisher of the Irish Independent, in New York, with a two-part podcast produced by the Belfast Telegraph winning a silver award in the News Documentary/Special category.

Killing Edgar: The IRA murder of the lawyer Edgar Graham is presented and produced by Sam McBride.

Edgar Graham was an Ulster Unionist politician and law lecturer, who would probably have become the leader of unionism. But the 29-year-old was shot dead on December 7, 1983, by the IRA at Queen's University in Belfast.

The podcast relates the story of that murder and includes the testimony of eyewitness Dermot Nesbit.

The Irish Independent’s news and current affairs podcast, The Indo Daily, was also a New York Radio Awards finalist in the News category.

All entries in the 2024 competition were screened online by an international grand jury of more than 200 producers, directors, writers, and other creative media professionals.

Judging was performed using the following set of criteria: production values, creativity, content presentation, direction, writing, achievement of purpose, and audience suitability.

Meanwhile, for the second year running, the BBC was honoured with the Broadcaster of the Year award at the New York Radio Festival.

Its slate included well-known podcasts The Shamima Begum Story, Believe in Magic and season two of I’m Not a Monster.

I’m Not Here To Hurt You is available on the Irish Independent website as well as on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.