The Cavan inspiration behind award winning podcast

A Londoner who was inspired to start a podcast in honour of her west Cavan grandmother has won a gold British Podcast Award.

Karen Rice created The Stolen Goodbyes podcast in memory of all those who have been lost to Covid-19, giving families left behind the chance to say a proper goodbye.

“It [the pandemic] just made me remember my maternal grandmother’s funeral in Latoon,” said Karen, who was born in London to Irish parents and is immensely proud of her roots.

Her grandmother, Kate Maguire, passed away in 1994, aged 93 years. Karen, who was 20 at the time, recalled being “blown away” by the display of togetherness at the Glangevlin funeral.

“It was the way that she was waked.

“They [her family] were all around her bedside and then they carried the coffin down the stairs,” she described the “sea of hands” which gently carried her grandmother.

“It was just phenomenal, visually I never forgot it.”

Karen was deeply moved at the way people were not getting the opportunity to give their loved ones a proper sendoff due to the pandemic.

“When the pandemic broke it was a time of fear, all of these people we’re dying and the statistics were awful.

“I got to thinking about that funeral, as a family and as a community they were so tight, they got through it, the grief.”

Karen wondered how people could manage their sorrow with “next to little support” due to lockdown.

“How are these people coping with the fact that they had no chance to say goodbye to their loved one?” Karen wondered.

As a journalist, Karen felt the need to document these people’s stories, to not let their grief go unnoticed.

“I wanted to give them a voice and that was my motivation in doing it.”

Karen said between having the idea and making it a reality has been “quite a journey”.

“I’m a one woman show so it’s been an incredible amount of work.”

She detailed the process of sourcing people to interview, editing, production and promotion.

While podcasting, Karen keeps her own voice quite muted, asking a question and allowing space for her interviewees to tell their story.

She strives to ensure her podcasts are about the deceased and their loved ones.

“I think what they have all achieved is to bring that person's personality alive.

“It’s been incredibly rewarding because of the gratitude these people have showed.”

She said it has been “so important” to give the bereaved a platform.

“They have felt completely overlooked and that their loved one’s lives just don’t matter.”

Podcast listeners who have edured similar heartache have found the series a helpful coping mechanism.

“They have got something from it as well, so it’s been really really rewarding,” assures Karen.

She received the British Podcast award on Saturday, July 10 in Brockwell Park in London, an occasion she described as “so special”.

She used her acceptance speech to acknowledge those who have passed away and whose lives featured on the series to date.

“You only had 30 seconds to accept the award so I knew that I would just read the names of the people who we’re lost.”

This was “such a special moment” for everybody involved.

“I think this has really helped them and I’m delighted their voice has been recognised by this really prestigious award.

“It’s been the best result ever,” she remarked, explaining there was “no better inspiration” than her grandmother who was an “amazing matriarch” for the Maguire family.

“She was really strong and gentle at the same time. She was gorgeous, such a lady,” she said,

What would she have made of the pandemic?

“I just think she would have been hugely empathetic but in a quiet way.”

She describes Kate as someone who would “get on with it” and “move forward” despite what was happening.

“She was very tough,” said Karen, remembering when Kate came to visit London.

“There is a memory of her jumping on a London bus when she was 83 which I was quite taken aback by.”

She looked back fondly on the good old days spent in Ireland.

“The Shannon runs through my grandparents' land,” explained Karen.

She recalled “wild times on the river unbeknownst to the adults” and walking three miles to get to the nearest sweet shop.

“Good times,” she said fondly.

Kate was laid to rest alongside the “beautiful” mountain of Latoon.

Karen hopes to travel back to Cavan soon to hold a Maguire family reunion.

She called for more Irish accents on her podcast.

“It would be great to get some Irish input,” she said, revealing that someone from Kerry may appear on the podcast shortly.

“If there’s anyone who wants to share the story of a loved one who’s been lost in the same way, please get in touch.”

She said the podcast is “moving and upsetting” but lighthearted at the same time with many funny memories cropping up.

“It’s really heartening and amusing in places because you are talking about people.

“It’s about people in life and in death and it’s important that they have a chance to document that.”

Anybody who wants to get in touch with Karen to participate in the podcast can email her on stolengoodbyes@gmail.com. The podcast can be accessed on Spotify with 19 episodes to date.

“Stolen Goodbyes will go on, for as long as people want to tell their story I’ll go on,” Karen assured.