About

Conor Reid

Writer, Director, Editor

Conor is a podcast producer and writer from Dublin. He is the creator of Words To That Effect, an award-winning podcast (Irish Podcast Awards, 2022) that tells stories of the fiction behind popular culture. The show has been performed live in the UK and Ireland, been featured in The Irish Times and The Guardian, on New Zealand public radio, and has appeared on university syllabuses across the world. In his day job he is Head of Podcasts at The Podcast Studios where he works on production, editing, training and business development. He has worked on hundreds of podcasts for clients ranging from international brands and professional organisations, to universities, government bodies, and media organisations.

On the writing side, Conor’s background is originally in English literature, and he has a PhD in English and has published widely on popular fiction, with a book on science and popular fiction, and more recently a scholarly introduction to Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World with MIT Press. This is his first audiodrama.

Amy O’Dwyer

Frances Hunter, Áine, Beatrice, and Others

Amy O’Dwyer is a versatile professional with a broad portfolio that spans theatre, film, television, radio, and audio production. She holds a BA in Drama and Theatre from Trinity College Dublin, a distinction from the London School of Musical Theatre, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Cultural Event Management.

In theatre, Amy has portrayed iconic roles such as Jackie Kennedy in “Jackie” at The Yeats Memorial and Wendy in “Peter Pan” at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin. She has also performed in touring productions like “Ledwidge,” “Lockdown,” and “Madame De Markievicz on Trial.”

On television, Amy’s work includes appearances in RTE’s “Fair City” and BBC’s “Making Dad’s Army.” As a trained singer and voice actor, she has been featured in the award-winning podcast “Petrified” and has voiced numerous corporate and advertising projects.

In addition to her acting career, Amy is an experienced audio producer and editor. She has worked at The Poscast Studios and in radio stations across Dublin and Wicklow, and played a key role in projects like the IMRO-nominated “Extraordinary Eire” (2023) and IMRO-nominated “Sandwich” (2024).

Margaret Mc Auliffe

Margaret Malone, Kate Carey, and Others

Margaret Mc Auliffe is an actor/writer from Dublin. As an actor she has worked with The Collective, Rough Magic, Collapsing Horse, Fishamble, The Abbey Theatre and many more. Her most recent productions include kitchensinkdrama (The Collective at Dublin Fringe 2022), Much Ado About Nothing (Rough Magic, 2019) and Requiem for the Truth (Collapsing Horse at Bergen Fringe Festival Norway, 2018). 

She is a series regular on the award-winning hit audio podcasts, ‘Petrifed’ and ‘SpookyFM’, produced by Liam Geraghty and written and directed by Peter Dunne.

As part of the ‘Show in a Bag‘ initiative for the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2016 she wrote, produced and performed her smash hit, one-woman show, The Humours of Bandon. The show won the Bewley’s Little Gem Award and Margaret was nominated as Best Performer at the Dublin Fringe Awards, 2016. Fishamble has since produced and toured The Humours of Bandon both nationally and internationally including at; the Edinburgh Fringe 2017, Brighton Festival, UNOFest Victoria Canada and a multi-venue tour of Wales in 2018, an extensive Australian tour and to New York in 2019/2020, 7 weeks in North America in 2023 and Paris in Feb 2024. She is repped by Sovran Carey in Dublin. 

Donncha O’Dea

Cesare Lombroso, Lord Grimshaw, and Others

Voice-over credits include “The S.P.A. Weekend” (RTÉ), “Sandwich” (Merritt Wiseman), “Lu & The Bally Bunch” (Brown Bag), “Chapel of Ease” (Headstuff), “Bliss” (Mermaid Arts Centre), “Spooky FM” (RTÉjr), “The Horror Writer” (RTÉ) and “Petrified” (Dublin City FM). Donncha wrote and presented the documentary “Extraordinary Éire” for Documentary on Newstalk.

Theatre credits include “The House” (Druid), ”Somewhere Out There You”, “Big Love” and “Julius
Caesar” (Abbey Theatre), “Cinderella”, “The Jungle Book”, ”The Little Mermaid”, (Gaiety Theatre),
“The Blackwater Lightship”, “Copper Face Jacks: The Musical” and “Hansel and Gretel” (Verdant
Productions), “Lúminaria” (Backstage Theatre Longford), “The Twits” (The Mill), “The Horrors at the
Black Church” and “Dummy” (Morb), “F.A.T.D.A.D.” (The Complex), “Annie” (Cork Opera House),
“Coast” (Red Bear Productions), “I, Keano” (Olympia Theatre), “Cabaret” (Bruiser Theatre Company,
Belfast), “An Enemy Of The People” (Gate Theatre), “I Am My Own Wife” (Glass Doll Productions),
Donncha plays the role of Patrick Cleary on RTÉ’s “Fair City”. Other screen credits include “Fran the
Man” (Forty Foot Pictures), “Disenchanted” (Disney+), “The Beo Show” (RTÉjr) and “The Food Guide
to Love” (Parallel Films).

Donncha was nominated as Best Performer in the Dublin Fringe Festival Awards 2017 for playing
‘Teddy’ in “Dummy” (Morb). 

Darragh Smith

Chief Inspector Burton , Seán, Bill, and Others

Darragh Smith is a theatre producer and semi-professional actor based in Cavan. Since 2018, he’s been managing Livin’Dred Theatre Company, helping to establish it as a leading theatre group in the northeast. Some of his co-productions include well-known plays like “Danti-Dan” and “Tarry Flynn.”

As an actor, he has toured nationally with ‘The Night Joe Dolan’s Car Broke Down’ since 2010, returning annually to the Olympia Theatre, Dublin. He has been involved in the amateur drama movement for over 20 years, performing with many groups and festivals over the years. He has been Adjudicating One & Three Act Festivals since 2018.

Outside of theatre, Darragh works as the Operations Manager at Abcon Industrial Products Ltd.  He’s currently working toward an MBA and is actively involved in his local community, serving on the board of Link Credit Union and Crossreagh National School.

James Ward

Lt Godley, Dr Ryan, and Others

James is delighted to make his voice acting debut on ‘The Greatest Matter’. A secondary-school teacher of English, History, and Italian in Dublin, when he’s not standing in front of a class or a microphone, James can be found singing at his two children or as a tenor soloist with The Ranelagh Singers. He coaches acting for student musical productions and will soon feature in the role of Howe in Festival Productions’ forthcoming staging of ‘Annie’ in the National Concert Hall.

Hilary Barry

Producer

Hilary Barry is a digital producer and Network Coordinator of The HeadStuff Podcast Network. She completed her masters in Digital Media at the University of Galway and has a BA in Music and English Literature from University College Cork. As Network Coordinator, Hilary produces a wide range of podcasts on The HeadStuff Podcast Network, including Basically…with Stefanie Preissner, Young Hot Guys and many more

The Team

All Sorts of Support

Podcast artwork, digital and design support was provided by Matt Mahon.

Promotion, network, and social media support by Hilary Barry and Claudia Grandez.

Special thanks to everyone at HeadStuff & The Podcast Studios who helped in one way or another with this show, whether by giving feedback on drafts, coming up with promotional ideas, or providing voices for Doctor’s Waiting Room Patient #4 and other key extras. As well as those mentioned above, that’s Marisa, Julie, Paddy, Dan, Katie, and Alan.

A very special thanks to my kids, Milo and Margot, for their starring roles, and for all the excellent foley. If a character is crashing into furniture, banging a door, or running around in a park, that is almost certainly them!

And a special thanks to Sarah for… everything.