I’m a final-year journalism student from Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny, now based in Dublin, with a huge interest in long-form audio storytelling, alongside multimedia sports journalism. I have written for Irish-Boxing.com over the past two years, which earned me back-to-back nominations for Sports Writer of The Year at the 2025 and 2026 National Student Media Awards, as well as contributing to Irish Football Fan TV, experiences which have helped shape my reporting across print and audiovisual formats.
My final year project, The Fine Line, reflects my interest in social related and human-centred journalism, by exploring social issues through peoples lives, rather than just statistics alone. Using lived experiences and expert insights to explore the blurred boundaries between casual cocaine use, addiction and recovery in Ireland, my goal is to produce journalism that is grounded and emotionally resonant.
The Fine Line
The Fine Line is an audio documentary which delves deep between the blurred lines between casual cocaine use, addiction and recovery in modern Ireland. At the centre of the project is the life story of Alan Carrick, whose lived experience offers a stark and deeply personal insight into how drug use can evolve from temporary recreational relief into total personal collapse. Through Alans testimony, the documentary traces a journey shaped by trauma, self-medication, addiction, homelessness, and ultimately, recovery. His story is supporting by the insights of award-winning crime journalist and hots of the CrimeWorld podcast, Nicola Tallant, alongside criminologist and community activist, Trina O’Connor, whose contributions widen the documentary beyond one individual experience to consider the broader social realities surrounding cocaine use in Ireland.
Rather than treating cocaine as a distant social issue or reducing it to figures and numbers, The Fine Line focuses on the emotional and human realities that lie behind it, like what draws people to drugs, what those drugs appear to offer, and ultimately what they take away. This project aims to challenge the idea of cocaine as merely a casual or recreational drug by showing the damage it can inflict not only on individuals, but on families, communities and lives. With that being said, it is also massively focuses around recovery, mental health and the possibility of change. and the possibility of change. and the possibility of change.
