Óran O'Neill is an Audio Description Specialist with RTÉ. A recent scheme gave him the chance to write an episode of the RTÉ Kids show Maddie + Triggs. His own guide dog Larry acted as his muse for Dogs with Jobs. Here, Óran tells us all about this amazing experience.
Maddie + Triggs is streaming now on RTÉ Player!
Hello everyone! My name is Óran O'Neill and I'm delighted to share with you how I took part in a wonderful course called Flipping the Script: Listen Hear, and then had the amazing opportunity to pitch and write an episode of the TV show Maddie + Triggs. My episode is called Dogs with Jobs, and it’s inspired by my guide dog Larry and how seriously he takes his job.
Starting the adventure
When I discovered the course, I must admit I felt quite nervous. The course was run by Cultural and Creative Industries Skillnet, The National Talent Academy for Animation and Turnip + Duck and was designed especially for blind and visually impaired writers to explore script writing for children’s animation.
As someone who is blind and hadn’t thought of myself as a writer, this was a big leap. But with Larry by my side, I decided to go for it.
Learning together
Over the seven-week course I learned so much. We covered things like how to turn an idea into a "bible", how to write premises, outlines, scene by scene breakdowns, dialogue and how to meet the rules of children’s TV, which is called "Standards & Practice".
Our tutor was the wonderful Dee Roycroft – a script writer and script editor whose credits include animation shows like Berry Bees and Jessy & Nessy. She created a comfortable and welcoming space so that even someone like me, who had never written for TV, felt encouraged.
I was also mentored by Davey Moore, his style of giving "thoughts" rather than rigid demands made me feel safe. I learned about how characters behave safely, and how script editing notes can really help shape a script.
We also had sessions with many others including senior script editor Emma Hogan and composer/ lyricist Dena Diamond, who taught us about music, story and honesty in writing. One session that really stood out to me was when Dena spoke about how she doesn’t even play an instrument but sends melodies to her composer by humming. I found that fascinating.
And of course, the producers of Maddie + Triggs — Colm Tobin and Aidan O’Donovan — were open about how they wanted our voices in the show, without imposing "this is how you must do it".
The pitch: Dog with Jobs
For my episode of Maddie + Triggs I wrote Dogs with Jobs. The story is about Triggs (Maddie’s pet dog) who watches Lolo (the guide dog character) as he goes about his day helping Maddie. Triggs is baffled: "Why doesn’t Lolo chase every smell? Why doesn’t he stop and sniff everything on the way to the dog park?"
That is exactly how my real guide dog Larry works: he is super focussed because he knows he has a job to do. He doesn’t get distracted (well, at least much!) because his job matters. I wanted kids to recognise that even dogs have jobs, and that doing a job well is important, even when fun distractions are everywhere. The pitch got positive feedback, and thanks to the support of the course and mentors, Colm and Aidan asked me to write a script for the episode. Woohoo!!
What this means to me
As a blind person who never thought of writing for animation, this course has completely changed my world. It has given me confidence, skills and a voice. Now I write a little each day, and Larry is always there beside me, quietly guiding me when I tap the keys, giving me his calm support.
I still remember the nerves of the first session when I felt others had "more writing skills". But Dee’s kindness, Davey’s encouragement, peer feedback and the inclusive course design meant I kept going. If someone like me can do this, maybe you can too.
Writing kids’ animation is fun, silly and serious all at once. It requires heart, humour and clear thinking. It also taught me that our differences (like being visually impaired) are not barriers, but can be unique strengths in storytelling.
Yes You Can!
If you’ve ever thought "Can I write something for TV?" or "Can a dog really have a job?" I’ll tell you yes — yes you can, and yes it can. And you might find your story is more exciting than you ever thought.
Thank you to everyone who helped: Dee Roycroft, Davey Moore, Emma Hogan, Dena Diamond, Lena Byrne, Colm Tobin, Aidan O’Donovan and all my fellow writers. And thank you to Larry, my guide dog, for being my everyday hero.
So now I ask you, dear reader: what story do you want to tell? Maybe you’ll write it one day too.
Maddie + Triggs is Audio Described by Clara Murray, for kids who are Blind/ Vision-impaired and you can stream all 52 episodes now on RTÉ Player!
