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As a nation, we are “proud of the home beyond belief”, keeping one eye on tradition and the other on innovation. If that observation, made at the beginning of this Sunday’s episode The incredible houses of Dermot Bannon in RTÉ One, they took shape in bricks and mortar, surely it would be like this coastal dwelling carved from limestone in West Cork.
This Goleen residence made headlines when the famous architect revealed to me Irish Examiner colleague Ciara McDonnell that the design built in 2009 was her favorite home in Ireland.
This series of Incredible Houses was filmed as Covid-19 was starting to spread across Europe and the rest of the world, and the team set the second episode in Ireland. When filming started here, it was a different world. “I couldn’t wait to get under the porches of some of the amazing houses in Ireland,” says Dermot.
“We all stayed home this summer, forced to explore our own backyards for a challenging world and a new way of life, but I think we should accept that as a positive. We can travel new paths and rekindle our old childhood relationships with the beach, the swamp, the Sunday game on Daddy’s car radio, or jumping off the pier on a warm summer day. “
And for Dermot, his own odyssey couldn’t have gotten a more auspicious start when he descended on the limestone house designed by Níall McLaughlin.
“I am starting my journey in beautiful West Cork and on a day like today it is as magical a place as anywhere else in the world. It is also the location of a very special house, one that I have waited 10 years to see, ”says Dermot.
When he gets to Goleen, Dermot’s eyes are as bright as a child on Christmas morning. “You can’t imagine how excited I am to visit this house,” he says. Viewers who saw Dermot meet building architect Níall McLaughlin earlier this year will have a clear idea.
When he gets to Goleen, Dermot’s eyes are as bright as a child on Christmas morning. “You don’t know how excited I am,” he says.
Those of us who watched, earlier this year, how Dermot met his idol McLaughlin in Room for improvement: Dermot’s house you will have a fair idea.
“I know this building. I am a great admirer of the architect Níall McLaughlin; I have known his work for years. I’m very excited. Because it’s almost like meeting a hero: the building is the hero. If you can imagine posters that you had on the wall of your room as a child and then you meet (the people who appear in them), this is what this house is like for me. “
Its front section is the original from a 100-year-old country house in which the owners lived. It now forms the grand entrance to a host of interconnected buildings, rooms, and courtyards.
From the outside, because the house is lined with the surrounding limestone, the building is part of the landscape and, inside, the landscape is part of the interior. “You have this amazing volume, this single-slope roof that creates this really beautiful space,” says Dermot.
While his property is not mentioned in the show, local and real estate industry sources say the residence was the vacation home of former Attorney General Peter Sutherland, who died in 2018.
The house appears to be carved out of the limestone of the rocky landscape that surrounds it. This means that as it ages, the building will look “like any other rock that sprouts out of green grass, heather and bushes,” breathes Dermot.
The home sits on the Mizen Peninsula, and from the inside, large windows maximize expansive ocean views. It is a “simple, stealthy structure” that works on many different levels. “Every detail is thought through,” says Dermot.
Yes, that would be 850 detail drawings, confirms the builder, Kieran Crowley.
At 17, Kieran started working with his uncle’s construction company and took over the company in 2006. This project was one of the first jobs he undertook.
As for the builder’s favorite room? It is the study or the office, a small refuge to which you travel by going out and crossing a small bridge over the water source.
The room, which Dermot describes as “presidential” also focuses the gaze on the promontory.
When he first saw this unique large escape study suggested in the drawings, Kieran admits he had his doubts. “Our original thoughts were that this is not going to be very practical in West Cork because you will almost have to wear rubber to go to the studio, but it’s just one step, it’s one foot,” he says. .
And there we have it in the speed with which these times of pandemic have changed our vision of the functionality of our home. Similarly with the master bedroom: normally, a dressing room would be located a bit away from the bedroom, but here the dressing room area is like an antechamber or hallway, “creating a decompression chamber from the rest of the house,” as Dermot notes. .
Let’s go back to the studio and Dermot and Kieran agree that it is precisely its isolation and privacy that makes it so perfect. “We’ve all been working from home for the last time and who wouldn’t love a separate room from the rest of the house just to go to it,” says Dermot.
- The incredible houses of Dermot Bannon airs on Sunday October 25 at 9:30 p.m. on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player
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