{"id":265069,"date":"2026-01-03T11:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T11:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/265069\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T11:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T11:49:09","slug":"i-havent-done-a-glass-box-for-years-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/265069\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I haven\u2019t done a glass box for years\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a typically beautiful Bannonesque kitchen in Raheny<\/a>, in north Dublin<\/a>, the celebrity architect Dermot Bannon<\/a> is tucking into sandwiches with Norita O\u2019Donoghue, a teacher, and her husband, Louis, who works for the council.<\/p>\n

The crew of the RT\u00c9<\/a> show Room to Improve are bustling about, setting up their next shots of the renovation that Bannon has helped to create. Everyone but the people appearing on camera is wearing blue plastic slippers over their shoes, and everyone keeps trying to feed me sandwiches. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit like the Kardashians here,\u201d Bannon says.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re in the middle of filming the bit where Bannon gives the couple a tour of the finished house. Later they\u2019ll film the bit where Norita and Louis are interviewed about the experience and later still the bit where all their friends and family come around for a party.<\/p>\n

This will be the second house to appear in the 17th series, which begins this weekend. Linda Cullen of Coco Content, the production company that makes the programme for RT\u00c9, had the idea for the show almost 20 years ago, when the financial crash made a previous series, House Hunters, untenable.<\/p>\n

\"HomeownersHomeowners Louis and Norita O\u2019Donoghue. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill <\/p>\n

Nobody was buying, she says, but many people had SSIAs, the government-backed savings accounts that featured a 25 per cent State top-up, so people were building extensions as their money was maturing after five years of being locked away. \u201cI came up with the idea of renovating homes and extending.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norita and Louis moved into this 1950s three-bed semi in 2017 and had long been meaning to renovate. They\u2019re very happy with the outcome.<\/p>\n

Was there much arguing over the plans? People always ask that, Norita says \u2013 that and \u201cHow\u2019s the budget?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere wasn\u2019t a whole lot of clashing over design,\u201d Louis says. \u201cMore on cost. I was the bad cop about the cost thing. Norita was brought on nice, fancy trips down to [other houses] while I was sitting looking at spreadsheets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did Bannon keep pushing the budget up? \u201cI think a lot of the budget is very client driven,\u201d Norita says. \u201cYou\u2019re inclined to go, \u2018I might as well.\u2019 You think of the lifetime you\u2019ll be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019re whisked away to do a bit more filming for the home reveal. Bannon points at me accusingly: \u201cHe had four sandwiches!\u201d He jokes that they have to be careful since RT\u00c9\u2019s financial crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Dermot is a very unusual character. He\u2019s charming. He\u2019s lovely. But, in terms of a programme, he actually allows you to show the flaws and faults<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I watch with Jane Wardrop, the series producer, as they film on the stairs. \u201cWouldn\u2019t you love to live in a house like this?\u201d she says. She worked on the show for the first 10 years of its existence but then went away to work on another series, Home Rescue. She\u2019s back this year, as is its director, Joanne McGrath. \u201cThe old team,\u201d Wardrop says.<\/p>\n

The show has changed over the years. It expanded from a half-hour to an hour, and the scale of the projects has grown. \u201cI remember the first episode was \u20ac20,000 in Ballybrack \u2013 a flip-around, so the kitchen became the sittingroom and the sittingroom the kitchen,\u201d Wardrop says. \u201cAnd now this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why does it work? \u201cI\u2019m not sure,\u201d she says. Bannon has \u201calways been passionate. He\u2019s fixated on certain things, and he wants to get it right. He loves what he does. You can feel that. You get immersed in it yourself.\u201d She adds, \u201cAren\u2019t we all obsessed with houses? All of us. Such nosiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s popular because it\u2019s relevant,\u201d Claire Irwin<\/a>, Room to Improve\u2019s quantity surveyor, says. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people around the country in a three-bed semi looking to expand, looking to upgrade their home. The show hasn\u2019t lost the run of itself. We\u2019re not spending \u20ac1.5 million on projects. The average person, this is their aspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linda Cullen says, \u201cDermot is a very unusual character. He\u2019s charming. He\u2019s lovely. But, in terms of a programme, he actually allows you to show the flaws and faults and where he gets himself in trouble. I make loads of programmes, and I think that\u2019s very unusual.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Planning a home renovation? Here\u2019s what you need to know before startingOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Bannon and the couple rejoin us in the kitchen. How do the couple feel about being filmed?<\/p>\n

\u201cI was definitely a bit uncomfortable at the beginning,\u201d Norita says. \u201cThese guys would ask a question and I\u2019d give the same answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe film sometimes for 10 hours in a day. That\u2019s 10 days \u2013 100 hours of footage \u2013 for 52 minutes,\u201d Bannon says. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of editing, a lot of storylines and stuff that never make it. That\u2019s par for the course. A storyline on television takes two or three beats for it to be interesting for an audience to watch. I\u2019ve learned that. You have to find a problem, deliberate and then the third bit is the resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe filming process wouldn\u2019t be for everyone,\u201d Norita says. \u201cI find it full-on. You\u2019re doing a project and then you do the filming on top of it. You\u2019re very exposed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do they worry about people judging their decisions and their taste? Norita laughs. \u201cI don\u2019t mind that, because I do that myself when I watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DermotDermot Bannon with homeowners Louis and Norita O\u2019Donoghue during filming for Room to Improve at their home in Raheny, Dublin.
\nPhotograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill <\/p>\n

The casting process is crucial, Cullen tells me later. \u201cObviously you\u2019re looking for people who are not going to freeze, who are open, who might give Dermot a run for his money. We love a little argy-bargy \u2013 but not too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first day you grilled us,\u201d Louis says to Bannon. \u201cWhen we left we thought, \u2018That\u2019s that gone\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a bit abrasive with you at the beginning,\u201d Bannon replies. \u201cI need to know why this project is happening. If you don\u2019t solve that you\u2019re at nothing. Then it all unravels: there was something wrong with the feeling in the house.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re doing a job for the television you need to be able to tell a story. You need to be able to tell me, in a minute, what\u2019s wrong with this house. It can be a bit like therapy that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

What was wrong with the house? \u201cIt was freezing,\u201d Norita says. \u201cAnd there was a deck out the back, but there was a massive disconnect between the deck and the rest of the house. We loved being outside there, but we couldn\u2019t see it from the house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bannon explains how they built the gorgeous, high-ceilinged, many-windowed kitchen pavilion into which you step down and look out into the garden.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can come right through the house and end here amongst all the plants,\u201d he says. \u201cMy job is done better if I\u2019m responding to what people actually need. A lot of people will tell you, \u2018Oh, I saw this house,\u2019 or, \u2018We\u2019d love it to look like this.\u2019<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Thinking of renovating or extending your home? Here\u2019s your to-do listOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what are your actual problems with the house? You have to get to the crux of what\u2019s really irritating and annoying people about their home. For you,\u201d he says to Norita, \u201cit was literally that disconnect: \u2018I hate living here because I can\u2019t get to my garden, can\u2019t see my garden\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt you really wanted to get to know us,\u201d Norita replies. \u201cBy doing that you realised what we are interested in and what we\u2019re not interested in and what we need in terms of our lifestyle. It wasn\u2019t just a build: it was very much something more intimate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple will be moving in tomorrow with their three daughters. \u201cWe have a dog as well,\u201d Norita says. \u201cSo we\u2019re trying to figure out where the dog\u2019s going to sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf she sees straight outside she\u2019ll bark at everything,\u201d Louis says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the problem with the Bannon windows,\u201d I say. \u201cIrish people like sitting in the dark.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just want misery,\u201d Bannon says with a sigh.<\/p>\n

Louis laughs. \u201cPeople said, \u2018You\u2019ll get a glass box if you go with Dermot.\u2019 I said, \u2018If I built an extension I\u2019d be a fool to have no windows in it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t done a glass box for years,\u201d Bannon says. \u201cIt\u2019s a pavilion.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the record, the pavilion does not look like a glass box, and Louis and Norita love it.<\/p>\n

At one point Irwin whisks Bannon away to go through the final accounts. \u201cI think quantitative surveying is a little bit like being Chandler from Friends: nobody knows what his actual profession was,\u201d she says. \u201cThe show has explained to the nation what a quantity surveyor is.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the sittingroom the walls are painted in two distinct colours that meet around window level. It\u2019s a very soothing room. \u201cIt\u2019s like sitting in the sand dunes,\u201d Bannon says.<\/p>\n

Louis and Norita are in the pavilion now, doing their final interview for the show. For Bannon, architecture is less about buildings and more \u201cabout people and how they live. I always loved people-watching and watching different scenarios\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why you want to put big windows in everything,\u201d I suggest. \u201cYou want to park outside and look in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BehindBehind the scenes in the O\u2019Donoghue’s home. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill <\/p>\n

He laughs patiently and continues: \u201cAs a youngster I used to work in Dublin Airport, and at my lunch break I would sit in the arrivals hall and watch people interacting. I would have grown up in a suburb of Dublin, but all my relations were from the country. And I spent a few years in Cairo [where his father worked as a horticulturalist]. It was all about people-watching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bannon loves his work. Even when he reminisces about his college years in Hull, in northern England, he talks about the bustle of his student house during their final projects, all of them doing their architectural drawings with the music blaring.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never wanted to be a broadcaster. I wanted to be an architect,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t go to bed at night and wonder will they offer me The Late Late Show.\u201d He laughs. \u201cI\u2019m probably shooting myself in the foot now. They were probably about to ring and offer me The Late Late Show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Room to Improve has changed, but so has Bannon. In the summer of 2024 he had a pulmonary embolism. It was terrifying, he says. \u201cI got really bad pains. We were at a water park [in Portugal]. I could barely walk … I went to the hospital that night \u2013 my first time ever bringing myself into hospital. They told me I had a lung infection … <\/p>\n

\u201cA week later the pains were back, much worse. I went to the Laya Healthcare clinic and they said, \u2018You need to get into hospital right now.\u2019 In the Mater they did blood tests and had me in a CT scanner within minutes. There were people literally crawling all over me, trying to find more clots and blockages … <\/p>\n

\u201cI lived in Cairo as a kid. We used to get injections all the time, vaccinations, and I hated them. There was one stage I said, \u2018I\u2019m not going back. I\u2019m going to stay with Granny.\u2019 I\u2019m not great with hospitals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bannon is on blood thinners now, and feeling good and healthy. The experience changed him, he says. \u201cThe whole Irish thing of delayed gratification, I was an expert at that. Work hard now and you\u2019ll reap the rewards in the future. I\u2019m trying to realign myself to enjoy what I\u2019m doing right now … <\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m very stressed about something I think, \u2018You could be doing something totally different. You have a choice. What can you do today to make this a bit more enjoyable?\u2019 I\u2019m really lucky and very, very, very privileged to do something I dreamed of as a child. I\u2019m trying to get back to that wonderment.\u201d He laughs. \u201cI\u2019m not good at it yet. I\u2019m no guru. I\u2019m struggling with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The closest Bannon comes to Zen is when he\u2019s ironing. It\u2019s one of his favourite things, he says. \u201cI put on headphones and I dance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new series of Room to Improve begins on RT\u00c9 One and RT\u00c9 Player at 9.30pm on Sunday, January 4th<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a typically beautiful Bannonesque kitchen in Raheny, in north Dublin, the celebrity architect Dermot Bannon is tucking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[135818,81743,52,18,117,19,17,87097,1181],"class_list":{"0":"post-265069","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-claire-irwin","9":"tag-dermot-bannon","10":"tag-dublin","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-raheny","16":"tag-rte"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115831017512487380","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}