{"id":250904,"date":"2026-01-18T09:18:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T09:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/250904\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T09:18:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T09:18:17","slug":"i-love-dublin-city-living-except-oconnell-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/250904\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I love Dublin city living. Except O\u2019Connell Street\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The publicity juggernaut that accompanies every new series of RTE1\u2019s ratings-winning show Room to Improve appears to be energising rather than exhausting its frontman, Dermot Bannon. I first interviewed Bannon 11 years ago this month at the modest 1920s semi-detached home in Drumcondra where he lived at the time but this morning he arrives on our 10am video call from his Clontarf office looking fitter, fresher and more polished than he did in 2015. The past decade has been good to Bannon.<\/p>\n

The 53-year-old has continued to enjoy enormous success with Room to Improve and he is now the second longest-serving host of an Irish television show after Gay Byrne. \u201cSeventeen seasons in and we\u2019re still getting phenomenal ratings at the weekends \u2014 13 per cent of viewers, which is unreal,\u201d he says excitedly. The success of the show has elevated Bannon from jobbing architect to commentator, speaker, author and occasional columnist, and although he confesses that the volume of interviews he faces when the series airs can be tiring, he feels \u201cprivileged that people still want to talk to me\u201d.<\/p>\n

Since we first spoke Bannon has also built his dream home, complete with a much publicised outdoor sauna and cold-water shower. In late 2019 he moved his family out of their characterful but cramped semi-d into a spectacular extended and modernised 1930s house on Griffith Avenue, which he designed and documented for a special two-part episode of Room to Improve in 2020, subtitled Dermot\u2019s Home, giving viewers a rare behind-the-keyhole look into Bannon\u2019s private life, which he refuses to compromise on despite being one of the most recognised faces in the country.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Dermot Bannon: Room to Improve is back but we\u2019ve had to make changes<\/a><\/p>\n

His wife of 24 years, Louise, stays firmly out of Bannon\u2019s spotlight and didn\u2019t appear in the series but works alongside him at the award-winning Dermot Bannon Architects. They have three children together and Bannon is the picture of a proud dad when he speaks about them. His eldest, Sarah, 21, who he held in his arms last time we met, telling me how she wanted to be an Olympic gymnast, is now enjoying her Erasmus year in Sydney as part of her design degree at TU Dublin. James, 17, is in the fifth year and Bannon\u2019s youngest, Tom, 13, has settled happily into his first year of secondary school.<\/p>\n

Being the father of teenagers and a young adult rather than young children has brought the country\u2019s longstanding housing crisis into even sharper focus for the Malahide-born architect and he sighs as he reflects on their chances of getting on to the property ladder. \u201cI\u2019m fearful for my own kids, yes,\u201d he says. \u201cHow will they ever be able to afford a home? I\u2019m not an economist but I don\u2019t understand how a country with one of the highest GDPs in Europe, one of the lowest populations and one of the lowest densities, can\u2019t house everybody and house everybody really well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not just a crisis in housing numbers but a crisis in how we\u2019re building and the hollowing out of our city centres. For us to change and create a great city it\u2019s going to take 20 years. It\u2019s not going to happen in three years. But unfortunately government cycles are four years and sometimes two years if parties swap over halfway through. Making our cities denser and better places to live is key.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bannon discovered the joy and convenience of city living in his twenties while studying at Hull School of Architecture in the northeast of England. \u201cWhen I moved there I was able to cycle everywhere, even to and from nightclubs, which I probably shouldn\u2019t have,\u201d he says with a laugh. And I thought, oh my God, this is great!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Meet the woman keeping Dermot Bannon\u2019s spending in check on RTE\u2019s Room to Improve<\/a><\/p>\n

He loves his Drumcondra home \u2014 the third property he has bought in this part of Dublin \u2014 for the same reason. \u201cI love living near the city, I can walk into Grafton Street in 30 minutes,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m also a 20-minute walk from the seafront in Clontarf. We have the mountains on our doorstep. Dublin as a city is a fantastic place.\u201d But he admits that when he hits O\u2019Connell Street he continues walking. \u201cWhat\u2019s on O\u2019Connell Street?\u201d he asks. \u201cNothing. I keep walking over the bridge to where it\u2019s a nicer place to be. O\u2019Connell Street needs to be sorted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bannon is a passionate advocate of the \u201c15-minute city\u201d (an urban planning concept where residents can access daily necessities within a 15-minute walk or bike ride from their home). \u201cI think in Ireland we\u2019ve become obsessed with back gardens and front gardens. I think a lot of people would much rather live in an apartment with good storage and a nice balcony but in the city centre, where their office is just 15 minutes away and their walk to work is really enjoyable. You can pick up a coffee and chat with people. On the way home you might go to the fish shop or the butchers and have another chat. That, for me, is life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Look at cities such as Sydney, Paris and Copenhagen, he suggests. \u201cWe have an even better opportunity in this country because of our population size and density. But nobody seems to care. It looks to me like every time there\u2019s a conversation about building housing it\u2019s just about delivering numbers.\u201d He believes if his children and others want a home \u2014 and a home in the city \u2014 everybody needs to compromise. \u201cWe will have to have denser cities. We just can\u2019t object to apartment developments in the city centre or say no to a metro because we don\u2019t like the look of it from our back gardens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having a platform to discuss topics such as urbanism and Dublin\u2019s regeneration is something Bannon is grateful to his television career for. \u201cRoom to Improve has its format so I can only talk about so much on the show, but chatting to publications or appearing on radio shows means I can keep the conversation going and veer off into broader issues. The show has given me a voice,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Room to Improve star Claire Irwin: \u2018I had a baby and was practically a pram consultant\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Room to Improve may have its parameters, but over its 17-season run it has provided a fascinating chronicle of design trends in Ireland through boom, bust and pandemic. \u201cWhen the show started in 2007 people weren\u2019t in a position to move, so the brief was to create more space with extensions of one kind or another.\u201d By the mid-2010s the focus was on complete renovations of \u201cfixer-uppers\u201d, he explains, and during Covid \u201cpeople were at home a lot more so it became about how a house functioned: utility rooms, good storage, multipurpose spaces\u201d. For the present series, Bannon says \u201cthe dial has shifted towards energy upgrades\u201d.<\/p>\n

Despite the always-on juggle of family life, private practice and a TV career, Bannon reveals there\u2019s still plenty on his to-do list. The pulmonary embolism he suffered while on holiday in Portugal in 2024 hasn\u2019t put the brakes on his ambition. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of important conversations about housing and planning happening within architectural circles and on the periphery,\u201d he says, mentioning the Irish Cities in Crisis podcast hosted by Matt Cooper.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the next ten years I\u2019d like to look at what I can do to help,\u201d he says. \u201cI think I can be the person who brings these conversations into the mainstream. There\u2019s loads of clever, talented people working away in the background. It\u2019s just to get the ear and that\u2019s where I come in.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is likely to be Bannon\u2019s most challenging project to date, but if he can get the attention of decision-makers and effect real change it will be the most exciting transformation of his career.<\/p>\n

\u2018Your money gets you a lot less today\u2019Room to Improve\u2019s resident quantity surveyor, Claire Irwin, on the cost of building\"Man<\/p>\n

Claire Irwin: \u201cA lot of the time at the start of projects you\u2019re delivering bad news\u201d<\/p>\n

EVAN DOHERTY<\/p>\n

Since joining the show in 2018 Claire Irwin has become the show\u2019s voice of reason, often having to bring dreamers like Bannon back to reality. In that time Irish construction costs have spiralled.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big elephant in the room is cost,\u201d she says. \u201cBack in 2018 \u20ac200,000 could cover a full extension and renovation. Now when someone mentions that figure you tremble, even though it\u2019s an extraordinary amount of money. It\u2019s a shame but your money simply doesn\u2019t stretch as far.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the pragmatist often tasked with \u201cshattering dreams\u201d before rebuilding them, Irwin\u2019s role is increasingly focused on value engineering, trimming budgets again and again to get the balance right.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very black-and-white \u2014 there\u2019s no point in hiding anything because, ultimately, clients have to pay for it,\u201d she says. \u201cThis means that a lot of the time at the start of projects you\u2019re delivering bad news. But you\u2019re just trying your best to get as much as possible for your client.\u201d This reality has also affected her co-star Bannon. \u201cThere\u2019s a change in him, he\u2019s more price-conscious now. I think I\u2019ve made him a little more obedient,\u201d she says, laughing.<\/p>\n

Irwin believes the cost of labour is the real budget killer at the moment, while material costs are still high since Covid times. \u201cThere\u2019s so much work out there but it is really difficult to get subcontractors to do all the work that is required. The construction industry is so busy, with renovations, hotels, domestic houses and, where I\u2019m from in Donegal, the defective concrete block homes.\u201d<\/p>\n

That being said, her advice to those motivated to build is to go for it. \u201cIt is an unfortunate time to be building because it costs you more money. But going by the last few years, if you sit back and wait it\u2019s only going to be more expensive. So it\u2019s tricky, but cut your cloth to suit and keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Room to Improve is on Sundays, 9.30pm, on RTE1 and RTE Player<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The publicity juggernaut that accompanies every new series of RTE1\u2019s ratings-winning show Room to Improve appears to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-250904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}