{"id":385911,"date":"2026-04-07T06:44:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T06:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/385911\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T06:44:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T06:44:21","slug":"jills-dream-home-at-coralstown-is-top-of-the-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/385911\/","title":{"rendered":"Jill\u2019s dream home at Coralstown is top of the class"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Brendan Courtney, presenter of Great Home Revival, with Jill Leavy at the former schoolhouse in Coralstown that she has renovated.<\/p>\n

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\n Published:
\n Mon 6 Apr 2026, 5:30 PM\n <\/p>\n

S\u00edofra Grant<\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoyed it, but there was definitely a tinge of sadness that Hugh didn\u2019t see it,\u201d said Jill Leavy of her time on The Great House Revival. The show was presented by the beloved Hugh Wallace who sadly passed away in December of 2025.<\/p>\n

The Westmeath woman began her journey on the show when she purchased an old abandoned schoolhouse in Coralstown.<\/p>\n

Then, she happened to be sitting beside an architect at a wedding, who helped her throughout the process of renovating the school into a home. As it happened, his wife was from the area, and thus they worked together.<\/p>\n

The school had been built in 1932 had been left empty following the construction of a more modern school to cater for the growing population.<\/p>\n

The Great House Revival team would periodically visit Jill during the construction process, filming as she put it, \u201cthe big ticket items\u201d, such as the windows going in etcetera.<\/p>\n

Jill had started the filming with Hugh Wallace as host of the show, and following his passing, Brendan Courtney took on the presenting duty.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was definitely sad he didn\u2019t get to see the final product and kind of ooh and aah over various things, Jill told the Westmeath Examiner.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd also for me to show him some of the things I had done that he maybe wasn\u2019t sure about \u2013 show him how they played out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen Brendan came down and that was seamless. He stepped right in, he\u2019d done his homework, he understood the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was doing his own renovations at the time and has done other renovations. It was lovely to speak to him on a more anecdotal level and share experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cHugh was an architect and had his style and that kind of thing, and had seen and worked on so many projects over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was able to pull and pick inspiration from so many of those, so it was a different vibe, but both really positive and I really enjoyed filming all throughout the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jill was dedicated to the project, and successfully secured the derelict building grant, and the grant from the FDAI.<\/p>\n

As well as the show, the grants, Hugh and Brendan, Jill\u2019s family members supported her throughout the renovation.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad in particular was kind of the site manager, he was always on site and always helping out.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see it throughout the show how instrumental he was to it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen my mam was there for interior decisions and you know bringing up scones, and Prosecco, and mimosas,\u201d laughed Jill. \u201cIf you name it, she probably brought it up to the site throughout the build.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy brothers as well, my younger brother is an engineer, so he was a great sounding board. And my older brother helped with loads of design choices, he was instrumental in the decision I made to do a red roof on the extension.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jill preserved many of the school\u2019s historical aspects during the build. \u201cThe original plaque was built in to the building, its concrete and how it was poured, the original plaque was embedded in the wall.\u201dWe tried to get it out because I was externally insulating the wall. But it just wasn\u2019t possible. So I ended up externally insulating and reinstating the plaque.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I got a new plaque made which is fab.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jill also kept the old hooks used to hold coats as well as the old doors, which she sanded down and added windows too.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Jill\u2019s episode of Great House Revival was broadcast on Sunday and is available on RT\u00c9 player<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n Published:
\n Mon 6 Apr 2026, 5:30 PM\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brendan Courtney, presenter of Great Home Revival, with Jill Leavy at the former schoolhouse in Coralstown that she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-385911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385911","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=385911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}