Gaelic all-star is a minor player at DIY
GAA legend Dessie Dolan was on very unfamiliar turf when he called in Dermot Bannon.
The former Westmeath football all-star and his wife, Kelly, join Bannon in tonight’s episode of Room To Improve, where they build their ideal home in Moate.
Speaking to the Irish Mail on Sunday, Dolan said he thoroughly enjoyed appearing on the interior design show – despite having limited building experience. He also said he had ‘huge admiration’ for Bannon’s talents.
‘I had some minor jobs. Like putting on the kettle,’ he laughed. ‘I didn’t really have a clue what they were talking about some of the time. So I put great trust in him and the team.’
Sports pundit Dolan also works as a business studies teacher in Moate Community School, which led the couple to buy a site in the town. They bought a dilapidated cottage on a hopelessly exposed site, but they were convinced by Bannon to knock the cottage down and start from scratch. Dolan said: ‘We bought a site on the greenway. We are just delighted with the finished product. It turned out better then we could ever have expected. ‘I really appreciate what Dermot does. He just got so many small things right.’ But a new home is not the only addition to Dessie and Kelly’s lives these days. They have since welcomed threeweek-old baby Freya, a little sister for their three-year-old son, Nathan.
‘My wife was pregnant during filming. She had to go into hospital for a time, so that was very stressful,’ he added.
Their new home was built in a ‘whirlwind six months’, and the design includes full-height windows and a galvanized metalclad first floor, both of which were very much a talking point in the village.
Room To Improve is on RTÉ One tonight at 9.30pm.