Inside the Cork schoolhouse that will feature on Home of the Year

Ahead of its appearance on the small screen, artist Ian Humphreys tells Eve Kelliher what it's like to live in a property with a vibrant past

The cosy living space in the West Cork schoolhouse. Pictures: RTÉ

Sun, 18 Feb, 2024 - 10:22

Eve Kelliher, Home Editor

Stepping into a classroom for the first time, you might hope to make a new pal or two.

But a West Cork family have discovered that living in a former school widens your social circle faster than you can say “no homework for the weekend”.

Ian Humphreys, Sarah McCarthy and their son Joseph (Jo Jo) moved into a converted schoolhouse in Rossbrin, near Schull and Ballydehob, four years ago, after buying the property in 2019.

It opened its doors to its first primary school pupils 110 years earlier, in 1909.

We’ve made so many friends because our home is a former schoolhouse

“So many people knock on the door wanting to share their memories and asking if they can come in and have a look, all because they went to school here," says Ian.

“One day a man arrived at the door. He told us his 94-year-old father was in the car outside and asked if he could come in. His dad wanted to see where his own father had gone to work — it turned out his father had been the first principal.”

Sarah and Ian do feel like they are caretakers of their residence and that it has drawn them closer to others in the community.

"We've made so many friends because our home is a former schoolhouse," says Ian.

“Other friends of ours wrote a poem about the schoolhouse — in fact, they became friends through the building; the building has attracted lots of people to us."

Ian Humphreys and Sarah McCarthy with their son Jo Jo.

Their home also lends itself to creativity, they feel, and hosting — as well as musical entertainment. “Christy Moore played in this very room I am sitting in,” muses Ian.

Their home itself will feature as primetime entertainment this week as it appears in the opening episode of the 10th series of Home of the Year.

Judges Hugh Wallace, Amanda Bone and Sara Cosgrove will visit the Rossbrin residence which is among the first three on their itinerary the programme airs on Tuesday, February 20, on RTÉ One.

Ian and Sarah set out to highlight the character of the building and restore it to its former glory once they unpacked their bags. “We wanted the original features and the character of the building to do the talking,” says Ian.

“When we bought it, we had many internal renovations to complete, such as removing plaster to expose the original brickwork and levelling the floor in the great room.”

Sarah works as a pharmacist in nearby Schull and Ian, a well-known artist, has an even shorter commute. “I work from home, being a painter,” he says.

“I walk two doors from my living room and I’m here, at work, in my studio.”

Former owners of the property include husband-and-wife Campbell Bruce, the professor of fine art at the National College of Art and Design, and artist Jacqueline Stanley, “Jacqueline worked the studio that I now have as my studio,” says Ian.

“Prior to their owning it, the people who originally converted the house — sometime in the 1980s, I believe — built the studio as an add-on. They sold antique books.”

But Ian had no idea of the building’s provenance when he first spotted it.

“If you take the coastal route from Ballydehob to Schull you’d go past it,” he says. “Any little road I’ve not gone down I’ll go down it, if I’ve got time.

“I discovered it years and years and years ago on my drives to Schull, and I thought: ‘That’s a very interesting little property.”

Ian was born in Hertfordshire and loved painting and drawing from childhood. He studied at Berkshire College of Art and Design and later taught there.

Ian's art is inspired by the sea. Picture: Emma Jervis

Ian moved to Ireland in 1999, first living on Heir Island. “I’ve lived in West Cork since I came to Ireland. I had a dealer in Ireland and he said, you keep coming here on holiday why don’t you come here to live?” he says.

Living by the sea is important to an artist who is inspired by light, colour, the sea, the sky and the seasons. “I’m right by the sea here,” adds Ian. “Literally where our land ends the boatyard begins, so it takes me five minutes to get to the mooring for the boat and I’ve canoes and kayaks.

“I did a period back in 2004 where I was painting just outdoors, painting directly by the sea and sky.

“And then it became more about the walks that I did with the dogs and it was the whole experience of not just one specific view of the sea. But now I’m back in the studio because the weather is bad.”

I’m talking to Ian as he has finished his morning walk with the family’s two dogs, Saffy the Staffy (Staffordshire terrier) three-and-a-half months, and Bo Bo, a Labrador collie cross.

The art of their schoolhouse home’s construction and renovation appeals to the creator in him.

“We bought our home four years ago and we got the builders in and just got it habitable before the pandemic — we were so lucky,” says Ian.

“We were in rented accommodation before that, again by the sea. I had known of this place for a long time as I had often driven past it and had seen the beautiful stone wall and walled garden. I loved the decommissioned post-box with flowers growing out of it.

“It always looked so pretty and I always wondered who lived there.

Sarah wasn’t quite so keen, he adds.

They were house hunting at the time and were checking out many potentials.

“We looked at loads of properties and Sarah didn’t tell me for a long time that it had come up for sale. She didn’t much like the look of it! And eventually, she told me — I was cooking when she said, ‘The house you like is on the market’. She had initially thought it would be too much work to take on.

“We came to see it with the estate agent and we couldn’t even get in the first time we visited! The door was locked, so I fell in love with it even more!

“Eventually when we got in I thought it was just fantastic.”

The main room is still the original classroom, he adds. “It’s got the big sliding door that concertinas right across and is half-glassed,” says Ian.

The property features three bedrooms and two bathrooms. “When we saw it, we realised we’re going to have to take all the plaster off the ceilings and walls,” adds Ian. “Someone had built a big stage, as being an old schoolhouse, the windows are high up. But the stage was a bit rotten so we took out all of that.” When the plaster was removed from the walls, the couple loved the “amazing stonework” he adds.

“We decided to set my paintings against it,” he says.

“Even though my paintings look better on a white wall, a wall like that would be a good test.” Those builders of the 1900s “knew what they were doing”, he says.

“Then the builders that came here and did the work were fantastic also,” he says.

“We put up wooden tongue-and-groove ceiling because it matched some of the wainscoting on the wall and it’s a bit warmer,” he says.

A spare room (complete with a foldout couch) does double duty. “We call it the drawing room — and sometimes I even do a bit of drawing there,” says Ian.

There’s a bedroom downstairs, and upstairs is the master bedroom and bathroom.

The kitchen was formerly a cloakroom. “There are two cloakrooms and one we turned into our kitchen; the kiddies’ coat pegs are still there — the numbers go up to 79,” says Ian.

“We’ve got an Aga in our kitchen that’s on permanently with heat coming into the main room. We had handbuilt wooden cupboards put in and a nice slate work surface in keeping with the character of the home.”

As for interior design inspiration? “Mainly I come up with the ideas and Sarah approves,” says Ian. “Or not!”

Their eclectic interiors look has come about through heritage and local shopping. “Sarah inherited, most of the furniture, a lot of the dark old furniture was left to her by her great-aunt,” says Ian.

“Then there are the odd things here and there that we bought, like a chest of drawers, which came from a shop in Schull, East Meets West, where we also bought rugs.”

Is Ian a dab hand at DIY?

“No! I don’t want to spend my time painting a wall when I could be painting a picture!”