Room to Improve: Dermot Bannon helps Julian Benson make dream come true

Community builds on its strengths to give Victorian redbrick Tranquillity House a new lease of life as a respite home

Sun, 26 Jan, 2025 - 23:10

Eve Kelliher

Seeing the tears shed by young cystic fibrosis patients when their families were unable to visit them made Julian Benson resolve to do something as soon as he grew up.

Julian was diagnosed with CF as a two-year-old and his mother was told he wouldn’t live beyond 12.

He went on to become a successful choreographer and television personality but his own lengthy hospital stays mean he knows how tough life is for families in the CF community — and how expensive and stressful it can be for them to spend time with their loved ones, he tells us on a special episode of Room to Improve.

I would see many people were travelling — people crying on their own because no one was with them.

"I was lucky, I was living in Dublin.”

In 2018 he founded the Julian Benson Foundation. “I said, Mum — I promise you, I’m going to try and make a difference,” he says on the RTÉ One series.

Dermot Bannon and Julian Benson. Picture: Brian McEvoy

Julian envisions a home away from home for such families — a "home with a hug", as he tells architect Dermot Bannon.

Let's rewind three years: The perfect property came along in the form of a Victorian redbrick.

In the programme, we watch how it is converted into four self-contained pods, for families of people with cystic fibrosis.

As the transformation is revealed, it's Julian's turn to shed tears. But, as an emotional Julian says, these tears are “happy tears”.

The former Dancing with the Stars judge adds he is also crying “because my mom isn’t with me. In many ways, I dedicate this to her.”

Tranquillity House is “a game-changer” for the CF community, he says. “Patients can be in hospital for long periods of time which is very difficult for both the patient and the families,” says Julian.

In 2022, the foundation bought the abandoned period house in the south Dublin suburb of Rathgar.

Ireland has the highest rate of CF per capita in the world, around 1400 adults and children are living with the condition.

Dream team Dermot and quantity surveyor Patricia Power are on board for this massive project. The figure needed to complete this renovation, €1.6m, rising to €2m by the end of works, is way beyond what Julian and the Foundation can afford.

Julian is persuasive and determined and generous volunteers and companies come on board, donating time, people, materials and resources for this mammoth project.

The team behind Tranquility House. Pictures: Brian McEvoy

At the helm is County Cork builder Brandon Duarte overseeing the teams of builders, restorers, electricians, plumbers, cabinet makers, fire specialists, painters and many more construction experts from across Ireland.

Working alongside Brandon is the CEO of the Julian Benson Foundation, Louise Doogan, who coordinates over 120 companies involved.

From the start, the level of goodwill among volunteers is "astounding", according to Louise.

We also meet people such as Lar Brennan and his family from Wexford.

Lar and his wife Ines tell of the toll it can take on the entire family when Lar has to stay in hospital and his wife and children haven’t been close by for many months. Tranquillity House will be a haven. “You can have the videos and all the technology you want, but at the end of the day, physical human contact with your loved ones is priceless,” says Lar.

It’s also a special moment when Brenda and Roisin McHale travel from their home in Mayo to visit Tranquillity House. In 2012, the family lost Brenda’s son and Roisin’s brother, James, who had cystic fibrosis.

Brenda explains how the family would have to travel to Dublin with James for his hospital treatment so they would need to be apart from Roisin. “James would have felt that he was keeping Mum and Dad away from me,” adds Roisin.