***Please Note – not for publication until Tuesday 6 December – TX times subject to change***
Chief-motivator Baz Ashmawy is joined by a top team for this build, with Aoife Rhattigan and Kerry Hiddleston working together to oversee the design, and the experience of Brandon Duarte from MMD Construction overseeing the build with the help of his two foremen, Richie Doyle and Dan Farrell. Diarmuid Gavin oversees the garden design with his trusty deputies, Paul Smyth and Kalin Kelly. Stephen Brennan from Kirby Group Engineering supervised a massive rewiring operation and Helena Ryan was over Health and Safety across a frenetic working environment.
Kingston College in Mitchelstown, North Cork, is a community of 31 small, terraced houses which are grouped around a large square with a chapel as its central focus. The houses were built by James, fourth lord baron Kingston to cater for former tenants on his estate and have been providing housing to the needy since 1761. The houses are in trust to three Church of Ireland Bishops and one of these is Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross Dr Paul Colton. It was he and diocesan secretary Billy Skuse who, having watched the plight of the Ukrainian people and their current exodus due to the Russian invasion of their country, decided to put out an appeal to try and raise money to do up some of the vacant houses to house refugees and their families. Their work was further augmented by Cobh-based solicitor Charlie Daly and Mitchelstown businessman Denis McGrath, who also worked tirelessly to assist the DIY SOS team’s efforts in the lead up to and across the build itself. And when the Ukranian refugees move home, as they hope, the houses will be available to other families in need, as part of the trust for many more years to come.
The support they received was beyond expectations. There are currently thousands of Ukrainian refugees in temporary homes in Cork, and the support and good will from the community towards them has been immense. They needed the help of Baz Ashmawy and his DIY SOS team however, to turn it around quickly and to draw on the existing support received from trades, suppliers and volunteers from within the community of Cork and beyond. Timing is everything with this project, and the DIY SOS family is no stranger to time pressure!
Six houses, six gardens and a communal garden for good measure, made this by far our biggest build yet and by turning it all around in this short time, we provided temporary housing for six very needy families from the Ukrainian community. Kingston College is situated right in the middle of the friendly and welcoming town of Mitchelstown and the community really rallied around us for this build. Volunteers from all nationalities came together to help these families, and the community garden itself provided further opportunity for local integration as our garden designer Diarmuid Gavin was well qualified to turn it into a legacy space that will benefit the town and the community for many, many years to come.
DIY SOS: The Bigger Build Ireland is sponsored by SSE Airtricity. Build and design materials are kindly donated by hundreds of generous multinational, national and local companies across Ireland.
Episode 1 will be broadcast at 6.30pm on Friday the 30th of December. Episode 2 will be broadcast at 8.30pm on Saturday 31st of December.