Home Q&A: Should I paint the exterior of my red-brick house?
Should I paint my red-brick house?
Answer
This is something of a flashpoint for many of us, as brick once smothered in masonry paint is transformed beyond all recognition. That said, using white or a modern neutral, bricks can look absolutely beautiful and less oppressive than scarlet walls.
The first thing to establish is whether you are actually free to paint your home. Ensure there is no stipulation in your local planning laws regarding your area.
Even if it's not a period home, painting it could make its appearance inconsistent with close neighbouring homes completed in the same era (for instance, in an estate). A high-profile case regarding the Ryan family and their installation of external insulation in Finglas in County Dublin (a partial red-brick finish to their semi-D was covered with new render) underscores the misunderstandings around some planning issues.
If the house is a protected structure or listed on the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage or in an area of sensitive architectural importance, contact the local conservation officer of your authority, who can advise you on what is or is not permitted.
If you are in a semi-detached home, it's reasonable to approach your neighbours to see if they are likely to kick up about the startling change. Where you do go ahead, the masonry paint you choose must be highly breathable to avoid structural damage to the bricks and pointing, which would otherwise crumble over time.
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Irish Examiner
5 days ago
- Irish Examiner
A gay man's road to parenthood: 'Three adoption agencies turned me down flat'
Vincent Ryan always knew he wanted to be a father... and today the Manchester-based Co Kilkenny native is a proud dad to two boys, Alfie, seven, and Theodore, three. 'The three of us are a little tribe and it just works,' he says. Ryan's route to parenthood hasn't been conventional or easy. Both boys are adopted and Ryan, who is gay and single, had to contend with preconceptions and prejudice from the moment he sought to be considered as a parent. Three adoption agencies turned me down flat.' A fourth agreed to take him on, with the caveat that it would be 'a challenge'. Once the adoption agency had completed its rigorous assessment, a report was sent to an independent adoption panel, which further scrutinised Ryan. He not only had to contend with the intense (albeit necessary) interrogation that comes with the adoption process but felt he faced an unwarranted focus on his sexual orientation. 'The questions weren't so much based always around my capability [to be a parent] but around my sexuality,' he says. 'But I'm very determined, so I don't really believe in the word 'no'. I'll always fight the cause and find a way. And thankfully I managed to get through.' Managing to get through has been a leitmotif of Ryan's life. Growing up in a small Irish rural town through the 1980s and '90s, he knew he was 'different' but, in a time when gay visibility was practically non-existent, he found himself unable to 'put a label' on that difference. 'I didn't know anyone like me,' he says. 'Back then, [being gay] wasn't ever spoken about. There was no reference to it whatsoever.' Vincent Ryan with his kids Alfie and Theo Ryan 'struggled massively' at school and was bullied for being 'clearly different'. Things 'weren't great' at home, either, he says, and he 'didn't have the best relationship' with his own father. Towards the end of his time in secondary school, Ryan developed anorexia. 'I didn't finish school with any qualifications and I almost ran away.' He didn't, though; instead, serendipity intervened when he spotted an ad for cabin crew on Aertel, RTÉ's teletext service. 'I researched it and I thought, 'OK, I can fly and get away and escape.'' Ryan got the job and 'that was the start of finding out who I was; mixing with other people like me'. The support of his newfound friendships in Dublin gave him the courage to come out to his family at 19. 'None of them were surprised. None of them were shocked.' Sadly, however, some of his extended family 'disowned' him and remain estranged. Ryan loved his job but his goal had always been to work for Virgin Atlantic and, in 2002, he applied for a cabin crew position and was accepted. This precipitated a move to London aged 19 which, he says, was 'really tough because at that point I was still really insecure'. Ryan, now 43, still works for the company (although he no longer flies) and finds its inclusive work environment 'so accepting' and 'so lovely'. A 'horrible break-up' and his father's untimely death at 52 prompted a move to Manchester in 2013. His goal of being happily settled 'just never happened — and it's still not happened for me'. In 2015, Ryan read a magazine article about LGBT+ adoption. The piece was 'couple-based' but it got him wondering if he could adopt solo — something he'd never realised could be an option — and he set about looking for an agency to take him on. Vincent Ryan and his two children, out and about RESILIENCE The resilience he had acquired from past adversities stood to him throughout the challenging process of becoming approved as an adoptive parent. 'There were lots of tears and many times I rang my mom to say, 'I just can't do this.' But there's always been a determination in me since I was young from being bullied and the anorexia. I'd sit and think, 'Do you know what? I didn't give up then, and I'm not going to give up now. There will be a way through.'' And there was. In August 2017, Ryan was signed off as a concurrent carer and an approved adopter. The former comes with in-built uncertainty and extreme emotional challenges. 'The child has contact with their birth family once or twice a week in a contact centre [while] you're doing everything a parent does,' Ryan explains. 'But you can never refer to yourself as 'dad'. You're not dad until the courts rule that they stay with you for adoption but, in the back of your mind, there's always that thought that you could get a phone call one day… and then you literally get a limited amount of time to pack up, get everything ready, and hand them back.' Despite his mother's urging to choose the straightforward adoption route, Ryan was adamant being a concurrent carer was the right path for him. 'It was important for me to do it that way. I think maybe [because of] what I'd gone through growing up.' Twice, Ryan had his nursery ready only to be told they had 'found other carers'. Then, that October, he got a call to say: 'We've got this little boy, he's a perfect match but we need to move quickly.' Twenty-four hours later, 10-week-old Alfie arrived 'and he's been with me since'. He took a year's adoption leave. 'For the first couple of months, we shut ourselves away and just got to know each other and got settled into a routine.' His employer was incredibly supportive and worked with him to rewrite its adoption leave policy to make it more LGBT+ friendly so that 'anyone coming behind me would have the same [support] I had'. Almost two years passed before Alfie's adoption was finalised. Ryan recalls the emotion of the day he'd longed for but knew might never come, when he was finally able to tell his toddler son he was his dad. I walked in the door and Alfie ran down the hallway and I said, 'I'm Daddy now.' That word 'dad', after two years, was incredible. When Alfie was three, Ryan felt he should have a sibling who was also adopted — 'so they'd always have that common bond and that understanding of each other' — and began the process again. When he arrived, four-day-old Theo was so tiny that Ryan 'could literally hold him in one hand'. Ryan and Theo's birth mother built up an incredible relationship on Theo's twice-weekly visits and, when his adoption was signed off, she sent a letter. '[It] said, 'I know I can't look after him but he's with you and he's with the right person.' It was humbling. It was beautiful.' Theo was not meeting his milestones, and tests found he has Noonan syndrome, a rare genetic condition that comes with multiple health challenges, including growth restriction, cardiac issues, and hearing difficulties. It's a lot but Ryan says 'we cope incredibly well' and that Theo, whom he officially adopted in July 2024, is ' a little warrior'. Alfie and Theo are deeply bonded and 'have this incredible relationship'. Vincent Ryan and kids: 'It's the most rewarding thing you could ever do'. He set up the Instagram account @dadonthego_ as a 'diary for the boys' but it has also become a way to spread awareness of Noonan syndrome and of LGBT+ adoption. 'If you have the home and the space and the love and the time, then look into it and invest into it because it's the most rewarding thing you could ever do,' he shares. He admits that he faces a lot of trolling which is 'hurtful to read,' but says, 'I've always been driven on by bullies. It just lights something in me where I go, 'Do you know what? I'm not having that.' It gets exhausting but I do drive on to try to make that change.' And he is making change. He believes in 'give and take'. 'It's got to be acceptance and education on both sides. Otherwise, ignorance just breeds ignorance. And where does it end?' He now sits as a chair on an independent adoption panel with members who had previously interviewed him. Through his openness and honesty, he was able to raise awareness of what he felt were discriminatory lines of questioning and have them removed from being asked at future panels. 'To be able to play a part in changing that dynamic and how we look at LGBT+ adoption and filter questions that are not needed… it was an incredible turnaround to make sure nobody else has to go through what I went through when it comes to wanting to be a parent.' The boys adore visiting their Irish nana, and it's a full-circle moment for Ryan. 'When I think about younger Vince who was so sad, so depressed, anorexic, really lonely, never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that years down the line my sons would be playing in the garden I played in. I'm a massive believer in everything leads you to where you're meant to be. What I went through built my resilience to have the boys. I don't regret any of it; it happened and it's made me who I am today.'
Irish Independent
17-07-2025
- Irish Independent
Wexford principal‘s desperate plea for school to be added to safe routes scheme – ‘I can't stand by and look at the potential threats to life'
And while there haven't been any fatalities outside of the school to date, its principal John Ryan lives in constant fear that one day an unwanted local statistic will change. 'There's been multiple deaths within a two-mile radius of the school over the last 10-15 years,' he says. 'The number of deaths speak for themselves, they're not directly related to the school itself but it just shows you the dangers the N30 poses.' Although Clonroche NS has a relativity small number of students (101), there are continual issues in how those children are dropped off and collected outside the school every day. Those children come from 71 different families, and those families, those parents and guardians, have just 19 car parking spaces to inch in and out of every morning and afternoon. And they must do so with HGVs hurtling past them, with heavy traffic and excited children obscuring their views, with all the added stresses of ensuring the safety of both themselves and other motorists. In an effort to alleviate these problems, to make life for everyone at the school safer, Mr Ryan is calling for Clonroche NS to be added to the Safe Routes to School Scheme (SRSS) as a matter of urgency. The Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Scheme is a nationwide programme designed to make it safer for children to walk and cycle to school. It focuses on improving infrastructure like walking paths and cycle lanes, enhancing safety at school entrances, and increasing bike-parking facilities. However, because of its location, Clonroche NS is not ideally suited to the scheme. 'We're very unique in that we're one of the only schools in Ireland on a national road,' said Mr Ryan. 'We are on the list for the safe routes to school, but there's no guarantee as to when it will come. While we would welcome the SRSS team coming here to do what they can, we don't really know and they don't really know what it's going to look like or when it's going to be. "We were told it was going to be soon and it was done on a basis of need, but if you spend ten minutes outside the gate here you'd see it's very needed.' Niamh Murphy is mother of three children who currently attend the school. She is also a member of the parents' association and was involved in a recent survey which underlined just how dangerous it is for those exiting and entering the school on a daily basis. 'The green schools travel officer Lucy Murphy carried out a survey in 2023, it was conducted between the hours of 2-3 p.m.' she said. 'In that time there were 193 vehicles going past the school, and 89 per cent of them were exceeding the speed limit passing the school. 39 per cent of those were travelling over 65 kmh.' ADVERTISEMENT Given the situation, Niamh and the other parents have made a concerted effort to educate their children on road safety, to stress the utmost importance in exiting the school gates in an orderly fashion. But even then there are variables, outside factors which can't be accounted for. 'There's cars in the spaces, cars behind those cars, children getting in and out of cars, onto buses, all beside a national road,' she says. 'As much as you educate your children on road safety you can't account for other road users.' Part of the problem, according to Mr Ryan, is that many of those passing through the village aren't fully aware of the school's location, don't realise there are children nearby until it's too late. 'Coming from the New Ross side, while there are signs warning there's a school ahead, you're past the school before you realise it, because you're going at speed,' he says, 'From the village side you're going a bit slower but even at that there's extreme speeds. There's a huge volume of traffic. We don't have the liberty of putting out the speed cameras but it doesn't take a genius to see how fast they're going. 'Home times are split, but it's still hectic, we have 71 families altogether and 19 car parking spaces. Mayhem is the only way to describe it. We have a duty of care to the children, the parents, and the staff, I can't stand by and look at the potential threats to life, there's no other way of saying it.' The current layout of the school and its surrounds makes walking or cycling to class something which all those associated with the school are reluctant to recommend. 'There's isn't parking available in the village, so there's no alternative for many of those 71 families,' said Niamh. 'I've walked my son to the school and your heart is constantly in your mouth, the speed of the HGVs going past would almost pull you off the path.' A proposed bike shelter for the school was vetoed for the same reason, the board of management agreeing that no child should be encouraged to cycle alongside the N30 at the current time. Norma Doyle was the principal at Clonroche NS prior to Mr Ryan's appointment and she says this is an issue which predates her successor's arrival, an issue which those involved with the school have been raising for over 20 years. 'This has been going on since 2004 when the campaign started,' she says. 'Wexford County Council (WCC) has admitted this is an exceptional situation; I know it's bound by rules and regulations and bye-laws, but our argument is if it's an exceptional situation exceptions should be made.' However, in terms of the Safe Routes to School scheme, WCC must work alongside Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), the state body responsible for our national roads. 'The council's hands are tied to a certain extent,' accepts Mr Ryan, 'but we need to sit down with representatives from WCC and TII to discuss this in greater detail. The safe routes scheme is fantastic, but it might not work perfectly if it's the same plan applied here as a school on a smaller road.' Keen to stress that Clonroche NS has a lot going for it, that its parents responded positively to a recent survey carried out by the board of management, Mr Ryan says the last thing anyone wants is for the school to be characterised by this one issue. 'We have implemented a number of measures to increase safety outside the school including road safety lessons with the RSA, and a stay safe programme. Outside of that we are a member of the Green Schools, Active Schools, and Creative Schools programmes, we have an extensive music curriculum and perform concerts every Christmas, and our students participate in the Rackard League and the mini-sevens every year.' 'In addition, we are a Digital School of Excellence, a STAR School (Supporting Traveller and Roma) and take part in the Living Arts project annually,' Yet the traffic issues remain. Some of the responses to that survey highlight the concerns parents have. 'For the sake of the children and everybody's health, parents collecting their children should turn off their engines while waiting,' one writes. 'The speed of the vehicles coming into Clonroche is terrible, people are pulling out/in taking risks and then being blown off the road by angry drivers. It's just very hectic.' Councillor Bridín Murphy is the chair of the Clonroche NS board of management and she is urging TII to consider the school for the safe routes scheme for 2026. 'The traffic conditions on the N30 outside Clonroche National School are simply not safe. Each morning and afternoon, parents and children face high-speed traffic on a national primary route with inadequate safety infrastructure, and fast-moving HGVs. This stretch of the N30 is under the responsibility of Transport Infrastructure Ireland, and it's clear it must act now. "This stretch of road from Green's corner to Leeches Bend is dangerous. I'm calling on TII to urgently install traffic-calming features. The safety of our young school children must be TII's top priority.'
Irish Examiner
03-07-2025
- Irish Examiner
Home Q&A: Should I paint the exterior of my red-brick house?
Question Should I paint my red-brick house? Answer This is something of a flashpoint for many of us, as brick once smothered in masonry paint is transformed beyond all recognition. That said, using white or a modern neutral, bricks can look absolutely beautiful and less oppressive than scarlet walls. The first thing to establish is whether you are actually free to paint your home. Ensure there is no stipulation in your local planning laws regarding your area. Even if it's not a period home, painting it could make its appearance inconsistent with close neighbouring homes completed in the same era (for instance, in an estate). A high-profile case regarding the Ryan family and their installation of external insulation in Finglas in County Dublin (a partial red-brick finish to their semi-D was covered with new render) underscores the misunderstandings around some planning issues. If the house is a protected structure or listed on the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage or in an area of sensitive architectural importance, contact the local conservation officer of your authority, who can advise you on what is or is not permitted. If you are in a semi-detached home, it's reasonable to approach your neighbours to see if they are likely to kick up about the startling change. Where you do go ahead, the masonry paint you choose must be highly breathable to avoid structural damage to the bricks and pointing, which would otherwise crumble over time.
