Hugh Wallace, the architect and TV presenter, has died aged 68.
He has been a judge on RTÉ’s Home of the Year programme since its inception in 2015. He has presented the property renovation programme The Great House Revival, which has run for five series.
In a statement, on social media, his husband Martin Corbett said: “It is with deep sadness and shock that I share the news that my beloved husband and soulmate, Hugh Wallace, passed away suddenly at home last night. I am heartbroken. Please respect my privacy at this deeply painful time. Martin.”
Mr Wallace, from Dublin, won awards for his work as an architect and was a director and co-founder of Douglas Wallace Consultants.
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The Taoiseach, Micheál Martin was among those to pay tribute to Mr Wallace online. In a social media post he said he was “deeply saddened at the passing of Hugh Wallace, whose advocacy for good architecture, coupled with his wonderful communication skills, performed a wonderful public service. Sincere condolences to his husband, Martin, family and friends.”
Mr Wallace contributed a number of articles to The Irish Times on property dereliction, the housing crisis and the planning system.
He had also spoke publicly in recent years about the diagnosis of dyslexia that dramatically changed his career path and realisation that he was an alcoholic.
“My dad got better and I started to drink,” he said. “When I was 52 I went to the doctor at the bottom of the barrel and he said ‘you’re an alcoholic’. I was very relieved I wasn’t going to die because now I knew I could stop it. I knew what it was and I knew I could get help. I did counselling and went to the Stanhope Centre for rehabilitation.”
He said he was lucky to have been able to pay for the help he needed when so many were not able to.
He said he had struggled at times during the early part of the pandemic. “People do slip and you can’t bash yourself over a slip. You have to say ‘that was a slip’ and you need to talk to people. I’m very lucky with Martin. He doesn’t give out to me, he says ‘we’re on a journey’.”
In that interview, he recalled meeting his partner on 34 years previously and said Martin remained his best friend.
The course of his working life, meanwhile, had been dramatically altered by the diagnosis of dyslexia which had come after the intervention of a teacher when he was in sixth year at Sandford Park school in Ranelagh.
“There were 23 boys in my class at Sandford Park School, Ranelagh, and I used to come 21st in everything,” he recalled last year.
“I had huge spelling issues. For me, these things weren’t words or letters — they were shapes. I’d have to write a sentence I’d written wrong 100 times, which really didn’t do anything for me. Nobody knew what it was, and then I was frustrated because it was like ‘poor Hugh is a bit thick’.
“My English teacher, Greg Collins, said ‘I think you’re dyslexic’. Nobody knew there was such a thing as dyslexia — it was a new phenomenon, but Greg was always reading and he’d obviously read about this.
“So I went off, got assessed over two days and the results came in: I had dyslexia. This was taken into account when I did the exam, and also I did some exams orally.”
He said he was set to apply to become a cadet in the army or seek an apprenticeship but was instead able to pursue his dream of becomig an architect.
“The appreciation I have for Greg, for the school, the Department of Education… A whole load of things had to line up for me and they lined up in such a short period.
“Imagine the hundreds of children who weren’t caught? Being diagnosed with dyslexia, and the aftermath, it did feel miraculous — and for my parents as well."
