‘It’s a lot tougher than it looks on TV’: Limerick’s Lawlors on Ireland’s Fittest Family

THE Lawlor family from Shanagolden is facing into a tough, even gruelling challenge, hoping to win the title of Ireland’s Fittest Family.

And we will see them in action this Sunday evening when the first episode in the new series is broadcast on RTE1.

“It is something else,” admitted  Dympna Lawlor who has taken on the challenge along with her  three sons, Jonah, Darren and Matthew “You are under pressure to perform and then you are only as good as your weakest link which is me. I would be under pressure then to perform for the boys,” Dympna revealed. 

“We are a family into fitness and sport,” she added, explaining why they got involved. “I would always have been into soccer and football and was a referee with the Desmond League for a few years and I do a lot of running with the West Limerick Athletics Club.”

Jonah, the eldest of her three sons, at 26 has done some boxing and trains regularly with the Rathkeale Boxing Club as does Darren, who is 23. Darren also trains and plays with St Senan’s GAA Club while Matthew the youngest is a student at UL where he is a regular gym user. Dad Brian was never a contender, Dympna explained. 

It was Jonah who first suggested they should apply for Ireland’s Fittest Family. That was last year but Dympna was away on holiday at the time the fitness test came round and the idea was shelved. But undeterred, Jonah brought it up again this year, applied again, and, having convinced the programme’s producers they were serious, the four were called almost immediately to a fitness test in Athlone.

“We didn’t take seriously at all,” Dympna admitted this week. “It all happened within such a short time.”

“It was tough on the day,” she acknowledged. Speed, strength and agility were all put to the test and there were 39 other families all hoping to make the cut.

A few days later, the call came to say they were in. “We couldn’t believe it,” Dympna said. But they continued as before, she said, and didn’t do anything special before the serious business of the competition and the filming began in late June.

“It has been very tough. We weren’t prepared mentally at all. It is very nerve-wrecking. You forget about the cameras but it is the pressure of going up against another family, face to face. It is nothing like watching it at home. It is a lot harder than you would imagine. You would have 12 or 14 hour days. It is something else.”

“This year, they have introduced a few extreme challenges,” Dympna added.

But the support they have received from the communities throughout West Limerick, especially in Shanadolden, Foynes, Ballyhahill and Askeaton where Dympna works in SuperValu, has hugely positive and affirming.

Big roadside posters backing the Lawlors have gone up in the past week. “People have been brilliant. The offers of support from companies and people, helping us on our way have been tremendous,” said Dympna.

The first programme in the series will be broadcast at 6.30pm on RTE 1 this Sunday and will last 90 minutes as each family is introduced to the nation.

Will the Lawlors continue to make the cut? Find out  on Sunday when you cheer them on.