WE DID IT!
DAVY FITZGERALD LEADS GLYNN BARNTOWN FAMILY TO VICTORY IN NAIL-BITING FINALE
IT’S been a while since we were treated to the sight of a delirious Davy Fitzgerald cheering a Wexford team to victory, but on Sunday evening he, and thousands across the county, roared with delight as the Mahoney family from Glynn Barntown were crowned Ireland’s Fittest Family.
In a nail-biting finish, Conor, Joanne, Alan and Kevin Mahoney pipped the Allens from Tipperary, edging ahead at the three-metre wall before scaling the ramp to clinch victory. The Cullen family, from Blackwater, finished third overall.
Filmed last August in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains, the 16-team event took place over an intense threeweek period. And having been crowned winners almost six months ago it was up to the Mahoneys to keep their success a secret.
‘We tried to keep it a secret but I think a lot of people knew or at least had their suspicions,’ said Kevin (23). ‘We watched it together on Sunday night, I didn’t think I’d get as excited watching it back but it was good that people saw what we went through to win it.’
One person who definitely knew the outcome was Joanne’s mother.
‘I had to tell my mother we’d won, she would have died of a heart attack watching it if I hadn’t,’ Joanne laughed. ‘But none of my husband Tommy’s family knew. We watched it with them and my immediate family on Zoom, they were all jumping up and down, had the champagne out, we were nearly as excited as they were.’
At one point, as the race drew to a close, it looked as if the Mahoneys were destined to finish second as the Allens pulled clear.
‘I thought it was gone from us,’ says Joanne. ‘The Allens had pulled away and I remember looking up and thinking “oh my god, it’s gone, it’s finished.”
‘But we had practised that wall, we’d set up a container at home and practised that wall to a tee, we had the technique for it down.‘
It was Kevin who set up that gym, including a wall, for the family to practise on, and he says he felt calm and confident even as the Allens threatened to pull clear.
‘We knew if we were in touching distance at the wall we’d have a good chance,’ he said. ‘The Allens were fast at the nets, that was the first time they went ahead of us, but we knew we had a good wall so we didn’t panic.’
It was Kevin’s brother Alan, along with Joanne, who sent off the application forms for the competition last year, a move which wasn’t met with enthusiasm by everyone in the family.
‘Conor didn’t want to do it at all, I don’t know why, maybe he didn’t want to be in the limelight,’ Kevin said. ‘Even after we were accepted he said he wasn’t going to do any extra training, just his GAA training.’
A member of both Wexford’s hurling and football U-21 panels, Conor’s GAA training stood him in good stead throughout the show, impressing their coach.
‘Davy was the coach we wanted from the start,’ says Kevin. ‘Not just because he’s Wexford manager, we just thought he
would suit us, his style of management would bring out the best in us, and it did.
‘Conor got drafted into the senior squad a couple of weeks after the show, but it wasn’t solely because of his performances in that, he had a very good season with Glynn Barntown too.’
Indeed, according to Joanne, the Wexford manager had been keeping tabs on Conor long before they were paired together for the show.
‘Davy was brilliant, he wouldn’t get you wound up until just before it started,’ she says. ‘He’d keep you very calm right until the last moment, and then he’d have you buzzing. He rang us last night and we talked for ages. He said he’d been keeping tabs on Conor beforehand, knew him as the handy no 11 for Glynn Barntown, but when he saw his commitment on the show it sealed it for him.’
The Mahoney sporting talent doesn’t end there, Alan is currently a member of the Wexford Minor Football team, Joanne has been a gymnastics coach for over 30 years, and Kevin himself is a former GAA man who now dedicates himself to gym work.
That dedication saw him construct a makeshift gym for the family to train on in preparation for Ireland’s Fittest Family.
‘We found out we were going to be on it straight after the first lockdown so we set up a gym at home, tried to get a bit of a head start,’ Kevin says. ‘The two lads didn’t do a whole lot extra, they just kept at their GAA training. My mam put in the most work, she was a star in the final, she lost a stone even before it started, she put a huge effort in.’