The brand new series of the hit RTE TV Show ‘Ireland’s Fittest Family’ got underway last night – and there will be Laois involvement.
Series 12 of Ireland’s Fittest Family, which was filmed last year, will be shown on Saturday nights on RTE One at 6.30pm for the next number of weeks.
The show typically runs before Christmas but due to the sad passing of one of the contestants after filming, it was uncertain if it would ever air at all.
Cillian Flaherty (15) from Dublin died just weeks after the show wrapped last October but his family gave their blessing for the show to go ahead.
As a result, the McLoughlin family will be flying the flag for Laois on our TV screens.
From Fisherstown, dad Paddy is joined by his sons Daniel and Richard plus daughter Della.
All four are athletes and compete for Oughaval Athletics Club in the local area.
Dad Paddy has a real story as he only laced up his first pair of runners at 50 and hasn’t stopped running since, enjoying much success in distance and Cross Country running.
Paddy, his wife Agnes and their children are regulars at Vicarstown’s Saturday morning parkrun.
They have bagged themselves a top coach also as former Clare All-Ireland winner Davy Fitzgerald will manage them.
He has won the show three times before and will be hoping to guide this Laois family over the line.
Five times over the previous series’, a Laois family has taken part and three occasions they have gone right to the final show.
Both the Mulhares from Clonad and the McDonalds from Ballyroan were runners-up in Series 2 and 6, respectively.
While in 2019, the amazing Maher family from Killeshin made it all the way to the final too, eventually finishing in fourth place.
2022 saw the Gallagher family from Portarlington compete and they returned again in 2023.
But in each of those attempts, they failed to get beyond Round 1.
Ireland’s Fittest Family has proven to be a huge ratings winner for RTE over the past 12 years.
The show’s enduring popularity is down to a number of factors – how TV friendly it is, how genuinely competitive it is, the sheer excitement of it and then awe at how difficult some of the challenges are.
But one of its biggest draws is the raw emotion as family members battle their way through and then are interviewed afterwards, exhausted and just so proud.
Over the course of the series so many great characters emerge – from the contenders themselves to the coaches.
The new series continues on RTE One at 6.30pm on Saturdays. Best of luck to the McLoughlins!
SEE ALSO – 15 Laois families that we think could win Ireland’s Fittest Families
