Louth’s Smith family take on national spotlight in Ireland’s Fittest Family

Louth’s Smith family from the St Oliver Plunkett’s GAA Club are set to fly the flag for the county this weekend as they take on rival teams from Dublin, Mayo and Tipperary in the latest heat of Ireland’s Fittest Family.

It’s hurling Vs paralympian legends with the coaches on episode 3. Taking place in the rugged Gormanston Army camp, the Heats will unfold over three weeks. Each week one of our OG coaches will go head-to head with a new coach. This week it’s the turn of Davy Fitzgerald and Ellen Keane – each with two families.

The Smiths are a family of six. Mam Cathy, Dad Mark Snr and four children, three sons (Shaun, Adam & Mark Jnr) and one daughter (Mya), twin sister of Mark. They are all members of the local GAA football club St Oliver Plunketts and are all big gym goers. 

The Smith family from Louth includes 44-year-old mother Cathy, a clerical officer with the HSE who is a regular at the gym, a HYROX competitor, and has completed two marathons; her sons Shaun, 21, and Adam, 19, who are both GAA players, gym enthusiasts, and apprentices in plumbing, and 15-year-old Mark, who also trains at the gym, plays GAA, and represents Louth at under-16 county level.

Davy Fitzgerald's McDonagh and Smith families go head-to-head with Ellen Keane's Barnaville family and Stuart family in the last of the initial heats of this series of Ireland's Fittest Family.

All will battle it out for one of the final three places up for grabs in the next round of the competition at Hell and Back.

For the first time this year, the events are demonstrated by members of the Irish Defence Forces.

The families must each take on a brand new event, Box to the Top. Starting in the cold sea, this is a head-to-head race along an army training ground with kit-boxes and sandbags to carry along the course.

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The four families then have their stamina tested by Haul or Nothing. The four family members shuttle 25 sand-filled army ammo boxes across an exhausting No-mans-land between two army trench dugouts. The fastest family wins this time-trial.

With the scores of the first two events combined, the two highest-scoring families go through to the next round, and the two families at the bottom have to face off in the Army Eliminator.