A summer the Ireland's Fittest Family winners will never forget

It took grit and a relentless training regimen for the Beirnes to win Ireland’s Fittest Family, says Áilín Quinlan.

It was a summer Dearbhaile Beirne will never forget — and not because she won the lottery or travelled the globe, but because she spent it jumping walls and running races with her father and brothers on the family farm.

Along with her father Michael, 55, a full-time farmer, and her older brothers Keith and Jonathan, Dearbhaile, now aged 19 and in her second year of her biomedical degree programme at UCD, had been selected to participate in RTÉ’s hugely popular reality TV series, Ireland’s Fittest Family.