Ireland's Fittest Family winners: 'We’ve never experienced anything like it in our lives'

The Nugents from Co Louth were thrilled to have Davy Fitzgerald as their coach and say there is another side to the hurling manager that we don't see

The Nugent Family from Co Louth were crowned the winners of Ireland's Fittest Family. 

The final of Ireland’s Fittest Family had us all at the edge of our seats on Sunday night as the Nugents from Co Louth narrowly beat the Fitzsimons to be crowned the winners after a “brutal” challenge. This morning at their home in Drogheda, things are a little more slow-paced after a night of celebrating with family and friends.

“I’m probably a bit worse for wear after last night, being honest with you,” laughs mother of the family, Mags. “My phone has been hopping since yesterday evening. All of our phones are hopping and I just haven’t really had an opportunity to sit down and read those messages or anything else but it’s definitely been a great buzz."

After eight weeks of qualifiers, the Nugents are officially Ireland's Fittest Family. Made up of father Donal (46), mum Mags and sons Danny (17), and Finn (15), the family were coached by none other than Davy Fitzgerald.

Cheering them on all the way from home was 13-year-old Carla, who encouraged her family to take on the challenge, despite being too young to participate herself.

“It was a lot got to do with ‘let’s do this for her’ because she really wanted us to take part in it and she really wanted us to do well,” Mags says of her youngest.

During Sunday evening's 90-minute special on RTÉ, the remaining families took on a number of difficult challenges until the final two families, the Fitzsimons and the Nugents, made it to the Grand Final.

In the end, it all came down to seconds, with Mags getting onto the wall, the final stage of the grueling obstacle course, just two seconds before Jan Fitzsimon.

Speaking on those final moments, Mags says: “At the time, you’re so in the zone you don’t realise how close it actually is.” 

With wet conditions and plenty of mud, the weather made this already tough challenge even more difficult and as we all watched the families run, jump and slip and slide their way through it, I’m sure we all had the same question.

Was it really as tough as it looked?

“It’s absolute torture. It’s brutal. It’s the only word to describe it,” says Mags. “We’ve never experienced anything like it in our lives and we’ve done a lot of challenges and we’re a family that are up for anything really, but it definitely tests you in every single way.” 

With a very passionate — and loud — Davy Fitz as their coach, I wonder if the family had a particular coach they had hoped they would be assigned. 

“Definitely. It was always Davy, mainly because he’s such a character more so than anything. The lads just always really, really enjoyed watching him. He just has a sense of humour that we enjoy. We’re able for shouting which is the other thing as well,” says Mags.

The Nugent family with coach Davy Fitzgerald, on Ireland's Fittest Family.

There’s a side you probably don’t see which is a really gentle, kind, and genuine guy. 

"That’s another side to him. But what kind of sold him to us I think was he’s passionate, loud — and everything else that goes with Davy I suppose.” 

However, she admits there were times she had to block out the shouting and get into the zone — but his methods worked for them and evidently, it paid off.

The family decided to keep their appearance on the show under wraps until it aired. On Sunday night, they finally celebrated their victory with friends and family — and marked Mags’ birthday.

“The final was actually on the day of my birthday so that was a bit strange because people were wanting to do things with me for my birthday and I couldn’t tell them,” she says.

“Then last night, it felt like we were celebrating it all together at one time.” 

After winning the final, it took a bit of time for it all to sink in, and not being able to share the news outside the family made it all a little strange.

“It was weird actually. I actually spent about two weeks afterward [in] kind of an out-of-body experience a little bit. I think it was partially [from] being exhausted and really, really tired and I just was weepy for about two weeks,” she admits.

“You’re on such a high and you can’t tell anybody.” 

Despite how grueling it is, Mags says she missed the “craic”.

“Probably the best bits are behind the scenes. The competition is one thing, and you go out and compete and do your thing but it’s the actual craic you have with your coach, the rest of the families, the other coaches, the production team are absolutely amazing — just great fun.” 

While already a very close-knit family, the challenge brought the Nugents even closer, and according to Mags, they all learned something new about themselves in the process too.

“It’s hard to describe it but it’s the level of trust and dependency that you have on each other in there. There’s no sub bench. There’s no turning away from it. Everything you do, you’re putting 100% trust into each other to get through it.” 

As the winning family, the Nugents will receive the €15,000 prize money and so far, the plan is to have a much-needed family holiday. As expected, Mags says they’re not the lying-on-the-beach type of family but after taking part in Ireland’s Fittest Family, she and husband Donal wouldn’t mind a bit of relaxation in the sun.

“Myself and Donal are kind of thinking let’s just go lie on a beach somewhere for a week, which is not like us… but the lads and Carla are thinking let’s do something like a city break.” 

After all that, would she do it again?

“Would I do it again?" she asks herself before giving a very definite answer: “Yeah”.

“I think I would do it again. I think I’d need a little bit of time to recover.”