2 x 1hr Documentary Series

 

Broadcaster: RTE2

 

Commissioning Editor: Gráinne McAleer 

 

Bressie is probably Ireland’s best known advocate for Mental Health Awareness. Having struggled for most of his adult life with anxiety, he found benefit from excercise when he started training for and competing in triathlons and now in Bressie’s Ironmind, he’s trying to find out if it can have the same positive affect on others. Enlisting the help of experts in everything from psychology to nutrition he's taking on the task of training four ordinary people with their own mental health challenges to compete in a gruelling half-Ironman event, having never trained for one before. It’s an emotional and physical rollercoaster as the four candidates go from the couch to competing in one of the greatest endurance challenges known to man.

 

 

Irish Independent - Television Review - Sat Nov 28th 2015 

 

"In it's ongoing mission of health-and-fitness do-goodery, RTE2 came up with Bressie's Ironmind, which I was prepared to hate but which turned out to be quite absorbing, mainly because of it's four volunteers.

 

These two men and two women have been suffering to varying degrees and in different ways, from depression and anxiety, and the stories they told were affecting, with single mother Orla from Bundoran especially likeable in this opening instalment of the series.

 

Former Pop Star Bressie turned out to be an engagingly concerned presence and unpushy presence as he tackled the same athletic challenges that they were being asked to attempt.

 

If we must have such reality shows, let them be as winning as this." - John Boland