Tough lessons and inner strength led Gary to Ultimate Hell Week

The contestants' first challenge came when they were put face down in a steam, and told to do press-ups in freezing water. According to Gary, things haven't got any easier since.

placeholder image — The contestants' first challenge came when they were put face down in a steam, and told to do press-ups in freezing water. According to Gary, things haven't got any easier since.

By Paddy Henry

The notion of a being hauled out of a bus in the middle of nowhere, thrown into freezing water and forced to do press-ups, while an imposing drill sergeant stands above you, barking obscenities in a voice filled with disdain, would be hell on earth for most of us.

Yet, for Tipperary man Gary Elbert, who made his way to Galway in 2005, the idea had a certain appeal. So, when the chance to appear on RTÉ’s endurance series, Special Forces: Ultimate Hell Week came about, he saw it as an opportunity to answer a question that had been niggling at him for some time: “How tough are you?”.

Relaxing in a lounge chair, coffee cup in hand, Gary speaks with a calmness that you mightn’t expect at first glance. This is a man who has taken a few knocks in his time.

Motivated by previous struggles, and determination not to conform, he applied to take part in the RTÉ programme – designed by former members of Ireland's elite Special Forces unit, the Army Ranger Wing – to test himself to the limit. He also wanted put the final nail in the coffin of the person he says he once was.

“To be honest, my primary reason for applying was that I wanted to discover how resilient I was. I wanted to really expose myself in that way and see what would happen.

“But, more than anything, a few years ago, I was a heavy drinker, I was a heavy smoker. I felt my life was going absolutely nowhere, I just felt awful and didn’t know how to treat myself, but gradually I started to turn things around,” he says.

Gary believes his melancholy and antipathy towards life stemmed from what he sees as an endemic Irish problem – working class people getting stuck in a rut.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app

The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.