An axed contestant from RTE’s new show Special Forces: Ultimate Hell Week has defended the show against claims it is promoting bullying.
The show, which follows 24 civilian recruits while they tackle a gruelling selection course, sparked controversy after it aired last week.
But Melissa Walsh, 35, who was kicked out on day two due to medical grounds, said her only regret was not lasting longer.
Responding to claims the programme was “dehumanising and cruel”, the civil servant told Irish Daily Mirror: “I wouldn’t call them bullies.
“But like it is going to come across like that. I mean as someone said, they break you down to build you back up.
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“They are trying to break you, obviously it is going to be like that. These are the toughest people in Ireland that are there to break you. They know what they are doing.
“Like a person shouting in your face is part of the course, we knew what we were up against going into it. It’s not nice and it is not nice for people to watch but the show comes with a warning.
“This is their living and I have nothing but respect for them.”
Determined to make it until the end of the “hell week”, the Waterford woman trained hard ahead of the challenges.
But despite setting up mock situations, Melissa, who suffered hypothermia during a challenge in The Curragh, said she was not prepared for the level of intensity involved.
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She added: “I had a friend in the Army and he was helping me train.
“We were out on the Waterford greenway with weights on my back running, he was screaming at me and we were sitting in the sea like two mad eejits fully clothed trying to prepare.
“But it was way tougher than I expected.
“Like I expected it to be tough because I would be a fan of the UK version of the show but the reality of it and being in the cold and having them screaming in your face is totally different.
“When we first got there we brought as much as we could and we thought our stuff was going to be laid out neatly on a table and they would take out what we couldn’t have but it wasn’t.
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“They upturned all of our bags, kicked everything all over the place.
“Stripped us down to our underwear and that was literally in the first ten to 15 minutes.
“It was shocking and you immediately forget there are cameras and everything.
“You kind of revert to being a child, running around like a headless chicken. It was like being back at school.
“It was constant, you didn’t know when they were going to come back in again, it was mental it really was.
“But looking back it was a brilliant experience and I’m only sorry I didn’t last longer.”
