Presented by rugby superstar Jordan Conroy, Man Up? is a coming of age sports documentary that follows 10 boys from different backgrounds as they work to discover what makes a man in a modern world.
Underscored by a training regime, each boy begins their very personal journey as they lay out their fears and concerns about being men in the 21st century.
"When I read the brief, a few things grabbed me immediately," Jordan Conroy tells me over the phone. "I've always wanted to work with young people, especially teens around that age; with my sporting background, I thought it wouldn't be hard to immerse myself into that world. There's been such a decline in playing sports, when it comes to teenagers, that I wanted to delve into that."
The participants are 10 teenage boys aged 12-14 who have very different personalities and come from different socio-economic backgrounds, classes, and cultures.
Ensuring that the boys felt comfortable enough to open up on camera felt like a weighty task, but Jordan says the young teens were surprisingly game.
"It was quite the journey," he laughs. "I didn't know what I was expecting, but I just knew, for myself, that getting to know people is about chatting, getting to know boundaries, seeing who is talking and who isn't.
"To my surprise, even on the very first day of shooting, they were really talkative. I don't think there were any real nerves at all. No one was nervous, no one was shy - and that really took me back.
"The teenagers today are a lot more confident than us," he laughs. "I was the most nervous one."
While none of the boys knew each other before filming, they readily opened up about their broad mix of interests as well as the challenges they each face in everyday life, such as racism, bullying, ADHD, dyslexia, body image difficulties, and parental separation.
The one thing they all have in common is their ability to open up and connect with one another.
"I knew that everyone had their struggles, but I didn't know they were so intense," Conroy admits. "Asher told me about his mum having cancer, but if I hadn't have asked I would never had known. He carried that himself."
Another boy's story that hit home for Jordan was that of a boy called Jamar, who struggled with racism within his own sports team.
"We both dealt with racial abuse," he explains. "He was on the hurling pitch and I was on a Gaelic pitch when I first heard it. I just wanted to be able to pass on some of my knowledge from my experience of it."
"I was blown away by the lads," he continues. "They took everything in their stride and I don't know if I could have done that at their age. I think I would have kicked up more of a fuss or not been as vocal about it, so I was really amazed by how much understanding they had of their situations."
No stranger to turmoil himself, Jordon’s own personal journey led him to help his mother escape an abusive relationship when he was just a child.
The Tullamore man spent his early childhood in Germany before returning to Ireland aged 10, when Conroy's mother, Jennie, filed a court case against her then husband.
The move home followed a traumatic incident whereby Jennie was attacked with a knife by her husband, and was rescued when Conroy managed to get out of his house and scream for help.
"At a very young age, I was able to lock it away subconsciously and then forget about it," he explains. "I've only really opened up about it this year. A lot of people were surprised that I had that kind of a past."
"It took its toll on me to talk about it," he adds, "when you stir the pot of bad memories, they all come back and it brings you to a strange place. To have to relive those memories as an adult, you realise, 'I've got a lot of trauma to sort out here', and that's what's been difficult for me, but with those events happening, I was able to pass on a lot of knowledge.
"With these things, kids get forgotten. I was a very troubled child because of that experience but I've been able to pass on my teachings on how to deal with it.
"It's been a weird one but I'm trying to get positives out of it," he surmises. "When this opportunity came up to work with the lads, it felt like a sign."
Initially, Conroy held back on opening up about his past because he feared he would be pitied, and that he would lose the hard-earned label of 'strong rugby player' to that of 'victim'.
Thankfully, when he did begin to share his experiences, he found that there was great strength and camaraderie to be found in his vulnerability.
"I feel like there is a shift to being more open," he says, "to being able to cry, and to let out emotions instead of bottling them in. I've been through things - even in my later years - where I wasn't able to identify what was going on with me.
"By talking through it and letting emotions out, I was able to feel better the next day and feel uplifted. That's something that needs to be brought to light for teenagers."
Thinking back to his own childhood, and the men that came before him, the Olympian says that toxic masculinity is a generational behaviour that needs to be broken.
"It's up to us to change the view on toxic masculinity," he says. "For me, 'being a man' is about being respectful, being kind, and being accepting. Those are three fundamentals that I think stand to a man and to a young boy. Being kind, respectful and accepting of things in the world will bring you a very long way."
If you have been affected by issues raised in this story, please visit: www.rte.ie/helplines.
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