Pop singer Lyra admits she still gets ‘upset’ when she is trolled by malicious ‘keyboard warriors’ on social media.
The ‘Bandon Beyoncé’ features in the first episode of RTÉ’s Uncharted with Ray Goggins this week, paired with none other than
former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

The unlikely duo travels to the untamed mountains of Drakensberg, South Africa, with the adventurer and former special forces soldier Goggins putting Leo and Lyra through their paces in the wilderness.

The Falling singer tells the programme she is ‘really enjoying just being Lyra in the wild, ’ elaborating that it is ‘hard on social
media’ as an entertainer.

‘They love to take you down a peg or two,’ she says of her unnamed tormentors. ‘They love to be keyboard warriors. ‘I am a people pleaser… and I like making people happy and then when people message me… taking me down, I feel like I’ve not
reached the bar I should have reached, and I’m not good enough and it gets me in the heart.

‘I always get upset when I talk about it…’ As part of their gruelling challenge, the trio sleep in caves, scale mountains and climb sheer rock faces on their way to the summit of Tugela Falls, one of the tallest waterfalls in the world.

Lyra, whose debut album went to number one last year, says the politician was ‘massively out of his comfort zone’, giving the two
something in common.

‘It made it easier to relate to each other and almost be on the same wavelength for the start of it,’ Lyra says. Varadkar treats the adventure as part of his ‘gap year’ after stepping away from politics at the end of the last government term.

The former Fine Gael leader tells the programme he is ‘a little bit apprehensive’ ahead of the escapade, saying he hasn’t ‘done
something like this before’.

‘I’m used to being briefed about what’s ahead, so I’m not used to this at all. ‘People get to know you as a politician, they get to know you in a very particular way, being serious all the time, not showing vulnerabilities… it’s going to be very different – I can just be myself.

‘I really only finished up with politics with the election there at the end of November. I’m kind of calling it a gap year, where I have a chance to try lots of different things, and this is one of them.’

The ex-politician even learns a lesson from the stern Goggins – albeit too late – on the value of geeing up his charges. Speaking of ‘one regret’ he has, he tells his guide: ‘I managed really big teams – teams of ministers, TDs… I’m kind of sorry I didn’t spend maybe an extra 10, 15 minutes a day just doing the words of encouragement, like you have done for us.

‘It really makes a big difference. There was never enough time in the day to do everything I wanted to do, but even just a few text messages, a quick voice message once a day to one person… that’s a big regret and I can’t fix that one.’

Lyra, big regret and I can’t fix that one.’ Lyra, meanwhile, says she regrets ‘not standing up and saying, “This is me – accept it or not”, when told by the industry that she needed to be slimmer in the early days of her career, triggering a battle with bulimia.

‘I wish I had done it sooner, because I would have gotten a lot more of my life back and enjoyed my first experiences in the music industry a lot better.’