![\"Eamonn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/7a07f71e-aec3-4df9-ab43-2c6524556ae4.jpg\")
<\/p>\nOne of the best-known TV personalities in the UK, the 65-year-old has suffered from long-term difficulties, previously telling of his battle with chronic back pain after a dislocated pelvis led to three slipped discs.<\/p>\n
The star appeared on UTV Life as he reflected on his career and spoke about his upcoming tour, This Is My Life.<\/p>\n
Holmes told host Pamela Ballantine he was \u201chomesick\u201d when he left Belfast in 1986 \u201cand it\u2019s never changed\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said she uses Holmes as an example to young people who want to enter the media industry as she recalled starting her own career at UTV in 1984 when her guest was on the payroll.<\/p>\n
Pamela admitted she was scared of Eamonn because he \u201csat there so focused\u201d as she revealed she advises aspiring broadcasters seeking to imitate his success that they have to \u201cgraft\u201d.<\/p>\n
Over the last two years he\u2019s been unable to travel home much because of his disability. He said it\u2019s due to a \u201cdisc operation which went wrong in my back and it means I can\u2019t walk\u201d other than \u201c50 yards or something with a stroller device, but basically I\u2019m wheelchair bound\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cIt\u2019s a physically difficult existence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holmes said he was lucky with everything he did on Ulster Television and was \u201cpoached by the BBC with this programme called Open Air\u201d. It was amazing, he said, but he didn\u2019t want to go, believing he had \u201cthe best job in Northern Ireland, hosting Good Evening Ulster five nights a week\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cBut I had this foreboding that, what if it changed? What would you do? You have the top job. Where do you go? There\u2019s only one way? I\u2019m 26 years of age. The only one way to go is down.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I thought, I\u2019ve got to go. And I was very homesick when I went to Manchester.<\/p>\n
\u201cManchester\u2019s a beautiful city. It\u2019s like Belfast in many, many ways. So it was friendly, it was welcoming. London is different. It was colder. You say hello to somebody and they look at you like, you know, \u2018why did you do that for me? I don\u2019t know you\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
He shared fond memories of presenting Farming Ulster, saying \u201cit was my favourite programme ever of all the things that I\u2019ve done\u201d.<\/p>\n
On the November tour about his life, Holmes said he\u2019s \u201ca bit frightened\u201d that nobody will turn up.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a stroll through my life. It\u2019s also looking at the Troubles, it\u2019s talking about the influence of the Troubles and growing up in Belfast.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd, you know, people ask you what makes you you. I can only think of a mixture of a number of things and I\u2019m not really sure why, but I know my education in primary and secondary schools had a big impact on who I was and who I was supposed to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if you had a talent, it was your duty to see it through, whatever that talent was, whether it was a sporting talent or whether it was an intellectual talent or whatever it is.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo in my case it was, I always wanted to be a journalist. I wanted to be a broadcaster.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Eamonn Holmes<\/p>\n
Belfast History Explained: Who was Mary Ann McCracken?<\/p>\n
He spoke of his college lecturer Joan Fitzpatrick phoning him up to say: \u201cYou always wanted to be on the TV, didn\u2019t you? Well, Ulster Television are looking for reporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I said, well, what sort of reporter, Mrs Fitzpatrick?<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said, \u2018farming reporters\u2019. And I went, \u2018I don\u2019t know anything about farming, Mrs Fitzpatrick, I\u2019m a city boy, born and bred.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd she said, rule one of journalism, Eamonn, \u2018find out.\u2019 And she put the phone down.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the best-known TV personalities in the UK, the 65-year-old has suffered from long-term difficulties, previously telling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[17376,93,16123,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-19473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-eamonn-holmes","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-garrett-hargan","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}