Eamonn Holmes fights back tears as he remembers his late father during emotional podcast chat - hours after tumbling from his chair on live TV

Daily Mail​

22-05-2025

Eamonn Holmes was reduced to tears as he remembered his late father during a podcast interview with former boxer Barry McGuigan on Thursday - hours after tumbling from his chair on live TV.
Holmes was hosting the second instalment of his Things We Like podcast with GB News colleague Paul Coyte when an anecdote about McGuigan's own father, Pat - who passed away at the age of 52 - left him visibly moved.
Discussing the former boxer's extraordinary rise to lineal heavyweight champion, Holmes - whose dad Leonard died aged 64 in 1990 - recalled how Pat would sing the anthemic Danny Boy from the ring before many of his son's fights.
'Your dad was a special man,' he said. 'I know he was very special to you. Barry used to come out to the ring to Danny Boy; it would be emotional, I'm sure Barry's the same.'
Fighting back tears, he added: 'It brings tears to my eyes, because of my own dad, for reasons I won't go into.'
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Eamonn Holmes was reduced to tears as he remembered his late father during a podcast interview with former boxer Barry McGuigan on Thursday
Pat, a successful singer who represented Ireland at the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest, died in 1987 aged just 52 following a period of poor health.
Holmes' father Leonard also died young after suffering a fatal heart attack while driving.
Discussing his sudden death during appearance on Irish show The Meaning Of Life in 2021, he said: 'He's been gone 31 years now but I still miss him every day.
'I can't recall my late father without thinking of how he always wanted to provide… even when I had a successful career. I think like all of us he just liked to be needed.'
Describing a vivid memories of his dad, while choking back tears, Holmes said: 'All he did was give us a big hug, or whatever...
'All he did was say things like: "Do you need any money?" I was on Ulster Television, earning £12,000 a year. He wasn't earning £12,000 a year or anything near it.
'One day my mum said: "Let him give you some money". I did. I was like "yeah dad" and he'd give me twenty quid.'
Holmes also admitted the hardest part about losing his dad so suddenly was being unable to say goodbye.
Ahead of the show airing on RTÉ One, he tweeted a video clip except and wrote: 'He's been gone 31 years now but I still miss him every day.
'I can't recall my late father without thinking of how he always wanted to provide, even when I had a successful career. I think like all of us he just liked to be needed.'
The podcast was released shortly after Holmes' admitted he was feeling 'really sore following a fall on live TV.
The Northern Irish broadcaster added that it was 'a bit of a shock' considering he had been taken to hospital earlier in the month after he had a fall at his home.
During Wednesday's instalment of the GB News show he co-hosts with Ellie Costello, a crash could be heard while the camera was focused on their guest, commentator Charlie Rowley.
Costello could be heard saying 'oh my gosh' off-screen, and Holmes pleaded with Rowley to 'carry on' before the presenter returned to the show following a break.
Holmes said: 'Welcome back. Good to see you again. Especially good for me to see you again. I am still alive, yes.
'And they're very wonky wheels on chairs that we've got here, and matter of fact, we don't really like the chairs full stop, do we? They're a bit slippy and slidey and I've slipped and slid off mine there.'
Ahead of the show airing on RTÉ One, he tweeted a video clip except and wrote: 'He's been gone 31 years now but I still miss him every day'
He continued: 'Not the first guest to have done so, we've had a few, they have to remain nameless because they're well known people, but they've hit the floor really badly, quite frightening.
'And it was a bit of a shock for me because I've had a fall in my bathroom two weeks ago, which hospitalised me, and that hit me again right in the back. (I'm) really, really sore. Really sore.'
He later said the chair 'gave way' which meant he was lying flat on his back.
He added: 'As the morning goes on, you feel aches and pains. The worst thing about this, of course, this was at a time when I was hospitalised two weeks ago for a very similar fall in the same area, back of the head, my neck, my shoulders. So it all came back, as it were.'