life and style

Eamonn Holmes … My family values

The television presenter talks about growing up in Belfast during the Troubles, his divorce and how he's best friends with his brothers
Eamonn Holmes
Eamonn Holmes: 'The lack of space meant my brothers and I were like bear cubs or dogs that were always biting and ­nipping at each other, but not now.' Photograph: Steve Meddle/Rex Features

I have four brothers, and as kids we lived in a two-up, two-down house in Belfast with an outside loo and no bathroom. It was very much a Coronation Street-type of community. It was loving but there were limits and high standards were set, particularly by my mother in terms of cleanliness, and that's something that has always appealed to me. It was a big attraction with my present wife, who keeps a wonderful house. My mother would do exactly the same. She was constantly polishing and cleaning and baking, which is very hard for any woman to live up to.

My dad was a hardworking man who earned a living by the sweat of his brow [as a carpet-fitter]. On Friday, he would get paid and go to the pub at the top of the street and he would come back all the merrier for it. Money wasn't plentiful but I remember it being a very lovely environment. Then in 1968 all that was left behind when the Troubles erupted. My teenage years were much less happy than my childhood years, and my parents didn't need to spell out the issues to us. It was intrinsic in Belfast. You know your territory, you know everyone's religion because of their name or their hair colour, where they live or what school they went to. Everybody knows their own boundaries.

Often we waited at night wondering if my father would come home. If you were the wrong religion in the wrong area, often you didn't come home. And then there were the indiscriminate bombings, which claimed so many lives and affected so many people. Our play would be disrupted in the street as we watched bombs exploding. It was like a war zone and there were bullets in the street where we'd play football, but in our house there were no obvious politics. Yes, they had their particular roots, which were Nationalist, but there was no aggression towards the British or anything else as a result of it.We were always told to keep quiet, keep impartial; and as for my father's politics, he only cared about the working man.

My brothers and I are very close. My eldest brother, Leonard, went on to sell screws, and now runs his own company. Brian, a year younger than me, carried on my father's trade, as did my other brother, Colm, who's eight years younger than me. Then my baby brother, Conor, who's 16 years younger, is a postman. Growing up, the lack of space meant we were like bear cubs or dogs that were always biting and nipping at each other, but not now. Today they are my best friends and that's the same for all of us; we love each other's company, we love being with each other, we indulge heavily in, what they call in Belfast, the banter or the craic.

My mum was the toughest of the lot, who is still alive, of us. She still treats us all as if we're children, as if we're seven years of age, but I know she's really proud of us all and we all a're very loyal to her and very defensive over her and are always there for her needs. She's older and more frail; we're constantly there, constantly sorting things out now.

I have two families, two houses. I have a home in Belfast, I have a home in Surrey. My eldest lad is 24, my daughter is 22 and my youngest lad, from my first marriage, is 19, and he lives in Newcastle upon Tyne. Whatever differences my first wife and I may have had, neither of us ever had any obstruction when it comes to access to the children. My heart breaks for anyone who's had to ask permission to see their children or is denied permission to see their children. I never had to experience that and thank God I never had to, because they are everything that I would want to carry on, all that my parents did for me, and the environment that I felt I lived in.

The breakdown of my first marriage was more a sort of a sadness rather than anything in anger. For me, the failure was not to hold together the husband and wife bit, the failure in the heart came from not being able to hold together a family life. I think we will always be pleased that we'll always have a bond between us – all of us. That was more important that money, that was more important than property, that was more important than all these things that people fight about.

Manchester United has united me with my children. You may not have politics in common with your children, or music or fashion, but you'd have football in common with them. To bring your child to their first game and to be with them and to talk football with them is amazing. I love to share the game with them all on Sunday. That's fantastic and my brothers and I, we're all United supporters too so that's a fantastic bond between us. Our wives are all very understanding and I think they're actually happy to get us out of the house. Family means comfort. It means happiness. It means pride. But most of all it means laughter because whether it's my children, whether it's my wife, whether it's my mother, whether it's my brothers, the cold fact of it for me is laughter – and I just feel so happy when they're around me.

Eamonn Holmes presents Sky News Sunrise 6am-9am, Monday to Thursday


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