In a new podcast series called ‘Human Nature’, available to listen to on www.impartialreporter.com, journalist Rodney Edwards speaks to some of the best known people across Ireland north and south about life, love, emotion, grief and hears stories of struggle and accomplishment.

This week: Eamonn Holmes, a husband, a father, a son, a brother and one of the best known faces on television. 

You can listen to the full interview at the following links:

Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/human-nature-with-rodney-edwards/id1518313264 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/42pJpJ7yj8o3297ODdUaRG 

Google Podcasts - https://podcasts.google.com/?q=rodney%20edwards 

RE: I can hear you. Can you hear me okay?

EH: I can hear you wonderfully, this is amazing for me, having forgotten that we were doing this. I tell you, I was trying to book an appointment to get, I’ve a terrible toothache, and I was on to the dentist there and I got totally distracted, so forgive me for completely forgetting. Funnily enough, I was texting Father Brian [D’Arcy] today…

RE: He was ringing me. I really need to get back to him. Is he alright?

EH: He’s grand, he’s 75, it’s his birthday.

RE: We were of course supposed to meet at the start of the year to do this, and it didn’t work out, and you were going to come down to see me in beautiful Fermanagh, but a few things cropped up at my end.

EH: I was. The wettest county in Ireland.

RE: But the most beautiful.

EH: But the most beautiful, our Lake District, absolutely lovely.

RE: And you’ve been here many times.

EH: Sometimes people send me what are they called, little sheets and adverts in local papers, and you’ll have this at the Impartial Reporter, of places where I used to appear when I was young, you know when I was working for Ulster Television. And there was this situation in the early 80s that there were nightclubs Rodney opening up everywhere, you know all the hotels and the GAA clubs all around Fermanagh and whatever, and they wanted people to appear there, but the people who were the big acts, the Radio 1 DJ’s, the Page 3 girls, all these people who were presenting Top of the Pops and whatever, they cost big money, so there’d either be someone like me as a support, as a warm-up for them or there would be me if they just weren’t in that league you know, and I was working on Ulster Television. I mean I wasn’t a DJ, but I was…this became a regular weekend thing, you know on a Friday or Saturday, or indeed sometimes often the Sunday evening, and what’s interesting now is that people send me these flyers for places I’ve appeared in, and it’s like yesterday. And I remember driving there in the dead of night and coming back, and I always remember when you drove to Enniskillen, the sun was always in your eyes going down the M1, because you were heading out west, and often when I finished whatever I was doing, you were driving back and the sun was coming up again, because the sun was coming up at 4am and things, and they’re very happy memories. 

RE: If you could relive one moment from your childhood, what would you do again? 

EH: I remember mass gatherings and it was always when relatives turned up at your very small house or whatever, there was alcohol taken, there were cigarettes smoked, there was singing. I always remember people burst into song, song was an amazing thing and I think do people sing anymore in other people’s houses? And I think what a lovely… and they’re storytelling, it was all very very happy. I remember the first time I was really aware of unhappiness, was when the 11 Plus loomed, and this was the first big hurdle in my life, and I thought it was all quite fun up until now, but now it’s got to be quite serious. I wasn’t from an academic household and I went to a very lovely primary school, a very mixed… when I say mixed it wasn’t, it was mixed socially, it wasn’t mixed sexually, there was only boys and there was no other religions, it was a Catholic school. And it was all lovely up until then, and then there was the 11 Plus, and then you sweated big time, and for some strange reason I was able to jump that hurdle, and from a class of 44 I think there were only 8 of us or so passed, and we went on into grammar school. And I think for a lot of people that determined who they were from 11 years of age, and what they went on to do professionally, and I know the divide between the lads who would pass and the lads who wouldn’t would be a difference between being white collar or blue collar workers, and I don’t think there was much of a difference in the intelligence and the backgrounds and things, but it is what it is. I went to grammar school and I had the most amazing education at St Malachy’s College in Belfast, so funny enough Rodney, I don’t look back at my life and say I’d like a second crack at something really, because although I can remember tension, I can remember sadness, I can remember being incredibly frightened during the troubles, outside personal bereavement and things like that, there was nothing horrible you know, I’ve nothing. Horrible things that would happen to me, in terms of the Troubles and things, I dealt with them, I think luck plays a big part in what happens. 

RE: What did living within that community teach you about life and death, particularly during the troubles?

EH: I still think we live in an angry world today, and I think human life around the world is cheap, and what I don’t understand is… I can understand winding people up, I can understand banter, I can understand lots of things like that, but I don’t understand why I would go to say a football match, which I’ve always loved throughout my life, and wanting to smash a bottle over somebody’s head or get involved in physical violence. I don’t really you know, and as you’re talking to me now about it, it comes back to me like shopping on a Saturday afternoon with your parents or whatever, usually with my mum, and full-scale riots in Royal Avenue in Belfast, you know between gangs. You know, really horrible things happening, witnessing seeing bombs going off, seeing awful things, burning down, all sort of things like that, and today we see with George Floyd in America and how people so want to vent their anger and their frustration about things. Brexit is another thing, even Coronavirus, people get angry you know, people get angry very very quickly, and is it something now because of social media, they’re more listened to or they’ve got more of a platform to do it. But I’m not sure I’ve ever been overly angry about anything, or you know, I mean I like to think I do the right thing. I think I’m quite a balanced person, and I can stand back from something and see well that’s obviously wrong, that’s obviously right, or that shouldn’t be, but I don’t think there are any causes outside my family I would want to die for really.

RE: Many young men joined groups during the troubles such as the IRA, many young Catholic men, you didn’t, why not?

EH: Well, I think it would have been, well luck would have something to do with it. Influence from your parents, simply saying… my parents were never political, I do think I was aware subconsciously of my dad being socialist, and he always would say about politicians you know, very few of them are for the working man, and that’s always stayed with me. I’ve always been probably, you know socialist or quite middle of the road, but I mean I’m sure I lean towards being socialist in terms of my political views, because of my dad. And I could see my dad was a great admirer of Lord Gerry Fitt as he became, and there was a decency about Gerry Fitt, and there was just something about… I think my parents attitude were never you mind about that, you get on with what you’re doing or what you’re supposed to do, and they set a very good example, but they were never overtly political about anything, and I think they just cared about their sons. I mean there were five boys in the house, and that would’ve been a big thing for my mum and dad to steer a line as to looking after us and how we would’ve seen ourselves. But I suppose my thing was that during the troubles I became more fixated about why it was happening and trying to analyse why it was happening, and you know being influenced because you weren’t allowed out, you know you didn’t go out. I watched an awful lot of TV, and I was influenced by the TV that I watched, and I was very aware of who the reporters were at the time and what stations they worked for and what they did, and I just became more and more interested in that and being that and doing that.

RE: How would you describe freedom in your own words? Do you feel free?

EH: Me? I would say you’re probably not free to give true opinions about things, because it’s not worth the bloomin hassle really. No-one can say, “oh I see your point, I see where you’re coming from on that, but I personally don’t agree” or whatever, everybody wants to you know, be outraged. People wake up in the morning wanting to be outraged and offended by anything that…

RE: Do you think crying is a sign of weakness? And when did you last cry? 

EH: Oh, my goodness. I don’t think crying’s a sign of weakness in the slightest. I shed a tear last night, where a very close friend told me not only she has cancer, her cancer has returned. So, after three years of her cancer not being there, so I did well-up at that, I could well-up at that now, talking to you about that. But I feel for her, I feel for her family, I feel for her because she’s done all the right things in terms of diet, exercise, everything she could do, but it’s back and it’s quite aggressive. So, crying’s never annoyed me, I think I have a trait of being sentimental. I think things like music triggers me because they probably trigger memories. I’m a great romantic, I’m a great sentimentalist, it’s a very Irish thing. If I could erase one trait from me, I think it would be sentimentality, I think it prays too much on my mind, I think it influences me too much. 

RE: What is your earliest memory of love?

EH: Love? My granny I suppose, my grandmother, my Granny Fitzsimmons. So, I was four when she died of breast cancer, funnily enough. I always remember a very very close bond with her, but the reason I remember the close bond, I remember her smell, I remember how she looks, I remember how she would take me by the hand and we would go and feed the ducks at Alexandra Park in Belfast, and she often found time to be with me. And then I remember one day she just whispered to me, “don’t tell any of the rest of them”, and I said, “what granny?”, she said “you’re my favourite”. I always remember that, and she could’ve been lying to me, so I was very very devoted. I think I was more aware that I loved my granny maybe more so before I knew that I loved my parents, or I loved my brothers. 

RE: When you left Belfast for Manchester all those years ago, your father sang Danny Boy for you, and that’s such a beautiful thing to do. What do you think when you picture that moment?

EH: Well you asked me earlier about do you cry, or does it make you emotional, but that would always make me well-up. And I was at a function not so long ago, and I was with my very good friend for a long time Barry McGuigan the boxer, and somebody sang Danny Boy, and I could just feel him shaking and crying beside me for a whole plethora of reasons, but basically because his dad used to go into the ring and sing it before Barry’s big fights. So, for the both of us, Barry knew it meant something to me and I knew it meant something to him, and Barry’s a very emotional fellow as well. So, for dad to sing that, because he wouldn’t have been regarded as a singer, that was a big special thing, that was a special thing for him to do that. But that is one of those sort of things that don’t really happen anymore you know, or don’t happen in the world I mix in anymore. But that meant a lot, and it would be better than any letter he could have ever penned to tell me how he was feeling about me leaving. 

RE: In five years’ time Eamonn you will be the same age your father was when he died. Your dad died when he was 65, from a heart attack, that was back in 1991. Do you think about your mortality?

EH: Oh, very definitely, yeah. I think there’s a certain morbidity where you think you’ve only got so many years left, and that’s why I think lockdown has concentrated my mind in terms of right the clock’s ticking, what have you got to do while you’re still alive, while you’re still able bodied, and I think it should work for a lot of us. We don’t know the brevity of life, we don’t know how long we have left, and we have a duty to live it as best as we can. So, I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do my friend, but I do feel the clock’s ticking and you sort of feel I want more time. I certainly don’t want to live well into my 90’s just to live long, I don’t want to live longer not to live better, I just want to lead a good life. I don’t want to live a long life and it not to be a better life, so that would be my view on it.

RE: What’s the difference between falling in love and being in love? 

EH: I have fallen in love, I have been in love, I’m in love with love. I like love, I’m a romantic person, I think that people who don’t have love in their life I find it sad, I find it incomprehensible. So, whether you love a person, whether you love an animal,  whether you love God, whether you love a car, there are many things in life that I would look at and I would say “yes, I really love that” or “I love doing this”. And the feeling of love.

RE: Ruth lost her sister Julia to suicide last year. Can you just explain the impact of losing someone in this way and what that has on a family? 

EH: Well, it’s just the unanswered questions. I mean, I experienced sudden death of my father and there are a lot of loose ends, a lot of things that you wonder were they said, what were your last words, what way did you last deal with that person. Sudden death is a very very difficult thing to deal with, and with Julia you know, she was just the most lovely gentile kind person. I often used to joke to her and Ruth that I got the wrong sister, but she was a lovely lovely person tortured by mental depression, and Ruth was very very caring, very loving to her and I think there can often be a guilt when you think should I have been there, where was I. I was in Belfast, Ruth was in London and her sister was in East Sussex, and you know what can you do, you can’t press the rewind button and what I would honestly say is that we were always very supportive. We were a loving family, Ruth could not have done more for her sister, and I think you know, it takes a lot of getting over that, a lot of getting over. You know what’s relevant to me, is that I’m part of a panel, a working group in North Belfast, which is looking at the situation there, and it has got the highest suicide rate not just in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Ireland, UK, but in Europe. And you know, I was born bred grew up in North Belfast, I had the same opportunities or lack of opportunities or I think I had, and I sit with the panel and we talk and I say “look, please can I just ask you all, why has this not happened to me, explain this to me”, and people are so good and people who have studied this, and it can be a number of factors. It can be the power and love of a family around you, it can be influence of alcohol or drugs, it can be lack of opportunity for people, lack of education… none of these things are absolute in themselves, but some people are particularly susceptible to it. But the question is, I don’t know why, they would have said to me “you had stable parents, you didn’t have a drink problem, you had a good education”. Too many people have suffered this and we can’t really say “oh well, it’s all down to this, it’s all down to that”, but it’s down to something really awful in somebody’s mind when they think that is the only way out. And that’s what we’ve got to learn about, study about and find out more about. It’s one thing being able to say to people “be kind to everybody”, but if people aren’t being kind to you, what’s the answer to that? I think it’s an interesting dilemma, as to are we just making people softer and more vulnerable, or you know, what used to be a bad day or something going against you now turns out to be something that needs medical attention from kids. And I would be very careful about telling people to be kind where not everybody’s going to be kind back. When people wake up, when people watch this interview or listen to what you and I have to say, and there’ll be people outraged for some reason or other, outraged. Eamonn Holmes said this, Eamonn Holms said that, well Eamonn Holmes is not allowed a view on this or that, or I don’t like him, I don’t like what he said, you know outraged, and you sort of think well why are you outraged, just why? Look into your own lives, I don’t think I’m somebody who has any influence over how other people think, other people may think I have, but I don’t think I have.

RE:  You were back in Northern Ireland in 1998 as well to cover the Omagh bomb. Did that have an impact on you?

EH: Very much so, yeah. I will never forget the smell. I will never forget the glass under my feet. And the surreal thing was the Royal Ulster Constabulary had the place cordoned off or whatever, and when I arrived, reporting in the dead of night for GMTV, I would talk to these people and I would walk up and talk to them, not as a reporter but just sort of as me. And the next minute they would say “Eamonn come over here and we’ll show you this” or “Eamonn do that”, well there was bloomin uproar from the rest of the press that were there, bloomin uproar. And the point was maybe I thought a) if you were pleasant and nice to the officers that were there, maybe b) if you were known to them, which you’re not, and c) I was one of ours there, and I was very privileged and very respectful of the access that I was given. Because I mean, there’s a hardness with a lot of interviews that people do, and people know they’re not going to get that from me. So, I was very grateful to the officers for the access I was given, and what actually happened was I stepped back and I said, “you know what, if it’s all annoying you so much, I’ll not cross this line” and I stood there, and I don’t find there’s any real brotherhood within media ranks, it is everybody for themselves and getting what you can. That wasn’t what was interesting me, what was interesting me was being respectful to the dead, you know there were families there that I’ve kept in touch with, there’s one family that live in Surrey here who lost their young lad, and I think all of us look and we say that could have been my mother, my father, my sister, my brother, my son, my daughter with all of that. Yes of course that made a huge impact on me, Omagh and Dunblane, the Dunblane shooting of those primary school pupils, being there and being in Dunblane I think again, because I could look at those pictures and I could see my own children in those classroom pictures. But also just when you come across… sometimes you know, as a reporter you’ve got to balance both sides of the story, not sometimes, all times you’re supposed to do this, but I don’t believe media is impartial, it should be but it isn’t. And sometimes I think how can you be impartial, how could you be impartial about Thomas Hamilton in Dunblane, just one mad perverted sicko and a gun killing school children, how do you put the other side of the story to that?

RE: Ruth lost her sister Julia to suicide last year. Can you just explain the impact of losing someone in this way and what that has on a family? 

EH: Well, it's just the unanswered questions. I mean, I experienced sudden death of my father and there are a lot of loose ends, a lot of things that you wonder were they said, what were your last words, what way did you last deal with that person. Sudden death is a very very difficult thing to deal with, and with Julia you know, she was just the most lovely gentile kind person. I often used to joke to her and Ruth that I got the wrong sister, but she was a lovely lovely person tortured by mental depression, and Ruth was very very caring, very loving to her and I think there can often be a guilt when you think should I have been there, where was I. I was in Belfast, Ruth was in London and her sister was in East Sussex, and you know what can you do, you can’t press the rewind button and what I would honestly say is that we were always very supportive. We were a loving family, Ruth could not have done more for her sister, and I think you know, it takes a lot of getting over that, a lot of getting over. You know what's relevant to me, is that I'm part of a panel, a working group in North Belfast, which is looking at the situation there, and it has got the highest suicide rate not just in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Ireland, UK, but in Europe. And you know, I was born bred grew up in North Belfast, I had the same opportunities or lack of opportunities or I think I had, and I sit with the panel and we talk and I say “look, please can I just ask you all, why has this not happened to me, explain this to me”, and people are so good and people who have studied this, and it can be a number of factors. It can be the power and love of a family around you, it can be influence of alcohol or drugs, it can be lack of opportunity for people, lack of education… none of these things are absolute in themselves, but some people are particularly susceptible to it. But the question is, I don't know why, they would have said to me “you had stable parents, you didn't have a drink problem, you had a good education”. Too many people have suffered this and we can't really say “oh well, it’s all down to this, it’s all down to that”, but it’s down to something really awful in somebody’s mind when they think that is the only way out. And that’s what we’ve got to learn about, study about and find out more about. It’s one thing being able to say to people “be kind to everybody”, but if people aren’t being kind to you, what’s the answer to that? I think it’s an interesting dilemma, as to are we just making people softer and more vulnerable, or you know, what used to be a bad day or something going against you now turns out to be something that needs medical attention from kids. And I would be very careful about telling people to be kind where not everybody's going to be kind back. When people wake up, when people watch this interview or listen to what you and I have to say, and there’ll be people outraged for some reason or other, outraged. Eamonn Holmes said this, Eamonn Holms said that, well Eamonn Holmes is not allowed a view on this or that, or I don’t like him, I don’t like what he said, you know outraged, and you sort of think well why are you outraged, just why? Look into your own lives, I don’t think I’m somebody who has any influence over how other people think, other people may think I have, but I don’t think I have.

RE: Why do you face so much criticism? I know there’s so many people who love and adore you, you know that, but why do you think that is?

 

EH: Well, like a lot of people, I sell newspapers, or I direct traffic to websites that are very keen to sensationalise and draw an audience. So, you know, all of this plays into Trump's hands of fake news, because you've got to look and you say “really, is that what was said?”. Any time I present This Morning live, which is every school holiday, every half-term, every Friday, there will be clickbait headlines. Eamonn Holmes said this, did that, stormed off and sulks, viewers aghast, and it’s not true reporting, because there may be one complaint against you, but that’s what makes the headline. And there may be 99 other people that say, “that was brilliant, well done Eamonn, fantastic”, that’s not reported. So, it’s not the journalism I learnt, and it’s not the journalism I want to be part of, it’s just a sad situation, but there are consequences to all of these things for lots of people. Look, you know I’ve come through a lot in my life and I sort of probably have a thicker skin than most, but there you are. If you have people who don't have opinions, and people who don't say things, and people who are not there, I mean most of all I'm there on behalf of the viewer, that’s what I’m there for, but if you don’t have that you just get a vanilla form of presenter. Now that’s fine, I’m sort of too long in the tooth now to maybe be vanilla, I’m more the chocolate on top, you know.

RE: I used to watch you on GMTV before I went to school, and I remember that infamous David Blaine interview. Who's been the most fun to interview and who’s been the most difficult to interview in more recent years?

EH: Well, the difficult thing’s easy, because you get people who come from America usually and they've got people around them, and they have a list of demands and conditions and there's lots of people who I’d like to name, but all this will end up as clickbait for you know publicising your podcast Rodney, which I’ll take all the flack for. So, you used to be able tell stories whereby you could regale people of the bad behaviour of certain people, but you can't now because it becomes too sensationalised. But there was somebody who arrived in from America recently and at the last minute they stood on the edge of the studio at This Morning and her people said “she can’t sit there”, “why?”, “there’s a couch on this programme”. “I said yeah, well if you’d have done your research you would know there’s a couch for the programme”, “no-one told us it was a couch”, I said “well with the best will in the world…”, I can’t stand people being sycophantic round all these PR people, we’re there to ask questions, not to ask the questions they want asked. And the PR people are saying “this can’t happen”, I said “what is the problem here?”, “she can’t sit here because there’s a couch”, I said “well could you just tell me where you want her to sit or do you want us to do this interview standing?”, they said “yes, we’ll do the interview standing”. I said “well, between you and me, that ain’t going to happen right, so what’s the problem?” and we’re on a commercial break and they go “Miss so-and-so is allergic to materials in a couch”. So, you’re not ever allowed to speak to Miss so-and-so, which I don’t agree with, I just think right shut up you, I go “right Miss so-and-so, rather than what you are allergic to, what are you not allergic to?”, and she said “I’m not allergic to linen”, and I said “well, this is your lucky day. You see that couch over there, that couch not only is linen, that couch is Ulster linen, where I am from and I have had this specially flown in and made, because I like you, have the same allergy to everything. To velvet, to silk, to cotton, to whatever, but anyway we’ve got linen there for you now”, “really?”, and I went “oh, come over and try it”. She sat down and I said, “doesn’t that feel great?”, “yeah, really this is linen, where is this from?”, I said “Northern Ireland, it’s from Derry. That’s when we get it in specially made for me in my contract”. So, we did the bloomin interview, she gets off the thing and the researchers were on to me saying “how did you know that was linen, how do you know?”, I said “I’ve no idea what it is, absolutely no idea, but it was too late to even sit and worry about it, just tell her it’s linen, she’s happy, she hasn’t come out in a rash, everything’s fine”. And with a lot of these people it’s about you know, pushing it as far as they can with their people, pushing it to see how much respect they can get or how big stars they are or whatever, and it is childlike, it is absolutely childlike, and they’re always a type of person. And then you get big stars, you get you Pierce Brosnan, you get John Travolta, you’ve Robin Williams, you’ve Tom Hanks, you’ve got people like this not a single request, no conditions to anything, they are giving, they are welcoming, they are lovely. Kelsey Grammer, Donald Sutherland, Keifer Sutherland, you know just absolute joys to be with, and the loveliest man of all time, the most ordinary star I’ve ever met and had the privilege to know, there’s not many of them you get to know, as a matter of fact I can’t really think of another one, was Roger Moore, Sir Roger Moore. And he became over the course of 15 years of so, a friend, and I’ve had marvellous times with him and just a lovely man, and the great privilege was to be invited to be one of 100 people invited to his memorial service at the James Bond Studio at Pinewood. But you know, again that’s what shows you what class is and what stars are, and there’s so many people, believe me I would like to name names specifically, there’s not a lot of people who you want to interview. You want to interview people who are really interesting and have lived a life, but I’m lucky, I mean to talk to people is a lovely privilege.

RE: You of course were the king of morning TV. What do you think now of Piers Morgan who is essentially in your old chair?


EH: I think Piers saved morning TV or breakfast TV, there’s a difference. I think it was going down the drain of vanilla blandness, and I think he came there at a time and shook it up, and he was the right man in the right place at the right time, and so far so good. But the thing about Piers is, and probably why a lot of people watch him, is you don’t know how long it’ll last, you don’t know how long he will last, you don’t know when he’ll have had enough or whatever, but then at least he’s worth watching, he’s worth waking up to. And it takes different types of things you know, I think on BBC in the morning, Dan Walker is a very very good presenter, probably more in the mould of what I… I’m somewhere in between Dan Walker and Piers Morgan to be quite truthful. But I think that it takes all sorts, and I think we should have a choice as to what to watch, and if you don’t like it there’s another channel so switch over. But I think Piers has been the saviour of breakfast television, yes.

RE: Why is it a hassle?

EH: Well, it’s a hassle because you're always on duty. It's a hassle because you're always supposed to be accountable. It's a hassle because as soon as you put this podcast out, you'll find out it’s a hassle to me, because everything you say is deemed to be controversial or taken the wrong way. So, from that point of view, when you don't mean any harm and you're simply trying to state a case on behalf of other people or whatever, it’s somehow controversial. It’s somehow controversial if you defend cabin crew who are losing their jobs, it’s controversial if you talk about tax matters, it’s controversial if you don't say about other things, if you don't support things. You know there’s a terrible pressure on social media to either support something or not support something, so the idea is that increasing the public love the idea that they can determine your life and how you are perceived through them, and how often they can complain about you or whatever. So, I suppose that’s why it’s a hassle.

RE: Does that mean you're always watching what you say and you’re always worrying about the next tweet storm or whatever happens online on social media?

EH: Well, yes and no. You’ve got to be true to yourself and you've got to be responsible, but when people try and make out you’ve made a gaff or you’ve been deliberately controversial, you look at something and you think really, what is so wrong or controversial about that, and the only that’s wrong about it is it’s from an easy target, it’s from me who they know they can kick me as much as they want sort of thing. You know, that’s the way it is, and a lot of people just have opinions about you, you’re like marmite, they’ll either love you or hate you, so that’s it.

RE: Well, what’s next for Eamonn Holmes? I saw your tweet last night, that wonderful photograph of a young 21-year-old Eamonn at UTV, would you like to do that again?

EH: Yeah, I would, I think so. I think I can do that job, there’s a lot of things you would do, I think you know, somewhere I think the business changed and who they want for businesses has changed. But I’d like to think there’s a talk show or something, a chat show left in me. I don’t want anything overly controversial or combative or whatever, I just actually like that Irish thing of talking to people, which often doesn’t happen in England because interviews are so small and often can be quite trivial. What I love about shows like The Late Late Show and all the other talk shows like Miriam O’Callaghan or whatever that RTE do, is that they give long healthy respect to conversation, and I think that is a wonderful thing. I mean the thinking is maybe today’s audience doesn’t want that, maybe it doesn’t, I don’t know, but it seems to be working in RTE, it seems to work all the time there. 

RE: Well, last question Eamonn. This podcast is called Human Nature, what does it mean to be human?

EH: Wow, I don’t really know what it doesn’t mean to be human. I mean, I’m totally aware and confident that I am human, therefore you know, it’s when you’re not human, it’s when you become somebody that you’re not, when you pretend to be something that you’re not, when you stand for something that you don’t believe in, when you are impermeable to loss and suffering around you, when you’re not kind, when you don’t see the funny side of things. And it amazes me that there a lot of people like that who just wake up wanting to be insulted, they don’t see the funny side of things. Intolerance, bigotry, racism, all those things are the opposite of not being human. Being human is to try and do your best, not always succeeding, but at least if you tried and in the words of my father “if a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well”, and if you fail at that well you’re only human.

Human Nature is a podcast written and presented by The Impartial Reporter’s Rodney Edwards and is available to listen to in full on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, SoundCloud and www.impartialreporter.com.