SAINT GEORGE’S REMEMBRANCE
Saint George’s remembrance How George Best changed Eamonn Holmes’ life
Interview: Gareth A. Davies
A drinker and a player both on and off the pitch, George Best was also a hero to a whole generation of Belfast lads including broadcaster Eamonn Holmes
Up close and personal, Eamonn Holmes’ famous passion for football, his support of Manchester United and his Belfast background are never far from the surface. Engaging, open and charming in essence the same man as his broadcasting persona he has become an established fi gure in the British media. With a long list of TV and radio assignments over the past 25 years, he has come a long way since he was, as he describes it, "reared on a Belfast council estate;" rising from a farming reporter for Ulster TV to one of the most renowned voices and presenters in the UK. That came home to him on an emotional day in November 2005 when he led the eulogies for his idol George Best at the footballer’s funeral, held in state at Stormont. Holmes admits it was as if his life had come full circle.
We meet in a quiet bar just around the corner from London’s South Bank where Holmes works. Where does his story begin? "The work ethic was instilled in me by my father, Leonard, who was a carpet fi tter. He was really good at what he did, worked his fi ngers to the bone and didn’t earn much money. I went to a Catholic maintained school in Belfast and my parents had to pay £100 a year for me to go there. Whereas most parents wrote a cheque for the amount, my father had to pay in £5 instalments. I saw a carbon receipt for one of those payments only the other day. At the time, I was embarrassed about it but it was a big deal to him. It instilled in me a desire to fi nd something I had an affi nity with and could do well at. I was a crap carpet fi tter, I can tell you that. So when I went into journalism and found I was good at it, I seized my opportunity with both hands."
Belfast, where he grew up as one of fi ve brothers, is the place he insists will always be home, in spite of living in Surrey today with his partner Ruth Langsford, the television journalist. "When you are young, you denigrate the place you are from. We all do it," he says recalling his desire to be in London "where it was all happening". But then two things occurred.
"It was the 1968 European Cup fi nal and George Best was centre-stage. Best was the main man. United became European champions; Best was the European Footballer of the Year. I was eight. In the same year, came The Troubles. Suddenly, we became the focus of world attention as Vietnam was ending. Sport and news: The Troubles and George Best. And he was one of us. He’d played on the same scuffed fi elds, the same streets.
"He was every boy’s idol. Everybody wore their shirt outside their shorts, their socks rolled down around their ankles like George. You got school detentions for those things, but we all did it. I had George Best boots, we ate Cookstown sausages the ones that Best’s family advertised on TV and I was in love with the team he played for: Manchester United. The Reds. When I was 14, he left Man U, but he had forged in me a lifelong love of the club. And for me, George Best is the most famous person we have ever had in Northern Ireland, a country of 1.5 million people."
Almost 30 years later, Holmes led the commemoration at his hero’s funeral. "It was surreal; very emotional. I was proud to have played a part in the celebration of George Best’s life it took me back to my boyhood. The fact that there was a thread in my own life running through Northern Ireland and Manchester United, a path he had led me towards, was meaningful. I wasn’t a close friend of his but I loved him. Yet he let me down like he did others. At one point, I was making a documentary about him and during the interview, he told me had to just go and do something for a moment. He went to a bar and never came back. That was George."
Holmes admits his own football skills were limited. "What I played was street football. We played lamp to lamp football, with pavements marking out our pitch. We broke windows; dented cars. I was no George Best though I had the hair and could run fast. You really did have to be able to run fast in Belfast in those days; I’m not kidding!"
Enter into any subject with Holmes, and his passion for work and football resurfaces time and again. He is self-refl ective as a man, but above all, passionate. "I believe in that great saying of Gary Player’s: `The harder you practise, the luckier you get.’ You do make your own luck. I think that’s how my career has been." Holmes has been a hit with his Saturday morning Radio 5 Live show, in which he begins the build-up to the sporting weekend with his cheeky chappy style. "I want to make sport accessible to everyone especially widen it to a female audience. When people are going about their lives on a Saturday morning, I want to make them feel included. That’s why I want to get professional sports people talking about the day-to-day aspects of their lives and showbiz personalities revealing their love of sport.
Practically everybody we speak to has fascinating insights on their lives, with the exception of those few soccer players who have overblown egos and are into cars and bling. When you look at the £75,000 a week that some footballers now earn, I believe we should make them aware that there is a social responsibility that comes with it."
He adds: "My own working life has parallels with many well-known sports people during and after their playing careers, and they do become chatty with you because they’re aware they need another career in the media when their playing days are over. But this generation don’t need anything unlike Becks [David Beckham, the former Manchester United and Real Madrid star, who has gone to the US to play for a reported £250 million], who has an insatiable desire to be famous. I’m not a fan of what he brings to a team overall. What he does bring is a sublime skill to shape the ball from dead-ball situations.
But if I was in a team with him I’d be hacked off. It’s all about him. I’m not saying that he is not a level-headed fellow but he has defi nitely found his ultimate soul-mate in celebrity and fame in Victoria."
Working within sport is the best of both worlds for Holmes. "Talking or working with your sporting heroes what could be better? I’m a great believer in heroes. I loved Johnny Cash, Elvis and John Wayne, but on the pitch George Best, Roy Keane and Eric Cantona, someone who you want to emulate and who makes your jaw drop, is wonderful. Pure escapism. Following Manchester United is like my religion. I’m 47, but 10 years old again when watching my team. It removes me from mortgage payments, who will be hiring or fi ring me, which TV critic has been having a go at me. It is a regression to childhood for most men actually."
It ripples out to affect his own children. He "caught" his daughter with a Liverpool poster in her room when she was nine. "I told Rebecca `I don’t think so. Do you want to stay in this house or live in an orphanage?’" When his son Jack, fi ve, wanted to support both Manchester United and Chelsea, Holmes took a more original stand. "`Son,’ I told him, `look at this way. You know Star Wars’ Darth Vader and the Dark Side? That is Chelsea. If you want to be a Jedi Knight and have the force with you then you have to support Manchester United.’"
That obsession, a quasi-religious devotion, extends to getting to his two season ticket seats for midweek matches in Manchester, even though he has to be at the Sky News studio at the smallest of wee hours after 90 minutes’ sleep. "Am I entertained by them? Am I proud to be a Red? Will I support them to the bitter end? Yes, yes, yes." With the new Premiership season just underway, what is he looking out for?
"Players with world class stamped all over them entertaining us on a dark, rainy Monday night, a competitive championship. It’s about the way you play, not the silverware. As long as we beat Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool this season, I’ll be happy."
