Eamonn Holmes was given detention after the IRA blew up his school bus when he was 14-years-old.
The ‘This Morning’ presenter was on the way to school when he was 14-years-old when his bus was boarded by a man wearing a balaclava, who started pouring petrol over the vehicle.
He said:
“Our bus was hijacked on the Antrim road. And this man wearing a balaclava came on and said, ‘We are commandeering this bus for the Irish Republican Army.’ He started sprinkling petrol everywhere so we get off. And they throw a petrol bomb on to the bus and set it on fire. So we walk the next mile-and-a-half to school.”
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However, Eamonn’s teachers had no sympathy for the horrors that occurred that morning and instead, the journalist and broadcaster received detention for his tardiness.
Speaking to friend Kate Thornton on the podcast ‘White Wine Question Time’, he added:
“Nowadays in this caring snowflake society they would say, ‘Are you OK? We will get a counsellor to speak to you.’ And I would be suffering PTSD for the rest of my life. But what did I get? Detention! I got detention for the IRA hijacking my bus. It was my fault basically.”
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The Irish native also revealed a time where he was stopped for having the wrong documents whilst on the way to watch Manchester United play football.
He explained:
“We arrived into Liverpool docks and were arrested because my dad didn’t have any identification on him. He didn’t have a driving licence or anything. Special Branch were standing there and they pulled us aside and they kept my father. I was absolutely terrified, 10 years of age and standing there saying, ‘What’s happening? You are taking my dad.’ We are arrested. We were detainees.
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“Luckily on the same boat was our fantastic GP, Dr Paul McKeown, a man of note. I remember this row he got into saying, ‘I have taken the Hippocratic Oath and you doubt my word that this man is who he says he is. How dare you.’ He squealed in the face of these two cops so they had to release us.”