Eamonn Holmes is ‘entirely 100 per cent British and Irish’, according to DNA test

The presenter from North Belfast received the results of a DNA test live on GB News, and was taken aback by the findings.

Mike Clelland, genealogist and content manager of MyHeritage, said the results were “quite rare”.

“Most people have these little percentages of different DNA that might show you've got maybe distant Viking ancestors or Spanish, or French, or German. But what's fascinating about Eamonn, is when we dig into your genetics, you were untouched by all of them. You are entirely 100% British and Irish. These islands are your home and have been for as far back as we can see in time through DNA, century after century.”

Eammon was told that the firm had traced his great, great grandparents, Leonard and Bridget Holmes, to an address in the Belfast docks where Leonard was a boiler maker.

He was also taken aback to discover that Leonard’s brother David had a toe amputated in 1913 after he got it caught in a steamer hatch.

“I’ll tell you what, that word, that name Leonard, it’s amazing. You mentioned a couple of times that my father was called Leonard, my other brother’s called Leonard, it's amazing that it runs in the family. I didn't know it went that far back.”

He also discovered that his maternal great grandparents lived in the same part of Belfast and was shown an enhanced photograph of his great grandmother who was born in 1862.

Eamonn was also taken aback when played a video message from a long-lost cousin, Carrie, from Melbourne in Australia.

Mike told him: “You might need a few extra chairs at Christmas dinner now I think, because thanks to all those millions of other people that have taken this test at MyHeritage.com, you've now got a list of 14,000 to catch up with from the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada all over the world.”

Holmes’ co-host Isabel Webster teased: “As long as I've known Eamonn, he's always explained to me that he gets a lovely tan because his ancestors came over in the Spanish Armada and he has this exotic Mediterranean blood that runs through his veins and perhaps it gives him that Latin temperament on occasion!”