Damien O'Sullivan

Okay, so first port of call was the General Registry Office in Dublin.

Okay, so Eamon Cook was born on the 4th of November 1936.

He was the firstborn child to his parents, Patrick and Anne.

And they actually christened him Edward Eamon Christopher Cook.

Quite a long name.

So he was one of four children.

So Eamon had one younger brother and two younger sisters.

His father worked as a carpenter.

and his mum was a housewife.

When Eamon first appears in court, he's very young.

He's a young teenager.

He's in court for stealing lead, which he would have had no problem converting into cash at any of the scrapyards around Dublin, except for the fact that he got caught.

So Cook is now 15 years old and he's trying to blow up O'Connell Monument in Glastonhaven with a pipe bomb.

He spoke to the judge in his trial saying that he learned how to make explosives with potassium, chlorate, charcoal and sulphur from other boys at his school.

But Cooke's dad actually contradicted Eamon in court saying that he was making it up and that he knew nothing at all about chemical ingredients.

And the judge put the then 15-year-old Eamon on 12 months probation.

Eamon's father said he was very pleased that his son was put on probation.

Cook actually raced cars for a while in amateur races.

In an interview he once gave for a newspaper he tells how he drove a Jaguar car to a third place finish at the Grand Prix track in Silverstone in England.

He also said he had wanted to become a mechanic but went to Kevin Street Technical School in Dublin to learn about electrical stuff including radio and television.