A former pupil of Royal Belfast Academical Institution, he left school at 16 and went into the timber trade as a junior apprentice before joining his brother Roy in the family licensed trade business at 18. Together they owned many pubs mainly in East Belfast.
In 1964, he purchased his first hotel, the Adair Arms in Ballymena, and from then was the lifeblood of Northern Ireland’s hotel industry. He did not let the troubles put him off as he continued to expand his portfolio with the purchase of six railway hotels from Grand Metropolitan in 1971. The beautiful Slieve Donard Hotel is the only one remaining today.
He played a key role in restoring the hotel industry and in 1993, when many were shying away from investing, he purchased the Europa Hotel and transformed it into one of the world’s most famous hotels offering much local employment and trade to local suppliers. His dedication to the industry was recognised when he received a Knighthood in 2009 having already been awarded a CBE and an OBE. The University of Ulster awarded him an honorary Doctor of Letters in 1998.
He was Chairman and board member of a number of organisations including the Institute of Directors, the Transport Holding Company, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and Bass Ireland and a passionate member and past president of the Belfast East Rotary Club for 50 years as well as a loyal parishioner formerly of Drumbeg Church of Ireland and latterly of Downpatrick Cathedral.
He leaves behind a thriving group of six (soon to be seven) hotels in Northern Ireland – the Europa Hotel and Stormont Hotel in Belfast; the Culloden Estate & Spa; the Slieve Donard in Newcastle; Derry’s Everglades and the Ballygally Castle on the Antrim Coast Road.
The group’s most ambitious project, the brand new Grand Central Hotel on Belfast’s Bedford Street, is due to open next summer.
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