Cathal Mooney:CATHAL MOONEY, who has died aged 80, was chairman of one of Northern Ireland's leading hotel groups, which gave him the dubious distinction of owning Europe's "second-most-bombed hotel", the Wellington Park in Belfast.
His company also owned the Dunadry Inn Hotel in Templepatrick, Co Antrim, and part-owned the Armagh City Hotel.
He maintained and, against huge difficulties, not least several IRA bombings, expanded the business established by his father after the first World War. When 18, he spent three years in Switzerland recovering from tuberculosis, returning to Belfast to learn his craft.
The Wellington Park on Belfast’s Malone Road was a favoured target during the Troubles. After each attack – it was bombed seven times – Mooney, supported by his family, had the courage to start again, often virtually from scratch.
The family home on Derryvolgie Avenue off the Malone Road was also bombed once. On that occasion, in the mid-1970s, the RUC quickly evacuated the family but failed to realise that the eldest son, Charles, and the family dog, Cuchulainn, were still inside. Mooney insisted on rushing back, aided by one of the RUC officers, to rescue his son and the pet.
The Wellington Park was a popular haunt of artists, students and academics, and the general public from both sides of the community. It was often home to the media during the Troubles. Among its habitués in the 1960s were two Northern poets, a young Michael Longley and Seamus Heaney.
Mooney was a daring businessman. In 1979 he paid a record £1 million for the Belfast chest clinic beside the Wellington Park – a price that caused astonishment at the time. It was a shrewd move because it allowed for the crucial expansion of the “Welly”.
He bought the Dunadry Inn in 1986 and with a partner built the Armagh City Hotel in 2003.
He was a patron of, and had a great interest in, the arts. A sculpture by FE McWilliams called The Patriarch survived the bombings. He was saddened that a steel and glass sculpture by Eddie Delaney was destroyed in one of the blasts.
He enjoyed horse racing, was a former captain of Ardglass Golf Club in Co Down, and was a keen supporter of the Down GAA team. He supported Maynooth university, as well as the development of Bethlehem university in Israel and of shared education between Christian and Muslim students.
His funeral Mass near Dunadry was attended by his wife Margaret, children Charles, Felix, John, Arthur, Robert, Margaret, Ellen and Sara, and 32 grandchildren.
Cathal Mooney: born January 9th, 1929; died December 20th, 2009