Obituaries

Margaret Mooney obituary: Hotelier showed character during Troubles

Mooney was synonymous with Belfast’s Wellington Park Hotel

Sat May 16 2020 - 06:12

Margaret Mooney: Born May 26th, 1926. Died: April 13th, 2020

Margaret Mooney’s career in the hotel industry spanned 66 years. Along with her husband, Cathal, she was synonymous with one of the best known names in Belfast hospitality, the Wellington Park Hotel.

It was a hub for students, academics and artists on the Malone Road.

Mooney, a matriarchal figure, showed huge strength of character during the testing years of the Troubles when the Wellington Park was bombed seven times.

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The family home on Derryvolgie Avenue was also targeted by bombers.

However, Mooney’s resilience, work ethic and determination helped not only rebuild the business each time but see it expand in later years across Northern Ireland.

Right into her nineties she maintained an involvement in the Mooney Hotel Group, and was immensely proud to see it become a fourth generation family business. She was always focused on giving service to others and the local community.

Born in Ballymena in 1926, where her family owned the Fairhill public house, Margaret Keyland was among the early women graduates of Queen’s University Belfast.

Her initial career was in education, teaching geography and Latin in Assumption Grammar School, Ballynahinch, Co Down.

In 1953 she married the hotelier Cathal Mooney and joined the family business running the “Welly” Park and Botanic Inn, both favourite haunts of the likes of Seamus Heaney and Michael Longley in the 1960s.

Their partnership expanded with the acquisition of the Dunadry Hotel in Templepatrick, Co Antrim in 1986 (subsequently sold to McKeever Group in 2018), shared ownership in the new Armagh City Hotel in 2001, and the re-purchase of the Botanic Inn in 2016.

Mooney carried on in the business with Cathal until his death in 2009, and continued in an advisory role until this year.

She also served during the 1970s and 1980s as a member of the Senate of University of Ulster, as president of the Queen’s University Women’s Graduate Association and chair of the Belfast Education and Library Board.

A keen golfer, she was a former Lady Captain of Ardglass Golf Club in Co Down and later a member of the Malone Golf Club in Belfast.

She supported Maynooth University, as well as the development of Bethlehem University in Israel and of shared education between Christian and Muslim students.

Mooney was a frequent traveller to the Holy Land, became Dame of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem and awarded the Palm of Jerusalem in 2019.

She had a passion for travel, sport and a love of music. Her life was marked by tremendous service to family, community and the Catholic Church.

Margaret Mooney died on April 13th and was buried during a private funeral service in Ardglass, where Cathal was buried in 2009.

A full Requiem Mass will be held in her memory in due course.

She is survived by her children Charles, Felix, Margaret, John, Ellen, Arthur, Robert and Sara, 32 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

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