Obituary: Mr. Robert Adair

Robert passed away peacefully at hospital on May 2. He was 88.

Born in 1923 in the townland of Carragartha, Castleblayney, County Monaghan, he was the eldest of three brothers and grew up on the family farm.

He attended National School and then Dundalk Grammar as a boarder, excelling in practical rather than academic studies.

On leaving school in 1941 he quickly got a three year apprenticeship at the Great Northern Railway works in Dundalk and was placed in the Pattern Workshop where precision patterns of parts for steam locomotives were crafted in wood and then passed to the moulding shop where they were re-produced in brass or steel.

In the evenings, he took a course in engineering at the local Technical College and this stood him in good stead for the profession he was about to embark on.

His son Stuart recalls: “My father always had an interest in clocks and watches and I remember him telling me how he used to take apart clocks at the kitchen table in the farm house and the great satisfaction he got when the last part was reassembled and the clock jumped into life”.

Upon leaving the Railway Works, Robert accepted an apprenticeship with Duffners Jewellers and Watchmakers in Dundalk which he followed with a stint studying horology in a large London-based watch house.

He decided to leave the city and return home, setting up his own business in Castleblayney where he quickly built up a reputation as a first rate watchmaker.

With marriage imminent to a local girl, Myrtle Hillis, the pair set their sights further afield with a view to getting married, setting up business and putting down roots in a larger town.

With his bride-to-be nursing in the Children’s Hospital, Belfast, the decision was made to move North and set up shop in either Ballymena or Enniskillen.

They chose the former and in 1957 the couple arrived in a new town where they knew no-one and had no contacts. They set up shop in rented premises at 12 Mill Street on the same thoroughfare where the renowned family business is based today.

Despite competition from at least a dozen other well established local jewellers/watchmakers, ‘Adair’s’ soon gained an enviable reputation for top quality work and top quality jewellery due to Robert’s skill in the workshop and his wife’s business acumen.

As his reputation spread the work poured in from far and near.

The workshop was so busy at times that two or three evenings were set aside each week for night work which would sometimes go on to midnight.

At that stage the business employed two other watchmakers, one of whom, Paddy Cushenan, still works for the company some 54 years later!

Robert himself was still going to work in the afternoons up until this time last year. - Maybe the job would take a little longer but he would always persevere until it was completed to his satisfaction.

Outside of the business, Robert taught in Sunday School and was involved with the Faith Mission. He was a member of the Masonic Order and also of Ballymena Rotary Club and Ballymena Probus Club and was a past president of both.

Robert was also a life-long fanatical fisherman fishing in local rivers and lakes all around Ireland and farther afield. In later years, he enjoyed nothing more than heading out to the River Maine of a summer evening and having a yarn with the other anglers, considering a fish at the end of the night just an added bonus.

The Adair family have been greatly touched by the hundreds of cards and messages of sympathy that have been received since his passing.

In his tribute at his father’s funeral, Stuart said: “We as a family have always known that our father was a true gentleman but if proof be needed it has been borne out by the countless messages of sympathy, text messages, cards and personal callers that have stated this sentiment...He will be greatly missed by us all”.

Robert, who was interred on May 5 in Cullybackey New Cemetery following his funeral service in Patrick’s Parish Church Ballymena, is survived by his wife, Myrtle; children John, Jayne, Carol, Stuart and Judith; and, grandchildren, Amy, Aaron, Jacob, Sam and Robert.