‘I’ll miss everything and everyone’ — Eugene Diamond prepares to close Diamonds News after 47 years

Ballymena newsagent Eugene Diamond on Sunday as he serves his last day from his shop on Broughshane. Eugene retires after 47 years at the heart of local community.

Sunday 30 August 2026

Every morning, for 47 years, while much of Ballymena was still sleeping, Eugene Diamond was already beginning his day.

At 5am, the lights would go on inside his small shop on Broughshane Street. Before long came the factory workers heading for early shifts, followed by familiar faces Eugene came to know so well that, for many, he hardly needed to ask what they wanted.

There were newspapers and cigarettes, milk and bread, sweets and ice cream. But there were also stories, jokes, worries, friendships and conversations about life.

Children came in with grandparents. Those children grew up. Some returned decades later. Customers became friends.

And, inevitably over the course of almost half a century, some stopped coming altogether.

Eugene noticed their absence too.

On Sunday 30 August, the door of Diamonds News will close for the final time as Eugene, who will turn 69 in December, retires following serious health problems.

It will bring to an end the story of one of Ballymena’s enduring traditional newsagents and a remarkable working life spent almost entirely on the same patch of Broughshane Street.

But Eugene’s story isn’t simply about how long he managed to keep a small independent shop going.

It is about the thousands of lives that crossed his.

“I personally will miss everything and everyone I’ve been friends with for all these years,” Eugene told Love Ballymena.

A 21-year-old takes a chance

The wee shop in the early 1980’s

Eugene was just 21, approaching his 22nd birthday, when he took a chance in 1979 on a shop that had already been closed for several weeks.

He rented the premises from Tommy McMaster and stepped into a world very different from the one outside Diamonds today.

“The day I opened the shop was in a different world, where I met people who would become customers and lifelong friends,” Eugene recalled.

“It was a world without mini-supermarkets, so my shop sold everything from assorted tinned food, bread and milk to confectionery, cigarettes and assorted ice cream and lollies.”

What followed was not merely a job but a routine that would define most of Eugene’s adult life.

For 47 years, his working day began at 5am.

Only when he returned following his illness last Christmas did he ease that back to 6am.

The first faces through the door each morning were often workers heading to Ballymena’s factories, some beginning their shifts at six, others at seven.

Long before smartphones put breaking news into everyone’s pocket, the arrival of the day’s newspapers was itself something people waited for.

“People in the early days would have been awaiting the arrival of the Belfast Telegraph, as it published early afternoon,” Eugene said.

“The Ireland’s Saturday Night was similar, as people wanted to see the local results. People would have awaited the arrival of the Ballymena Observer in the 80s.”

There was an anticipation about newspapers then which can be difficult to imagine today.

Eugene had a front-row seat.

The days when everyone wanted a newspaper

Years gone past inside Diamonds

Over four-and-a-half decades, some extraordinary headlines landed on the counter at Diamonds.

Eugene remembers the Gulf War, the peace process and the momentous events surrounding the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, Northern Ireland competing at the World Cup, Barry McGuigan’s boxing triumphs and the deaths of George Best and motorcycle racing legend Joey Dunlop.

Then there was the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997.

“Diana’s death was massive,” he recalled.

On the biggest news days, additional copies would be sent out to meet demand.

For a traditional newsagent, these were occasions when the newspaper was not simply another product on the shelf. People wanted to hold the story in their hands.

That world has largely disappeared.

But newspapers were only ever one part of Diamonds.

‘A place to put the world right’

A 1980 Christmas on Broughshane Street

Over the years, Eugene’s little shop became something that cannot easily be measured on a balance sheet.

“My shop was a meeting place for many people — a place to put the world right,” he said.

The cast changed over the decades.

There were “the poets, the storytellers, the brickies, the business owners” and countless others who wandered through the door.

Eugene still remembers them.

“Thinking about all the years, I remember lots of different people who have come and went,” he said.

“One great 80s character was Tom Pedlow, the street cleaner, a likeable soul, or Jim McCarroll, the insurance broker, who always had a story. Really, all great people.”

He remembers McFetridge’s and the characters associated with it — Archie, Jimmy Loughridge and Ronnie Kyle — as well as others including William Hoey and Brendan Larkin.

Names and faces from a Ballymena many readers will remember.

Most customers, Eugene says affectionately, were “creatures of habit”.

“I knew exactly what some people wanted. It never changed,” he said.

But something much deeper was happening across that counter.

People talked.

They talked about what was happening in Ballymena and what was happening at home. They talked about their families, their problems and sometimes things they weren’t telling many other people.

“Everyday life is talked about, and personal stuff you never repeat,” Eugene said.

And for some, the conversation across Eugene’s counter might be the only one they had that day.

“Many a time you had that conversation, as some people didn’t see anyone else until the next day in the shop.”

Sometimes Eugene’s role went far beyond being a shopkeeper.

On one occasion, someone came into Diamonds in a deeply distressed state.

“I actually locked up on one occasion and took a suicidal person home to his family,” Eugene recalled.

For all the laughs and everyday chatter, Eugene’s memories reveal the quiet role a familiar local shopkeeper could sometimes play in the lives of the people who came through the door.

Generations across the counter

Always at the heart of community in Ballymena - a giveaway of Euro 2004 ‘boot bags’

14 years letter Eugene shared on social media a thank you letter from one of the then children, Leah Foster, from Ballykeel Primary School, who had received one of the ‘boot bags’

Time could be measured at Diamonds not only in years, but in families.

Children came through the door with their grandparents. Years later, some of those children returned as adults.

“I’ve had people who have come in who were customers 30 or 40 years ago,” Eugene said. “I thank them and we caught up.”

Young people worked weekends in the shop or delivered newspapers. Many have long since moved on with their lives, but some have contacted Eugene as retirement approaches to tell him they still remember those days fondly.

There were toys too — the sort of little crazes that can immediately transport people back to childhood.

“I hope people have fond memories of Diamonds and the kids’ toys we sold — from Coca-Cola spinners to emoji cushions.”

Eugene with two of his brothers back in the 80s

And there was plenty of laughter.

Eugene remembers his late brother Pat leaving his car running outside the shop one day.

Pat’s son happened to be passing and spotted an opportunity to move it.

The initial reaction when Pat discovered his car had apparently vanished became one of those family stories that stayed with Eugene.

“Pat’s reaction was funny when he understood it was just a prank,” he remembered.

Today, that memory carries another emotion.

Pat is no longer here.

The people who stopped coming through the door

Forty-seven years is a long time to stand in the same place and watch people’s lives unfold.

It means seeing children become adults, generations of families pass through and strangers become friends.

It also means experiencing loss.

“Lots of customers have passed away. I’ve been to many funerals,” Eugene said.

Among those Eugene particularly misses are Jim McCarroll, William Hoey and Brendan Larkin.

But some of the greatest losses happened within his own family.

“I have had my parents and two brothers die in my time behind the counter, as well as my wife’s parents,” he said.

“I really miss those people.”

Those bereavements happened across the same decades in which Eugene continued opening Diamonds each morning, serving the people who depended on the little shop and carrying on with the routine that had shaped his life.

Watching Ballymena change outside the window

Headlines just weren’t sold at Diamonds - they were also made.

While lives changed inside Diamonds, Ballymena itself was changing outside.

Eugene has occupied the same vantage point on Broughshane Street for more than four decades.

Today, he says, cars seem almost constant.

It wasn’t always so.

“Standing outside nowadays, cars are non-stop. In my early days most people walked,” Eugene said.

He remembers a town centre packed with locally owned businesses, before shopping centres, large supermarkets and retail development around the outskirts fundamentally changed how and where people spent their money.

Christmas in particular was different.

“Christmas was a great time for local businesses in the 80s — windows dressed and full of local people shopping,” he recalled.

“I don’t think we appreciated the attraction of Camerons back then. It was Northern Ireland’s number one department store.”

Diamonds kept going.

Eugene weathered recessions and changing shopping habits while watching familiar independent names disappear.

He believes Ballymena lost something in the process.

“The town has lost its identity as a town of something different,” he said.

“The independent clothes shops are nearly all gone.”

Eugene believes planners should resist further retail development on the outskirts of Ballymena and would like to see more short-term free parking, suggesting around two hours in council-owned car parks.

But he rejects the idea that Ballymena’s best days are simply behind it.

“Ballymena was the most prosperous town in Northern Ireland and still is compared to many,” he said.

“We just need to stop beating ourselves up.”

And after 47 years dealing with the public, he remains equally convinced about the character of the people who live here.

“Ballymena people in general are friendly, hospitable people and, if given a chance, will always be there to help.”

From printed headlines to a worldwide audience

The transformation that perhaps affected Diamonds most directly was happening to the product at the heart of the business.

Newspapers.

For generations, buying a daily paper was habitual.

Then the internet arrived.

News moved online, smartphones followed and the morning ritual of walking into a newsagent for the day’s headlines began to fade.

“Sadly, the onslaught of online news has turned the newspaper trade on its head,” Eugene said.

“I honestly think the best form of news is the printed copy, but young people are never going to buy newspapers again.”

For Eugene, there is a direct connection between that generational change and the wider struggle facing traditional town centres.

“It’s like going to the shops — if parents don’t take their children shopping, the high street doesn’t stand a chance.”

Diamonds survived because Eugene changed with the times.

The National Lottery, drinks, confectionery and other products helped compensate for declining newspaper sales and allowed the business to continue thriving.

And then something rather unexpected happened.

The traditional Ballymena newsagent embraced social media.

Around 12 or 13 years ago, Eugene began photographing the newspaper front pages each morning and posting them online.

There was no grand digital strategy behind it.

“I thought it might make people buy one from my shop,” he explained.

Instead, “it just snowballed”.

What began as a way of encouraging newspaper sales became a daily ritual of its own.

People began following Eugene not only for the morning front pages, but for his familiar updates on the weather from Broughshane Street.

“I’ve been quite lucky with social media, as most of the people who follow me do so to see the papers and weather from Broughshane Street,” he said.

“I’ve had people around the world ask, ‘Where is Broughshane Street?’”

There is something fitting about it.

A man whose livelihood was built on printed news found a new audience through the very technology transforming the newspaper industry.

The medium changed, but Eugene was still showing people the morning’s news.

Then everything changed

For decades, Eugene had simply kept going.

The early mornings and seven-day weeks became part of life.

Then his health problems came without warning.

“My health problems came out of the blue and I had to step back from everyday working,” he said.

For someone whose life had revolved around the shop since the age of 21, suddenly being unable to live that routine was a profound change.

Eugene subsequently underwent major surgery.

“I’m lucky enough to have had major surgery that has helped greatly and I’m out and about again,” he said.

“But running a shop seven days a week is just not possible.”

During that difficult period, something else became apparent.

The affection Eugene had accumulated quietly over decades was coming back to him.

“I’ve had a wonderful response from people in the shop and on social media,” he said.

“They have prayed for me in churches and chapels all over the country.”

After 47 years of conversations across a counter, people cared deeply about the man standing behind it.

‘Happy to be able to walk out’

There is sadness in Eugene’s decision to retire.

But there is gratitude too.

Last year, when his health deteriorated, leaving the shop wasn’t something Eugene had chosen.

Now it is.

“I made the decision to retire happy to be able to walk out, unlike last year when I found myself unable to do that,” he said.

“It’s tough, but that’s life.”

That distinction matters.

Eugene is not ending 47 years at Diamonds in the way he might once have imagined.

But he gets to end them himself.

On Sunday 30 August, he will close the shop.

“I will close the shop on Sunday 30th August and Diamonds Newsagents will be a memory for many,” he said.

“I do hope a good memory.”

After a lifetime governed by early starts, retirement will take some getting used to.

“I honestly think I’ll be up and about early most mornings,” Eugene said, “but if I want I can lie in.”

He hopes to take a few holidays and start swimming.

And, for the first time since he was barely out of his teens, tomorrow morning won’t necessarily mean opening a shop.

‘Thank you for making a local shop special’

A special piece of Ballymena – Diamond’s Newsagents on Broughshane Street

In recent weeks, former customers have returned.

People who came into Diamonds 30 or 40 years ago have walked through the door again and caught up with Eugene.

Former weekend staff and newspaper workers have been in touch too.

They remember.

And so does Eugene.

When he looks back across 47 years, it is striking how rarely he talks about the things that usually define the success or failure of a business.

Instead, he remembers Tom Pedlow and Jim McCarroll, William Hoey and Brendan Larkin.

He remembers his parents and his brothers; the factory workers arriving in the early morning; the grandparents and grandchildren; the regulars whose orders never changed; the youngsters who worked weekends; and the customers who became lifelong friends.

He remembers those who are no longer here.

And when Eugene himself became ill, many of those relationships built across a shop counter came full circle, as people sent messages, called in and prayed for his recovery.

“I thank them all for making a local shop special in a day and age where we shouldn’t survive,” Eugene said.

“I’m happy I took the chance and made a success of a small shop on Broughshane Street — and made many friends.”

On Sunday, after 47 years, Eugene Diamond will turn the key on Diamonds News for the final time.

The little shop on Broughshane Street will become part of Ballymena’s past, but the friendships, characters and countless everyday conversations that filled it belong to generations of people across the town.

Eugene said he hopes Diamonds will be remembered fondly.

After 47 years, perhaps the greatest measure of what he created is that so many of those memories belong not just to him, but to Ballymena.