Fire rips through the Massereene Arms Hotel (1954)

The outbreak, which started at about 5.30am, was fought Antrim and Ballymena and was control under control within an hour.

Mr P Avington, a tourist guide at the hotel, gave the alarm when he was awakened by the smell smoke in his bedroom. He woke the other members of the staff, all of whom reached safety. Five waitresses, Misses Irene McCormick, Pam Doole, Mary McCarroll, Teresa Murray and Vera Lockhart, who were sleeping in upper rooms, escaped in their night clothes. The owners, Mr and Mrs J Stewart, had to make their way through smoke.

It was at first thought that a receptionist, Miss Mary Walls, of Magherafelt, was in the building, and Mr Stewart went back through the smoke to search for her, but it was discovered later, however, that she had gone to spend the evening at her home.

Mr. Stewart, along with his brother, Mr James Stewart, and people living near the hotel, removed furniture and other equipment.

The fire, reported the News Letter, was believed to have started in a small office on the first floor. From there it spread to the dining room, and up through the other two floors to the roof.

The Massereene Arms Hotel had had a long and not uneventful history, reported the News Letter.

“Part of the building dates from 1754, and fortunately this part of the hotel was not harmed. In the 18th century it was a coaching inn, and towards the end of that century became unknown to each other – the headquarters of both the loyalist and Insurgent armies. During the 1798 rebellion fighting took place in the street outside the hotel, which was the official headquarters of the loyalists. It was into the hostelry that Lord O’Neill – ‘The last O'Neill to die in arms in Ireland’ - was carried when he was shot down in the battle. The old cellars where the loyalists had kept their prisoners were in existence as recently as 1928 when the hotel was rebuilt and modernised. In 1896 the hotel became the first hotel in Northern Ireland from which organised seven day tours were operated. The present owner, Mr Stewart, had bought the Massereene Arms in 1945.”