Entrepreneur pays tribute to his mother

Mark McKinney, Managing Director of Coleraine-based ATG Group, said mum, Margaret, who was fondly known as Maggie, helped his business ambitions and been hugely supportive.

Maggie, who for many years ran a successful Portadown antiques shop, Eden Antiques, passed away on December 20, aged 84.

Mark said: “She developed and grew the business from its humble beginnings to a very successful antique and jewellery business, initially with her partner Jim Pierson and later as a sole trader.

“I remember spending many a summer holiday in Scotland while mum was buying antiques and jewellery. Mum was a real wheeler dealer and I learned so much from her in those amazing summers, travelling around Scotland and the North of England, her original home.”

Maggie was born Margaret Titler in March 1936 in Gateshead, which then was part of County Durham. The eldest of four children, Maggie lived through World War II and survived Scarlet Fever.

She moved at the age of 12 to Northern Ireland with her family when her father, Jack, was asked to manage the Powell’s Products’ factory in Portadown. He had worked at the HQ in Gateshead until demobbed from the RAF when the war ended.

Along with her mum, Maggie, and siblings, Nora, Anne and Eddie, moved in 1948 to Windsor Avenue, a house that was built specifically for the firm’s manager..

After graduating from school, Maggie worked for Eagle Star Insurance, but with a strong entrepreneurial spirit she started visiting farms buying antiques and jewellery. Maggie then opened Eden Antiques a shop in Edenderry and became well known in Portadown’s business community.

“Mum continued running the shop for many years, which was rented from our next-door neighbour, Mrs Bright, and the business thrived. She was a true pioneer as a business woman,” remembered Mark, who is Treasurer of Enterprise Causeway and Chairman of Ashes to Gold Charity..

“She always encouraged me in my education and supported me through my school years, paying for three resists in English, which was never my strongest subject, then to university where I gained my 2:1 honours degree in Combined Sciences, and my Doctorate of Philosophy in Microbial Molecular Genetics.”

Maggie continued to support Mark after he followed in her entrepreneurial footsteps starting his first business, Alpha Environmental. She continued to help after he launched his current business, ATG Group, which is based in Coleraine and has offices across the UK and Ireland.

Mark said: “Often on long drives and while travelling the world she would guide me and be the most amazing sounding board.

“We would often speak for hours and I loved these chats. She would put me up after my travels, when I was too tired to make the last leg home to Coleraine, and made sure I had nothing but the best steak or mince dinner!

“I so loved my Mum, she was the wind beneath my wings,” Mark added.

“Mum was my star and as she went shooting across the sky in the early hours of Sunday morning the 20th December 2020, she is absent from this world and present with the Lord.”

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