Although not the first time he has whispered about shutting up shop, this weeks post clearly says: ‘On Sunday 30th August 2026 this window light that’s shone from early morning on Broughshane Street as last 47yrs will go out for good’.
He adds: ‘I will retire that evening and Diamonds newsagents will close for good” and ‘I’ve loved this job and wouldn’t change a thing it’s been a blast’.
“I am retiring at the end of the month, although I have been planning it from last year after taking ill,” he said.
"And to be truthful I have been lucky to be able to get this far because I had fairly major surgery, but I was able to get back into the shop in December.
"I have done my bit – set my mind that I would retire at the end of the summer,” he added.
Since 1979, Eugene Diamond has played a vital role in the life of the Co Antrim market town.
"When I started out 47 years ago it was a different world – it was a better world because a lot of people were in the shop every day,” he said.
"Then people walked because they didn’t have cars. People worked in the factories in Ballymena and in the morning everybody bought a paper – and it would have surprised you the different papers they bought.
"We sold all the papers going and I tried to keep everything that people asked me for because it was my livelihood.
"Saturday used to be a massive day for the News Letter and the Farming Life.
"I had the same customers for 40 years because I always stocked what they wanted”.
Notable in Eugene’s memory is selling papers on major news events, including the Falklands war.
"The first war that I covered – was the Falklands war in 1982. I remember people waiting outside the shop to get the paper and read the latest news. It has been a long journey.
“Another big occasion with big sales would have been the death of Diana in 1997.
"That Sunday morning was colossal and people talked about nothing else for ages.
"To be honest people have grown up through news from my shop.
"But the best newspapers I ever sold were the ones the day the ceasefire was announced.
“It changed life because before that every morning there was another story about people dying. After that it made such a difference to life here”.
Eugene said that after the ceasefire “all the big companies wanted to come to Northern Ireland”.
"Before the ceasefire there was no Tesco for example, if people remember,” he added. “It was a great time”.
Eugene thinks in terms of career satisfaction he “could not have picked a better one”,
“I believe if anyone could pick a great lifestyle, then I did,” he said.
"I worked all the hours I could because I loved the job.
"But I talked to so many people going to work in the morning who hated what they did – I could never imagine that.
“But I must have been the only man in this country who didn’t see the TV that everyone else watched – like Blind Date for example – because I was always too busy”.
He is also proud “there was never any politics in my shop”.
“There was no politics in my shop,” he said. "I was the man who sold the Celtic News and Rangers News beside each other.
"I never stopped selling any newspaper and I was always accepted by both sides of the community because I had papers for everyone”.
“In the shop I got talking to all the local businessmen and the guy off the street. They all talked to each other on the same level in my shop”.
"I have had a great time and met some great friends through the shop.
"My whole social media presence and weather reports came about through my daughter and my very, very good friend Ken Reid.
"I have also done the paper review on Downtown Radio a morning a week. It was nothing too serious, just a bit of craic and I was Mr Wednesday for a long time”.
