ONE OF Ireland’s best-known and colourful businessmen, Robert Donaldson (75), a icon in the amusement industry, has published an autobiography that covers some aspects of a multi-faceted life.
Readers will know the author from his amusement arcades in Townhall Street and at the Sligo Road, Enniskillen where it combines with the Zodiac bingo and Enniskillen Snooker Hall, but few will know that from the age of five years until his mid-teens he was permanently hospitalised due to contracting polio.
Thankfully, through sheer determination, he avoided life in a wheelchair and graduated from crutches to selection as a member of the Irish 1991 World Sea Angling Championships team.
Besides being a skilled angler, he found the energy to serve a 25-year term as chairman of the NI Amusement Caterers Traded Association, was a member of the British equivalent and was vice-president of Euromat, its European counterpart, with meetings four times a year in cities across Europe, including Brussels, its headquarters.
But, that’s only touching the surface of a remarkably friendly man who will be forever remembered by children for his stable of miniature horses.
The memoir is a warm, humorous, frank account of how Robert has lived life to the fullest Against All Odds. When he was five years old polio changed Robert’s life forever.
As a successful gaming businessman, he brought many snooker ‘greats’, including Alex Higgins, Dennis Taylor and Stephen Hendry, to County Fermanagh.
As chairman of NIACTA, he spearheaded the development of the gaming industry within Northern Ireland.
In the 70s, he threw his hat into the political ring and he was the first DUP councillor to sit on Fermanagh District Council.
But, his compassionate side always ensured.
He never forgot the care he received as a child and served for many years as a volunteer in both the Red Cross and the National Hospital Service Reserve.
Copies of the book, ‘Against All Odds: A Memoir”, by Robert Donaldson, Davog Press, ISBN: 978-1-907530-97-5, Price: £11.99, a paperback that runs to 268 pages in paperback, can be obtained at his two Enniskillen outlets or by telephoning 028 6632 3960 or writing to: Raceview, Factory Road, Enniskillen.