by URSULA DUDDY
A 73-year-old Derry man who left school aged 13 and has been at the helm of his family-run business for over 40 years has said the secret to his success has been hard work and the support of his loving wife and family.
Today, Alec Orr takes a walk down memory lane and shares stories of his life growing up in Kilfennan, setting up a home with his beloved wife and becoming a father to seven children.
He also shares his stories of setting up his thriving automotive business, Alec Orr Motor Factors on Marlborough Terrace.
The business has been a trusted choice for discerning garages and motorists in the city for over four decades now.
He also remembers, through the Troubles, when times were tough.
Alec, who will celebrate his 74th birthday next month, has spent almost 50 years of wedded bliss with his other half, Anne, and they have seven children; Stephen, Rhonda, Sinead, Ciara, Tracey, Jennifer and Alec.
He began by reminiscing about setting off to school with a drink of milk and a “piece” or, for the younger readers not familiar with the colloquial term - a sandwich!
“I was born and reared in Kilfennan when it was only a village,” he said.
“There were three or four scattered houses and we left Kilfennan in the morning, the whole family, in the morning and we walked to the top of the hill to school and we took our ‘piece’ with us and we got two wee bottles of milk, one for dinner time and one in the evening and we walked back in the afternoon.
“We got involved with the Waterside Boys Club with Teddy O’Doherty, leader of the club – God have mercy on him – he died very young, he was only around 29 or 30.
“We have many happy memories, we played football all over Ireland and there was boxing too – it was great for the Waterside.”
Alec enjoyed his football in his youth and played for Wellington Rovers, Bonds Villa, Clooney Rovers and Churchill United and played in the Derry and District (D&D) Sunday league.
Sport aside, Alec said he gave formal education the short shrift when he got his first taste of earning his own money picking potatoes at the tender age of 13.
“Then I left school at 13 and a half years of age, believe it or not.
“My birthday fell in December and we got the summer holidays in June and I went to gather purdies (potatoes) and I never went back to school.
“I went picking spuds and that was that!”
A driven young man, Alec said he served his time in Auto Services: “I was only 14 when I was able to stamp a card.
“You were allowed to work when you were 14. We worked a six day week; we started work at 8.00am and finished at 6.00pm in the evening and we worked on Saturday to 1.00pm for the tidy sum of 11 shillings per week!”
Alec said when the 40 hour week was introduced they were then delighted to get paid overtime for working on a Saturday.
“After I spent many happy years in Auto Services, I left and went to work in England in London and I went into long distance lorry driving for an Irish company, McWeeney, Smallman and Company.
“Mrs Smallman was from Dublin and he was Leitrim man and they were good people, he was a great man.
“I was going with Anne at that time and we came back to Derry and we got married in 1968.
“Believe it or believe it not, I was working then for Milanda Bakeries; I worked for them for some considerable time and then the Troubles started in ’68.
“Things got bad. We were living in an old flat in Melrose Terrace in the Waterside, a one-bedroom flat. There was Anne, myself and Stephen come along then.
“The Civil Rights Movement had started and there were marches in the streets then later on, I think it was maybe 1970, we got a house in Tullyally and we moved there but we didn’t stay too ling because of the situation, the lie of the land and the way things were at that time and we then moved back to live with Anne’s people.
“I went back to England to work; a lot of men went to find work in them days. I then got a one-bedroomed flat in England and paid three pound ten shillings a week for it.
“We decided then we would come home and when I came back home I decided to drive a lorry for WG Doherty; the wholesale wine and spirits people and I was around the country delivering beer.
“Then Hoist in Limavady, who spun yarn, advertised and I applied for the job and I got it. Everything I applied for, I was lucky enough and seem to have got it!
“I worked there and I worked part-time for WG Doherty. There was a loyalist strike then that happened and we had a wee bit of good fortune because the government paid us a bit of extra money as we couldn’t get to our work because of the strike and Limavady being where it was geographically situated.”
At that time, Alec, Anne and their young family were living in a house in Laburnum Terrace, near the store he still runs today.
“The house we were living in, number 16 Laburnum Terrace, was rented for three pound ten shilling a week.
“A wee man from Belfast called Eric Mays was the owner of the house and it was Bible and Simms that we paid the rent to in the Diamond.
“Anne’s sister said to us, ‘You would be better buying that house’ but I said we had only £40 in the Credit Union and we had a couple of wains at this time. It was tight.
“But here was a rocket attack in Bligh’s Lane one night and there wasn’t a slate left on the roof of our house so we went to Bible and Simms and told them we needed the house fixed but they told us Mr Mays would prefer we buy the house.
“I asked how much he was looking for it and they said there was one sold in the same row not long before for £1,700. But I said, ‘Jesus, he’s off his head – I wouldn’t give him any more than £1,000!’
“But, to cut a long story short, they came out and looked at the house and we agreed a price of £1,300 with a deposit of £150 and we got a mortgage off Derry City Council because they used to give out mortgages. We paid £12 a month, which was less in that what we were renting it for.”
It was in this very home that Alec and his wife, Anne, decided to set up business.
“As the years rolled on, we both decided we would go into business and we decided we would have a go on our own. So we applied for planning permission for the wee house we were living in and we got temporary planning permission for a year.
“We converted the two rooms in the middle of the house into the shop, there was a basement below it and the bedrooms were upstairs. So, the two rooms in the middle of the house was used for the shop.
“We opened the shop in February of 1975 and a couple years later we bought here in Marlborough Street in ’77 from the McCrossan family, who were well-known confectioners that had a sweetie shop here for years, and we never looked back.
“We actually sold the wee house in Laburnum Terrace for £6,000 two years later, that’s the way process had gone...from less than £2,000 to £6,000.”
Although Alec said he has been blessed in business, there were tough times too.
“During the Hunger Strikes we done nothing, we could have been closed,” he said,
“We were closed most of the time during the Hunger Strike in ’81. We found it difficult, it was a hard time to try and make a living in them times.
“It was all local people we were dealing with, wee small garages in the local area and we didn’t go outside it. Derry was like a bombed-out site, the streets were messed up, there marches and barricades and we were in the middle of it.
“There were so many tragedies, so many shootings, so many wakes and funerals and Bloody Sunday and Motorman. They were very bad times.”
However, Alec said he has seen some huge changes in his trade over the years.
“There’s been some drastic changes in the motor trade over the years,” he said.
“I’ve seen multiple changes and seeing them happen has been unbelievable. It’s easier to make a living now, there’s no comparison.
“In our game now, it’s all computerised; it’s so easy to run. It used to be all books and you only needed a few shelves to hold what you had in stock. The whole thing is totally advanced now from what it used to be.
“Today, you couldn’t run our shop without it being computerised. Thank God, we can’t complain. We have a lot of local garages that use is and we wouldn’t want it any bigger, I’m quite happy.”
However, Alec said he thinks that there are elements of starting out in business today that are much more challenging than when he first set up.
“There wasn’t as much red tape when I started, you were more or less left to your own devices,” he said.
“It’s all health and safety, tax men, VAT men... everybody’s after you - if you’re in business at all, there’s a flow of brown envelopes in the door!
“The small businessman is persecuted and the multinationals can do whatever they like and get away with it and there’s not a word about it.
“Big companies, some are paying no tax at all, and as a small businessman, you’re crucified. You do your best and pay what you can.”
Alec and his family then bought a site on Springtown Road where they built a house which was the family home for 30 years until they moved on 10 years ago and went to Foreglen in Claudy where they have lived for a decade.
However, as they are both enjoying their more mature years together, Alec said that he and Anne were looking to downsize.
“We are going to move back into Derry; we are both getting a pension so something a lot smaller will do us,” he laughed.
When asked about the secret to his success, Alec said his beloved wife, Anne, has been at the centre of it and for that he will be forever grateful.
“The secret of my success...a good hardworking wife, Anne reared the wains and helped me out with the shop. We opened 9am to 10pm and the whole lot, all the wains, came to the shop.
“We are heading for 50 years married and I couldn’t have done it without her!”
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