Life

Belfast man Jimmy Murdock a Markets man through and through

They don't make them like they used to: people with the gift of the gab who are good craic and tell great yarns – many of them imagined, naturally. Veteran Belfast trader and Markets resident Jimmy Murdock can tell a yarn or two, as Anne Hailes can testify after meeting him for a cuppa

83-year-old Jimmy Murdock pictured in his yard in Belfast 
83-year-old Jimmy Murdock pictured in his yard in Belfast  83-year-old Jimmy Murdock pictured in his yard in Belfast 

BELFAST man Jimmy Murdock gets bored sitting in the house reading the paper or watching television so he does something about it. Often, this involves getting up at three in the morning, climbing into his trusty big van and heading off to work. The fact that Jimmy will be 84 in April is neither here nor there him.

With Jimmy, trading runs in the family. For generations the Murdocks have been the backbone of the Belfast market scene, trading originally in the open-air May’s Market, built on reclaimed land in 1813 on the site of today's law courts, and now to be found under cover in St George's.

He’s proud that his great grandfather James McGahen founded the city's oldest established wholesale fruit merchants and, as his obituary said, was instrumental in getting Belfast corporation to erect the present St George's Market.

Although officially retired for 10 years, Jimmy can’t give up the habit of waking at – or before – the crack of dawn and preparing to collect fruit and vegetables from the wholesalers before setting off to Lisburn market on Tuesdays, Bangor on Wednesday, Ballynahinch on Thursday and St George's on a Friday.

May's Market in the 1930s. Built on reclaimed land, it opened in 1813 and by 1823 was the "principal place for sale of butter, meal, eggs, potatoes and vegetables" according to Belfast City Council
May's Market in the 1930s. Built on reclaimed land, it opened in 1813 and by 1823 was the "principal place for sale of butter, meal, eggs, potatoes and vegetables" according to Belfast City Council May's Market in the 1930s. Built on reclaimed land, it opened in 1813 and by 1823 was the "principal place for sale of butter, meal, eggs, potatoes and vegetables" according to Belfast City Council

“Both sides of the family are traders,” he tells me over a cup of tea in his cosy home in Friendly Street in – of course – Belfast's Markets area, poured by his sister Frances. “The Murdocks married into the Hawkins family, an old and revered name in market history. My grandfather James – by the way all the Murdock men have James in their names – married Frances Hawkins. All the Hawkins women have Frances in their name!”

And hard work is their middle name.

“One day my father left town at 5am to travel as usual by horse and cart to Ballynahinch market with his mother Bella and John Crawford. At the end of the day Bella took the seven o'clock bus home and the two men headed back. At Temple crossroads they stopped to have a chat with a farmer who admired the horse and made an offer. A deal's a deal so the farmer got the horse and Daddy and John pulled the cart all the way home to Belfast.”

Jimmy was born in Etta Street and went to St Coleman's school in nearby Eliza Street; when he reached 12 years of age he was excused lessons on market days to help in the family business. He was just 19 when his father died at 47 years of age, leaving a family of 10. They were difficult times: “If you don’t work, your jaws won’t work,” he recalls. For Jimmy it meant having more than one job to bring enough money into the house.

One was driving the produce lorries. He’d always been fascinated by motors and his first experience came early.

St George's Market, as it was then...
St George's Market, as it was then... St George's Market, as it was then...

“Farmers would buy big Austin 16s, cut off the back and weld on a platform to carry their goods in from the country. I loved market day when they lined up the street where I lived and as a wee boy, I’d jump in and try to start them. One day the motor did start but I crashed into a country cart and broke the lamps. I ran!”

Eventually he did buy and sell cars for a living but the pull of the market was too great. He concentrated on the fruit trade and made a success of it right through the Troubles, despite the army searches where a complete load would be pulled off the six tonne truck and left lying for Jimmy to put back.

“Business was good selling to the Magnet Stores, Stewarts Cash Stores and Smith and McClures and of course the markets in Co Antrim and Down – that was until 1987. With the peace coming in so did companies from England and suddenly we’d a supermarket on every corner. You can’t compete with these big guys who give free parking to draw the customers in. But our produce doesn’t sit on shelves in plastic bags; our stuff is fresh every day; we don’t have sell-by dates.”

Uncles and aunts, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, all involved in the market. Uncle Ambrose had a second-hand market stall selling cast-offs from the big houses – “good quality mangles or smoothing irons going for two bob” – 10 pence in today’s money.

... and St George's Market today 
... and St George's Market today  ... and St George's Market today 

“Then Ambrose was given a 'banty' cock and this gave him the idea to go into the fowl business – there were seven different market areas; one for poultry, others for fruit and vegetables, meal, eggs, potatoes and of course the cattle market.”

I told Jimmy how I remembered trying to get through through 200 smelly cattle that were on their way to be shipped out. Going to work at Ulster Television, I was often held up in the No 64 bus when some of the sprightly young ones would break away from the herd as they were steered towards the market pens. It was a common sight as they raced down Oxford Street and up Cromac Street with the farm hands running after them.

In 1965 a bullock was filmed rampaging round the courthouse, chased by a man with a bucket. Children were hiding behind dustbins and adults took refuge in a nearby bar. Only when some bright spark led out another bullock on a rope did the truculent youngster take notice, calm down and allow himself to be reunited with his mates.

As Jimmy says: “If you got caught in that, God help your headlights.”

The family always kept horses; perhaps the most famous was 'Tony Murdock', Belfast street entertainer Mickey Marley’s black-and-white piebald pony, which pulled Mickey's hobby-horse roundabout, fondly remembered by many people from the city and immortalised in the song, Mickey Marley's Roundabout.

“He was called the Happy Horseman. He owned the hobbies and we owned the pony," says Jimmy. “Mickey was a character. You know that’s what’s missing today? Characters. They had the gift of the gab – good craic, great stories. Many of the yarns were imagined.”

When you’re talking of characters, Jimmy Murdock is top of the league. And this charming gentleman has one piece of advice to pass on.

“When you're looking for customers you have to be nice to people. I learned a long time ago that it costs nothing to smile, a lesson a lot of shop staff could learn. You go to a supermarket because you have to, you go to a market because you want to. That’s the difference.”