0:00:08 > 0:00:10You had a laugh together.
0:00:10 > 0:00:13You worked together. You made your mistakes together.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16There was times I could have run a mile to get out of it.
0:00:16 > 0:00:20But looking back on it, I got a living out of it.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23True Belfast men and woman worked in Mackies
0:00:23 > 0:00:26and we had a lot of laughs.
0:00:26 > 0:00:28We had some sad moments too.
0:00:28 > 0:00:30There was that ethos in the place
0:00:30 > 0:00:33that you were part of something, you belonged to something,
0:00:33 > 0:00:37and most people felt committed to doing a good job in the place.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40The people who worked with the company were the company.
0:00:40 > 0:00:44I didn't regard them as working for me. They were working with me.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53NEWSREADER: Ulster's heavy industries
0:00:53 > 0:00:57have buttressed the Allied war effort since September 1939.
0:00:57 > 0:01:01In the gun room of this famous Ulster machine shop,
0:01:01 > 0:01:06more than 20 six-pounder anti-tank guns are produced every week.
0:01:06 > 0:01:10Many types of gun and ammunition are now made at this great plant...
0:01:10 > 0:01:14James Mackie and Sons was a Belfast engineering company
0:01:14 > 0:01:20with a name for building machines that were practically unbreakable.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22For the thousands of men and women who worked there,
0:01:22 > 0:01:25they simply knew the place as Mackies.
0:01:26 > 0:01:28In the First and Second World Wars,
0:01:28 > 0:01:31Mackie workers stepped up to the plate
0:01:31 > 0:01:34and turned their skills to making weapons.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38But in more peaceful times,
0:01:38 > 0:01:42Mackies was the world's leading builder of textile machinery.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45Mackie machines were shipped to places as far-flung
0:01:45 > 0:01:47as Cuba and India.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50Many of them are still working today,
0:01:50 > 0:01:52up to 70 years later.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04The man behind the Mackie empire, James Mackie Senior,
0:02:04 > 0:02:07is buried in Belfast City Cemetery.
0:02:07 > 0:02:11He came from a humble background in Dumfries in Scotland.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14In the 1840s, James travelled to Ireland
0:02:14 > 0:02:17to work as a fitter in Drogheda.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20When that job finished, he moved to Belfast
0:02:20 > 0:02:22to work in an iron foundry in Albert Street.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27Ten years later, he owned the place.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30He started off with a wheelbarrow, going around all the mills
0:02:30 > 0:02:33and collecting what they called a flyer.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36And the flyer is a bent piece of steel
0:02:36 > 0:02:39that spins the yarn onto the bobbin,
0:02:39 > 0:02:42so he would collect those in the wheelbarrow
0:02:42 > 0:02:47and bring them home with them to Albert Street and get them repaired
0:02:47 > 0:02:52and then wheel then back to the mills and deliver them again.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55So that's how he started off, with about four employees.
0:02:55 > 0:02:59James Mackie arrived in Belfast
0:02:59 > 0:03:02as the city was going through an industrial revolution
0:03:02 > 0:03:04and at its heart was the linen industry.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07He steadily built up the family business
0:03:07 > 0:03:11by supplying machinery to the big linen mills of Belfast.
0:03:11 > 0:03:16When his son, James Junior, joined the firm, he took on the job
0:03:16 > 0:03:20of expanding Mackies into new markets beyond Ireland.
0:03:21 > 0:03:23When he and his brother Tom finally took over the company,
0:03:23 > 0:03:29James Mackie Junior became affectionately known as The Boss.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33He started work at the age of 14, helping his father,
0:03:33 > 0:03:35we're talking about the 1880s.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40Anyway, he was really the man
0:03:40 > 0:03:43responsible for taking on the sales side of the business,
0:03:43 > 0:03:47not just in Northern Ireland, where he sold flax machinery,
0:03:47 > 0:03:49but also into Europe
0:03:49 > 0:03:54and that eventually grew to cover the rest of the world.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01There you are. And there's The Boss
0:04:01 > 0:04:05stroking one of your dogs, a dachshund.
0:04:05 > 0:04:06And there's your father.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09After the boss and his brother took over the company,
0:04:09 > 0:04:12they brought the next generation of Mackies in to help run the business
0:04:12 > 0:04:14at home and abroad.
0:04:14 > 0:04:19The boss's youngest son became part of the international sales team,
0:04:19 > 0:04:21and it was on a trip to Germany
0:04:21 > 0:04:24that young Lavens Mackie met the love of his life -
0:04:24 > 0:04:28Marion Dorndorf. They were married in Silesia in 1929.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31Mother went into a home because
0:04:31 > 0:04:36it was impossible to look after her with her nerves 24 hours a day here.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40One of the family at least tried to be in every day
0:04:40 > 0:04:44to see her and show her pictures
0:04:44 > 0:04:49or go through her wedding video with her and keep entertained,
0:04:49 > 0:04:52but I'm afraid she's slowly winding down now.
0:04:52 > 0:04:56Well, after 103, she's lucky to be able to wind down.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00What happened to Mitzy and Fritzy?
0:05:02 > 0:05:05- Well, did they not live in Vienna? - Yeah, and what happened to them?
0:05:07 > 0:05:11Mitzy and Fritzy were two of your bridesmaids, weren't they?
0:05:12 > 0:05:19Mother was the daughter of a large shoe manufacturer called Dorndorf.
0:05:19 > 0:05:24They already had a chain of shops in Germany
0:05:24 > 0:05:27before the First World War
0:05:27 > 0:05:28to sell their goods,
0:05:28 > 0:05:31and they had a very large factory.
0:05:31 > 0:05:36So father was out, selling them more machinery
0:05:36 > 0:05:40to make more stitching thread for shoes.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45And there was a big dance held in honour of my father
0:05:45 > 0:05:52and mother was one of the ladies, at the age of 19, invited to the dance,
0:05:52 > 0:05:55and mother always maintained she took one look at him and said,
0:05:55 > 0:05:59"Oh, that mad Irishman, no way!"
0:05:59 > 0:06:02So anyhow, a year later, they got married.
0:06:03 > 0:06:07And mother came over straight away to Northern Ireland.
0:06:07 > 0:06:09The Emerald Isle,
0:06:09 > 0:06:12isle of blue lakes and kindly hills
0:06:12 > 0:06:16whose soft green slopes roll down to the sea.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20As summer wanes and harvest approaches,
0:06:20 > 0:06:24old and young join in garnering the precious crop.
0:06:24 > 0:06:28But in these fields, there is no hum of mechanical reaper.
0:06:28 > 0:06:30Simple though it appears,
0:06:30 > 0:06:35the pulling and tying of flax is a job for practised hands alone.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39Just ten years after the new Mrs Marion Mackie came to Northern Ireland,
0:06:39 > 0:06:42Britain was at war with her native Germany.
0:06:43 > 0:06:46The linen produced by Mackie machines
0:06:46 > 0:06:49was now used to fit out aircraft.
0:06:49 > 0:06:51As the men went to the front,
0:06:51 > 0:06:56the company took on a majority female workforce to make munitions.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00The variety of shells, projectiles,
0:07:00 > 0:07:03bombs, was huge.
0:07:03 > 0:07:06I believe the figure was something like
0:07:06 > 0:07:0872 million shells or shell components
0:07:08 > 0:07:10and many of them were armour piercing.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13For textile machinery, we used tungsten carbide
0:07:13 > 0:07:16as a very hard-wearing metal
0:07:16 > 0:07:21to stop the yarns cutting through the metal as they ran over it,
0:07:21 > 0:07:25and that metal is hard to work and we had the technology to work it
0:07:25 > 0:07:28and so it was incorporated into the shell
0:07:28 > 0:07:30so when it struck the tank,
0:07:30 > 0:07:33the impact cracked the tank armour open
0:07:33 > 0:07:37and allowed the molten metal to flow through into the tank
0:07:37 > 0:07:38and kill the people inside.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41From shells, we went on to make aircraft.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44We made Short Stirling bomber fuselages
0:07:44 > 0:07:49and we made a wide variety of other armaments.
0:07:49 > 0:07:51EXPLOSIONS
0:07:51 > 0:07:54The Bofors Gun was a light anti-aircraft gun,
0:07:54 > 0:07:5740-millimetre ammunition, brought in during the Second World War.
0:07:57 > 0:07:59The relation to Mackies is,
0:07:59 > 0:08:02Mackies made the shells and the warheads for the gun.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05The gun was used in the battle of El Alamein
0:08:05 > 0:08:08when people from the local light anti-aircraft batteries
0:08:08 > 0:08:12went across and fought under a very famous Ulsterman, Bernard Montgomery,
0:08:12 > 0:08:14and helped to defeat Rommel in the desert.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18The weapon was also used during the Belfast blitz.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24Winston Churchill cabled Belfast,
0:08:24 > 0:08:26thanking the people of Belfast,
0:08:26 > 0:08:29particularly the employees and workers of Mackies
0:08:29 > 0:08:31for their contribution to that war effort.
0:08:31 > 0:08:34Churchill's letter to the people of Northern Ireland
0:08:34 > 0:08:38is one the Mackie family and workforce cherish.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41Without them, as Churchill said at the time,
0:08:41 > 0:08:44the light which now shines throughout the world
0:08:44 > 0:08:46would have been quenched.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52Welcome to this exhibition on James Mackie and Sons,
0:08:52 > 0:08:56which is, as far as West Belfast or indeed Belfast is concerned,
0:08:56 > 0:08:59this was the greatest story never told.
0:08:59 > 0:09:03We are lucky enough to have some of the Mackie family here,
0:09:03 > 0:09:06but at the end of the day, anybody who had a relation
0:09:06 > 0:09:09or came through the Mackies system itself
0:09:09 > 0:09:11is part of the extended family.
0:09:11 > 0:09:13You mightn't like it, that's the way it is.
0:09:16 > 0:09:20Sam McCoubrey's standing beside him, like. By his right shoulder.
0:09:20 > 0:09:25You know, now, I worked in Mackies. I went in as a cleaner first, '69.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28I was editor of that at that time.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32- You're wearing your pearls. - There you are, look!
0:09:32 > 0:09:37MUSIC: "Memories Are Made Of This"
0:09:50 > 0:09:54The exhibition is a reflection on the might of the Mackie factory
0:09:54 > 0:09:57throughout this area and beyond.
0:09:57 > 0:09:59This is the Spectrum Centre
0:09:59 > 0:10:01and we're at the junction of where the men from this area
0:10:01 > 0:10:04would have went down Lawnbrook Avenue onto Cupar Street
0:10:04 > 0:10:06and made their way to Albert Foundry.
0:10:06 > 0:10:08It's amazing when you look at that,
0:10:08 > 0:10:13you can see the size of the whole complex.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17It makes you realise how many different things
0:10:17 > 0:10:19Mackies were involved in making.
0:10:24 > 0:10:29The first thing that struck me was the size of the place.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31There was hammering, chiselling, drilling,
0:10:31 > 0:10:37different noise, it was a completely awe-inspiring environment
0:10:37 > 0:10:39and I was just fresh out of school
0:10:39 > 0:10:43and I felt, "Oh, my goodness, what have I let myself in for?"
0:10:45 > 0:10:49On the Monday, 16th October, 1949,
0:10:49 > 0:10:53I walked up that path for the first time
0:10:53 > 0:10:56with my new linens on, my new overalls.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59I thought I was cutting quite a dash,
0:10:59 > 0:11:01till I got into the place!
0:11:01 > 0:11:04I realised there was lots of people cutting quite a dash!
0:11:04 > 0:11:10When I started, you were allowed seven minutes in the morning
0:11:10 > 0:11:14and seven minutes in the afternoon. I don't know what would've happened
0:11:14 > 0:11:19if you had to visit the toilet after that, but there was a man,
0:11:19 > 0:11:22a clerk, known by other names,
0:11:22 > 0:11:24that looked after each toilet,
0:11:24 > 0:11:27and he took your cheque number when you went in, and timed you.
0:11:27 > 0:11:29And he wrote it in a book,
0:11:29 > 0:11:32and he slipped two wee bits of toilet paper in below the door
0:11:32 > 0:11:34and you were allowed seven minutes.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37If you stayed any more than seven minutes, he pulled the chain.
0:11:37 > 0:11:38You know?
0:11:45 > 0:11:49This is the view from Mackie's Bistro in the Farset Hostel on the Springfield Road.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52And here, laid out in front, is the Springfield Dam.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55The Springfield Dam is one of the best-known landmarks
0:11:55 > 0:11:57in West Belfast and in the Springfield.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00The far bank was covered at one time
0:12:00 > 0:12:03by the entire length and breadth of the Albert Foundry.
0:12:03 > 0:12:08This was the industrial heartland of the Springfield Road.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12In peace time, Mackies employed up to 7,000 people, mainly men.
0:12:14 > 0:12:17Its West Belfast site was really impressive -
0:12:17 > 0:12:20133 acres in total,
0:12:20 > 0:12:24with a staggering 1.3 million square feet under cover.
0:12:24 > 0:12:28This is a photograph we decided to take for the, for Radius,
0:12:28 > 0:12:30and to take the photograph,
0:12:30 > 0:12:33I was a pilot at that time,
0:12:33 > 0:12:35and I took the Auster aircraft,
0:12:35 > 0:12:38which had a high wing, and that meant you could take the door off,
0:12:38 > 0:12:42and we got the works photographer, called Jimmy Taylor,
0:12:42 > 0:12:44and he leaned out the window,
0:12:44 > 0:12:47out where the door should be,
0:12:47 > 0:12:50and because of the problems in Belfast,
0:12:50 > 0:12:52you were only allowed to fly at 500 feet,
0:12:52 > 0:12:55but I think I came down to around about 300 feet
0:12:55 > 0:12:57to get this photograph,
0:12:57 > 0:13:00so you show first of all the front,
0:13:00 > 0:13:05the buildings on the Springfield Road, and this was the office block,
0:13:05 > 0:13:09and then it moves down into the iron foundry,
0:13:09 > 0:13:11which was doing all the casting work.
0:13:11 > 0:13:16The erection shops and also the transport department was around here
0:13:16 > 0:13:19and then down to the jute mill
0:13:19 > 0:13:23and then the west factory up here, where we set the training school up.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26Over here, we come to the Albert Foundry,
0:13:26 > 0:13:30welfare and recreation ground, called Paisley Park,
0:13:30 > 0:13:33which was after Peter Paisley, not the Reverend Paisley.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37Out of our wages in Mackies,
0:13:37 > 0:13:40there was a remuneration took every week,
0:13:40 > 0:13:45and that remuneration went towards charity and also to welfare,
0:13:45 > 0:13:48which also maintained the upkeep of the complex here,
0:13:48 > 0:13:50which as well as having the bowling club,
0:13:50 > 0:13:53had also the football club and the boxing club.
0:13:53 > 0:13:58But having said that, it would have been very difficult, maybe,
0:13:58 > 0:14:02for an ordinary employee to become a member of the bowling club
0:14:02 > 0:14:04because in the early days,
0:14:04 > 0:14:08membership was really for foremen, managers
0:14:08 > 0:14:12and staff other than workers on the shop floor,
0:14:12 > 0:14:15but that changed in later years.
0:14:15 > 0:14:18You got a little brass disc with a number on it,
0:14:18 > 0:14:21and that was your number.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25When you went in in the morning, you put the brass disc into a box.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29And you used that all week. Now, on a Friday afternoon,
0:14:29 > 0:14:31you would have got two discs,
0:14:31 > 0:14:35a silver disc and your brass disc.
0:14:35 > 0:14:38You got your silver disc, and you produced it for your wages.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41I can remember exactly what my first pay was.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44In fact, I still have the little chit in the house even yet.
0:14:44 > 0:14:48It was two pounds, 16 shillings and ninepence for the week,
0:14:48 > 0:14:52and I remember coming home and the brown envelope, I gave it to my mum.
0:14:52 > 0:14:56You were allowed three late mornings in the month.
0:14:56 > 0:15:0015 minutes. If you used half an hour, that counted as two.
0:15:01 > 0:15:06And after that, if you were late, you just didn't get him.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10Now, the horn went two minutes before the starting time,
0:15:10 > 0:15:14and then there was a second horn, and that was you started,
0:15:14 > 0:15:16but when the first horn went,
0:15:16 > 0:15:19the gates were closed over and there was just a narrow gap left
0:15:19 > 0:15:21but I had seen people in Woodvale,
0:15:21 > 0:15:24when the second horn went, getting pushed back out.
0:15:24 > 0:15:26They lost a day's pay.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28So you'd never be late.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32Mackies had a bonus system, so that men could earn more money,
0:15:32 > 0:15:35but compared to places like the shipyard and Shorts,
0:15:35 > 0:15:37basic pay was low.
0:15:37 > 0:15:42To balance out the fact that the wages maybe were not the best,
0:15:42 > 0:15:45you always had the feeling that if you were working there,
0:15:45 > 0:15:47there was a job for life.
0:15:47 > 0:15:49It was a safe place to work in
0:15:49 > 0:15:53as far as the prospects of unemployment were concerned
0:15:53 > 0:15:55and there was always that feeling
0:15:55 > 0:15:58that unless you really did something outrageously bad,
0:15:58 > 0:16:01you were there for life if you wanted to be.
0:16:01 > 0:16:05Well, the company had 20 very successful years
0:16:05 > 0:16:10from the end of the war right through until the late 1960s.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14It was based primarily on jute machinery,
0:16:14 > 0:16:18although there were huge amounts of flax spinning machinery,
0:16:18 > 0:16:22synthetic fibre spinning machinery, sisal spinning machinery,
0:16:22 > 0:16:24all supplied during the same period,
0:16:24 > 0:16:29so the company employment built up to about 7,000 people
0:16:29 > 0:16:34and their peak rate of production was 100 spinning frames a month,
0:16:34 > 0:16:38and you have to bear in mind that the company started
0:16:38 > 0:16:43a jute machinery building company in Calcutta in 1954.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47It must have been one of the very first companies in Western Europe
0:16:47 > 0:16:51to put a manufacturing subsidiary for engineering products in India.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58The Mackie family sold machinery all over the world,
0:16:58 > 0:17:00not just in India.
0:17:00 > 0:17:05Their machines were bought in South America, Africa, the Middle East
0:17:05 > 0:17:09and all over Asia, in places like Burma, Cambodia and China.
0:17:09 > 0:17:13Teams of Belfast fitters and engineers travelled the world
0:17:13 > 0:17:16installing Mackie-designed machines.
0:17:16 > 0:17:21My life in Mackies was very varied.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24I started in 1945 as an apprentice,
0:17:24 > 0:17:26then I became
0:17:26 > 0:17:28an installation engineer
0:17:28 > 0:17:30and was sent to Dundee,
0:17:30 > 0:17:32and from that,
0:17:32 > 0:17:36to various countries in the continent of Europe,
0:17:36 > 0:17:39and then in 1954,
0:17:39 > 0:17:43I was sent out to Calcutta
0:17:43 > 0:17:49to become not only a member of the sales staff,
0:17:49 > 0:17:52but also initially a director
0:17:52 > 0:17:57and subsequently a joint managing director of the local company,
0:17:57 > 0:18:02called the Lagan Jute Machinery Company.
0:18:02 > 0:18:06At the same time, in Calcutta,
0:18:06 > 0:18:10there were 112 jute mill plants
0:18:10 > 0:18:14lined along the banks of the Hooghly River.
0:18:14 > 0:18:20Now, our sales staff in Calcutta had increased,
0:18:20 > 0:18:25so we put up four luxury apartments.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28I had the butler or bearer,
0:18:28 > 0:18:30I had a cook,
0:18:30 > 0:18:34I had a jemadar to do the cleaning of the floor,
0:18:34 > 0:18:38I had a dhobi to do the washing of the clothes,
0:18:38 > 0:18:41I had, of course, my chauffeur.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45There was also a durwan to guard the premises,
0:18:45 > 0:18:47he was a security man,
0:18:47 > 0:18:50and a maali to look after the garden
0:18:50 > 0:18:54and indeed, it was quite amusing to me
0:18:54 > 0:18:58because in the morning, I would leave the apartment
0:18:58 > 0:19:02and someone would follow me with a newspaper and the briefcase
0:19:02 > 0:19:07and my driver would be standing with the door open
0:19:07 > 0:19:10and salute me and say, "Good morning, sir."
0:19:11 > 0:19:13And I would say, "Good morning,"
0:19:13 > 0:19:19and I had to refrain from laughing, it was...
0:19:19 > 0:19:22Because I wasn't accustomed to that
0:19:22 > 0:19:25but I soon got very used to it.
0:19:25 > 0:19:28So we had a very privileged life.
0:19:28 > 0:19:30MUSIC, CHATTING VOICES
0:19:35 > 0:19:36Table four.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40This wouldn't happen if it wasn't for
0:19:40 > 0:19:43Stanley, who's organising the thing and brought people together.
0:19:43 > 0:19:45There's something about Mackies.
0:19:45 > 0:19:49It was the spirit of work, the work ethics,
0:19:49 > 0:19:53and that cemented people together in a very, very special way
0:19:53 > 0:19:57and I feel kind of humble to be here
0:19:57 > 0:19:59as one of the few of the Mackie family left.
0:20:02 > 0:20:04'This is the eighth annual dinner.
0:20:04 > 0:20:08'They call it the Mackie Old Boys Club.'
0:20:08 > 0:20:13There are quite a number here who were out in India,
0:20:13 > 0:20:16and in the Far East, and I was their boss.
0:20:16 > 0:20:22And now they can come together and talk about their experiences,
0:20:22 > 0:20:25and have a few drinks and enjoy a meal!
0:20:26 > 0:20:29'It's not Mackie, it's Mackie's.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32'Without them none of us would be anywhere.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35'We live for Mackie's and Mackie's, as such, taught us,
0:20:35 > 0:20:37'and looked after you, and you knew everyone from day one.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40'We went forward together.'
0:20:40 > 0:20:44There were very few people who, with any capabilities,
0:20:44 > 0:20:46who stayed where they were.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49'It was an advancement. It was a push. It's a family.'
0:20:49 > 0:20:52'My father was a fitter in the press, in tools.'
0:20:52 > 0:20:55He reared his family through Mackie's.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58I had an uncle Andy in the machine shops,
0:20:58 > 0:21:02an uncle Jim in the machine shops, an uncle Tommy in the moulding shop
0:21:02 > 0:21:05and my uncle Billy who was a foreman in the moulding shop.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08'And they all reared their families through Mackie's.'
0:21:10 > 0:21:13This is a scale model of a spreading machine.
0:21:13 > 0:21:17It gives everybody an idea of the many thousands and thousands of parts
0:21:17 > 0:21:20that went in to build a Mackie machine.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24The tolerances involved were unbelievable.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27The joke, or the story that used to go between the shipyard men
0:21:27 > 0:21:29and Mackie's men.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32Shipyard men, they worked within 1,000th of an inch.
0:21:32 > 0:21:34Mackie men, they had to be dead on.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38'I remember, in my first week,
0:21:38 > 0:21:41'my boss got on of my colleagues to show me round the place,
0:21:41 > 0:21:44'give me a tour of it,
0:21:44 > 0:21:48'and I remember him taking me through the iron foundry'
0:21:48 > 0:21:51and being absolutely terrified of this place.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55There were... The heat in it was, was awful.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59There were these large containers of white hot metal
0:21:59 > 0:22:02moving on an overhead system
0:22:02 > 0:22:06and some of the metal was spilling out over the edges, onto the ground.
0:22:06 > 0:22:08And I remember thinking to myself,
0:22:08 > 0:22:11"I'll never be in here again if I have anything to do with it."
0:22:11 > 0:22:13'All day I was standing at the door of the foundry
0:22:13 > 0:22:17'and my old foreman came past and he said to me,'
0:22:17 > 0:22:20"That's an evil place, Billy, you're working in!"
0:22:20 > 0:22:23When he looked in and saw the metal being poured.
0:22:23 > 0:22:27So, I sort of agreed with him at the time!
0:22:27 > 0:22:33'I was employed as a translator in Mackie's from 1983 to 1991.'
0:22:33 > 0:22:35I did mainly Spanish and Portuguese.
0:22:35 > 0:22:37I also helped out with French and Italian.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40Your vocabulary books where your Bible -
0:22:40 > 0:22:43if you lost your vocabulary books you were in deep trouble
0:22:43 > 0:22:46because they most definitely were not the type of vocabulary
0:22:46 > 0:22:50that we used in our studies at university.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53For example, a drawing frame.
0:22:53 > 0:22:55In my naivete I thought a drawing frame,
0:22:55 > 0:22:58if I'd just looked up the dictionary and not thought about it,
0:22:58 > 0:23:01I might pick have picked something an artist might have used
0:23:01 > 0:23:03to draw on, or to lean on,
0:23:03 > 0:23:06but I was taken down to the works to be shown what a drawing frame was
0:23:06 > 0:23:09and it actually would have filled, you know,
0:23:09 > 0:23:12something the size of an aircraft hangar!
0:23:12 > 0:23:14Mackie's was famous for a whole lot of things.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17All the textile machinery in the world that they had built.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20They were also famous for these...
0:23:20 > 0:23:22homewares.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25They done frying pans, pokers, shovels.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28As a boy I thought there was two kinds of paint in the world
0:23:28 > 0:23:31and only two kind - black and Mackie's Green.
0:23:31 > 0:23:36# You went away and left a long time ago
0:23:36 > 0:23:40# Now you're knocking on my door
0:23:40 > 0:23:43# I hear you're knocking... #
0:23:43 > 0:23:46When the Northern Ireland Troubles started in the late '60s,
0:23:46 > 0:23:48Mackie's found itself in the front line.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51A number of its workers were shot.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54It had to increase its own security measures
0:23:54 > 0:23:57and there were days when getting to and from work
0:23:57 > 0:23:59could be life-threatening.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03'I can remember vividly going into work on Mackie's
0:24:03 > 0:24:08'on what turned out to be the morning on which internment was introduced.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11'Managing to make my way into work
0:24:11 > 0:24:14'to discover that there were very few people had done so
0:24:14 > 0:24:18'and then one of the directors had managed to get in.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22'He came and said, "Look, the army want you out of the place," '
0:24:22 > 0:24:24and we went to the front of the gate
0:24:24 > 0:24:26and there were two armoured personnel carriers
0:24:26 > 0:24:29sitting on the Springfield Road, side-by-side,
0:24:29 > 0:24:32and a few of us got in between them, in the middle,
0:24:32 > 0:24:35and they took off slowly, together, up the Springfield Road
0:24:35 > 0:24:37and every side street that they passed,
0:24:37 > 0:24:41the bullets were coming and ricocheting off the outside of these, these vehicles
0:24:41 > 0:24:44and we were walking up in between them!
0:24:44 > 0:24:47'We were always looked on as a Protestant establishment
0:24:47 > 0:24:50'and the problem then was, at the beginning of the Troubles,
0:24:50 > 0:24:53'we had the gun shop and we had the automatic shop.
0:24:54 > 0:24:57'So we had a big delegation from the locals'
0:24:57 > 0:25:00coming to see what we were doing
0:25:00 > 0:25:03and we're making arms for the UVF and everyone else.
0:25:03 > 0:25:09And I had to explain to them that the gun shop was for making 25-pounder gun barrels
0:25:09 > 0:25:11and it had retained a name from the war,
0:25:11 > 0:25:13even though now it was making rollers.
0:25:13 > 0:25:15'Mackie's being on the Springfield Road
0:25:15 > 0:25:18'was really very much at the centre of an area
0:25:18 > 0:25:20'that suffered quite a lot during the Troubles.
0:25:20 > 0:25:25'There was an occasion where I was doing relief switchboard'
0:25:25 > 0:25:29and a phone call came through to say there was a bomb in the building.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32And we were always very well trained in Mackie's,
0:25:32 > 0:25:35and the switchboard girls trained me very well,
0:25:35 > 0:25:38and I actually thanked the caller for his call,
0:25:38 > 0:25:42and then said to the girl, Eleanor, who did the switchboard full-time,
0:25:42 > 0:25:44"Eleanor, I think that was, er,
0:25:44 > 0:25:47"somebody's ringing to say there's a bomb in the building."
0:25:47 > 0:25:53In 1975 my daughter was shot in the back, on the Grosvenor Road,
0:25:53 > 0:25:57on the way home from the pictures
0:25:57 > 0:25:59and they sent her to Stoke Mandeville Hospital
0:25:59 > 0:26:01in Buckinghamshire, Aylesbury.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05And, obviously, we were going to have difficulty visiting her.
0:26:05 > 0:26:07Shortly after that happened...
0:26:09 > 0:26:11..an envelope appeared on my desk...
0:26:12 > 0:26:18..and when I opened it it contained an airline ticket to London
0:26:18 > 0:26:21and 20 quid spending money.
0:26:21 > 0:26:26When I came back ANOTHER envelope appeared on my desk,
0:26:26 > 0:26:33which contained another airline ticket and 40 quid spending money.
0:26:35 > 0:26:38So, I got her home and...
0:26:40 > 0:26:45..I got to thinking, "Here...we, as a Catholic family...
0:26:46 > 0:26:50"..were supported in this trouble...
0:26:52 > 0:26:54"..by our Protestant friends from Mackie's."
0:26:54 > 0:26:55Majority would have been Protestant.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59'When we set up in the Springfield Road,
0:26:59 > 0:27:02'the Springfield Road was a Protestant area.
0:27:02 > 0:27:05'So, quite obviously, we came...'
0:27:05 > 0:27:07we were taking the labour force from nearby,
0:27:07 > 0:27:10so it was predominantly Protestant at that time
0:27:10 > 0:27:14but then they put in the Clonard monastery
0:27:14 > 0:27:16and the whole area changed, started to change,
0:27:16 > 0:27:18from Protestant to Catholic.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20At the time of the Troubles,
0:27:20 > 0:27:23they were saying about it being a Protestant company,
0:27:23 > 0:27:25we did a survey in the company
0:27:25 > 0:27:29and I found that there was 28% Catholic
0:27:29 > 0:27:31and the rest were Protestant,
0:27:31 > 0:27:37which was exactly the same ratio as the Catholics and Protestants in Belfast.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40Clearly there were sectarian prejudices among the workforce.
0:27:40 > 0:27:45There's no way we could have altered that and so that existed.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49But, in terms of company policy,
0:27:49 > 0:27:52it was certainly not policy to have,
0:27:52 > 0:27:54favour on side of the divide or other.
0:27:54 > 0:27:58By the 1970s Mackie's was in decline.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01Pay disputes, inflation
0:28:01 > 0:28:04and the arrival of synthetic fibres all took their toll.
0:28:04 > 0:28:07'In a sense we were victims of our own success.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10'We had now modernised all of the industry
0:28:10 > 0:28:12'that we were going to modernise.'
0:28:12 > 0:28:18So the decline wasn't so much caused by a collapse in demand
0:28:18 > 0:28:21for the products which are machinery made
0:28:21 > 0:28:25but the fact that the world, by then, was well stocked
0:28:25 > 0:28:29with the necessary machinery to make these products.
0:28:29 > 0:28:32Our products lasted so long that we were our own worst enemy.
0:28:32 > 0:28:37I still, today, see machines that were built 50, 60 years ago
0:28:37 > 0:28:38and they're still running.
0:28:38 > 0:28:43In 1976, the Mackie family put their shares into a trust
0:28:43 > 0:28:46and handed ownership over to the workers.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50Leslie and Gordon Mackie stayed as hands-on directors for a number of years.
0:28:50 > 0:28:52When the company went into partnership
0:28:52 > 0:28:54with the American manufacturer Loomis
0:28:54 > 0:28:57that enterprise ended in failure.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01Next, a local entrepreneur, Pat Dougan,
0:29:01 > 0:29:03took over as Chief Executive.
0:29:03 > 0:29:06By now, the Mackie family had cut its ties
0:29:06 > 0:29:09with their great-grandfather's company.
0:29:09 > 0:29:12Mackie International moved to a new site and factory
0:29:12 > 0:29:17and in 1995 it received a Queens Award for export achievement.
0:29:17 > 0:29:19The future looked bright.
0:29:19 > 0:29:23MUSIC: "Young Americans" by David Bowie
0:29:28 > 0:29:32'Good morning, Jim, the president is making history here this morning
0:29:32 > 0:29:36'as he becomes the first president ever to travel to Northern Ireland.'
0:29:36 > 0:29:38This morning the president as sitting down, Jim,
0:29:38 > 0:29:42with workers at a plant that employs both Catholics and Protestants
0:29:42 > 0:29:43to point out that it can work.
0:29:50 > 0:29:52'Ladies and gentlemen,
0:29:52 > 0:29:57'the president of the United States accompanied by Patrick Dougan.'
0:29:57 > 0:29:59APPLAUSE
0:30:01 > 0:30:04'In 1995 we had the presidential visit.'
0:30:04 > 0:30:07Bill Clinton arrived on 30 November.
0:30:07 > 0:30:10He did his presidential address in the Mackie complex
0:30:10 > 0:30:15and it gave a buzz to West Belfast, Northern Ireland and further afield.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20We had to build a covered walkway.
0:30:20 > 0:30:26That was to ensure that in the event of some incident taking place,
0:30:26 > 0:30:31that the president could be taken from the stage,
0:30:31 > 0:30:33out this covered walkway,
0:30:33 > 0:30:35without the chance of the world's press
0:30:35 > 0:30:38photographing anything that may have happened.
0:30:43 > 0:30:47This is on of those occasions where I really feel that...
0:30:47 > 0:30:50all that needs to be said has already been said.
0:30:52 > 0:30:53But the optimism was misplaced
0:30:53 > 0:30:56and, despite the injection of government cash,
0:30:56 > 0:30:59Mackie International finally closed in 1999.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03Parts of the company were sold as a going concern
0:31:03 > 0:31:07and many of its assets were sold at auction by the receivers.
0:31:07 > 0:31:09'It didn't come as any surprise
0:31:09 > 0:31:13'because things were starting to run down just at that particular time.'
0:31:13 > 0:31:18I thought the writing was on the wall...for the firm.
0:31:18 > 0:31:21That was a sad time because the best of men lost their jobs.
0:31:26 > 0:31:30When Mackie International finally went out of business
0:31:30 > 0:31:32part of it was bought by Bridge Textile,
0:31:32 > 0:31:36a Galway company with experience in China.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39Bridge started a joint venture with a Mr Fu Guoding,
0:31:39 > 0:31:41from the Chinese company Golden Eagle.
0:31:43 > 0:31:45Golden Eagle opened an office at Mallusk,
0:31:45 > 0:31:49where it is now employs only four the Mackie workforce
0:31:49 > 0:31:51to run its Belfast operation.
0:31:52 > 0:31:54A big part of their job is dealing worldwide in spare parts
0:31:54 > 0:31:58for old Mackie textile machines.
0:31:58 > 0:32:01That business went on for, until 2005,
0:32:01 > 0:32:05when Bridge Textile decided they had had enough of this business
0:32:05 > 0:32:09and that they wanted to sell the rest of their holding to Golden Eagle.
0:32:09 > 0:32:14At that time we were all out of a job so we had to discuss with Mr Fu,
0:32:14 > 0:32:18the chairman of Golden Eagle, to maintain the Belfast office
0:32:18 > 0:32:21and to continue to operate, as we did with Bridge Textile.
0:32:31 > 0:32:32Mackie machines were,
0:32:32 > 0:32:34and are still highly regarded in the textile world.
0:32:34 > 0:32:39That the machines made in China still keep the Mackie name.
0:32:39 > 0:32:43Today the Mackie Empire is alive and well in China.
0:32:43 > 0:32:46Near the city of Donghai, in the East China Sea.
0:32:48 > 0:32:52'Donghai is four hours' drive from Shanghai, is on an island,
0:32:52 > 0:32:53'it's a very safe city -
0:32:53 > 0:32:58'as a foreigner you can walk from six o'clock in the morning
0:32:58 > 0:33:01'until 12 o'clock at night and nobody will bother you
0:33:01 > 0:33:04'and that is the first thing that strikes you.'
0:33:09 > 0:33:12'My father worked in Mackie's tool room for more than 50 years'
0:33:12 > 0:33:16and is always expected of me, by the family, that I would join him.
0:33:16 > 0:33:20So I joined Mackie's as an apprentice fitter in 1961
0:33:20 > 0:33:25and went on my first assignment to Thailand and Cambodia in 1966.
0:33:25 > 0:33:28I joined the joint-venture in 2001
0:33:28 > 0:33:30and, as a result, visit China regularly.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41Golden Eagle has a large number of companies
0:33:41 > 0:33:44spread across 24 sites across six Chinese provinces.
0:33:45 > 0:33:47It employs 10,000 workers.
0:33:48 > 0:33:50Three of its factories are involved full-time
0:33:50 > 0:33:55in the manufacture of Mackie textile machinery.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58The workers work from eight in the morning until 4.30,
0:33:58 > 0:34:01five and sometimes six days a week.
0:34:02 > 0:34:06'At the moment textile the engineering division'
0:34:06 > 0:34:10is working four nights extra overtime and every other Sunday
0:34:10 > 0:34:14due to demand for the Mackie machinery.
0:34:16 > 0:34:21On the biggest site there are two Mackie machine shops
0:34:21 > 0:34:25manufacturing components for Mackie textile machinery
0:34:25 > 0:34:27and there are two erection shops.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31They have a spun silk factory, a cashmere mill,
0:34:31 > 0:34:33a very large flax mill,
0:34:33 > 0:34:37which includes a spinning room with over 22,000 spindles,
0:34:37 > 0:34:41which by anybody's standards is very large indeed.
0:34:41 > 0:34:46On the same flax mill they have a heckling room,
0:34:46 > 0:34:51which they are currently modernising by introducing new Mackie technology.
0:34:53 > 0:35:00I admire the chairman of Golden Eagle, Mr Fu Guoding...
0:35:00 > 0:35:03in having the foresight and business acumen
0:35:03 > 0:35:07to set up the joint venture in the first place, in 1999,
0:35:07 > 0:35:11and then to buy out his partners in 2005.
0:35:11 > 0:35:16He put in place a young team of Chinese graduates
0:35:16 > 0:35:22to support us in the marketing of the Mackie brand around the world.
0:35:40 > 0:35:45'We're now on the way to visit the site of the original factory'
0:35:45 > 0:35:48that was set up in 1999
0:35:48 > 0:35:51to manufacture Mackie machinery in China.
0:35:51 > 0:35:53The name of the factory was
0:35:53 > 0:35:58Zhejiang Ying Yang Mackie International Machinery Company Ltd.
0:36:00 > 0:36:03The project was so successful
0:36:03 > 0:36:07that, within a couple of years of it being set up,
0:36:07 > 0:36:11they had to move to a different site with more space available
0:36:11 > 0:36:14and that has continued to this day.
0:36:26 > 0:36:31The foundry is quite a small foundry, employing about 100 people,
0:36:31 > 0:36:34approximately six kilometres from the old factory.
0:36:40 > 0:36:44Last year it produced 1,000 tonnes of grey cast iron.
0:36:44 > 0:36:49These are castings that are used in the manufacture
0:36:49 > 0:36:51of Mackie jute machinery in particular.
0:37:04 > 0:37:09It reminds me of the days when I, as a young apprentice,
0:37:09 > 0:37:13when I walked through the foundry to shelter from the rain outside,
0:37:13 > 0:37:17when I was walking to the top of the foundry yard.
0:37:17 > 0:37:22And, invariably, the moulders would deliberately splash some molten metal
0:37:22 > 0:37:25and make me jump and run!
0:37:25 > 0:37:28Four years ago Golden Eagle Mackie opened a brand-new factory
0:37:28 > 0:37:31on the outskirts of Donghai.
0:37:31 > 0:37:36It takes at 75 acres, and 40 of those are undercover.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39On this site the company makes spinning machines,
0:37:39 > 0:37:41cards and Mackie spreaders.
0:37:41 > 0:37:45The complex machinery built here is due for export around the world.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48It was designed by people from Mackie's Belfast operation
0:37:48 > 0:37:50on the Springfield Road.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53Since the project started in 2001,
0:37:53 > 0:37:57we have exported approximately 4,000 machines,
0:37:57 > 0:38:01for a total value of over US100 million.
0:38:04 > 0:38:08I was surprised to learn recently that Golden Eagle,
0:38:08 > 0:38:12because of the strength of the brand name of Mackie,
0:38:12 > 0:38:16have now decided to utilise the name on their garments.
0:38:17 > 0:38:21So, in future, all jackets, blouses
0:38:21 > 0:38:25and shirts manufactured by Golden Eagle will carry the Mackie brand.
0:38:32 > 0:38:34When you look at the level of sales that we've achieved
0:38:34 > 0:38:36over the last ten years...
0:38:38 > 0:38:40..there is only one way of describing it,
0:38:40 > 0:38:44that this has been a very successful project.
0:38:44 > 0:38:47And at the basis of that success is the design of the Mackie machinery.
0:38:50 > 0:38:52I'm very sure that my father,
0:38:52 > 0:38:57and all generations of people that worked in Mackie's over the years,
0:38:57 > 0:38:59would be very proud that the machinery
0:38:59 > 0:39:02that they manufactured and designed in Belfast
0:39:02 > 0:39:04was still being manufactured in China.
0:39:21 > 0:39:24Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd