Last week we left Gatehouse man and former professional footballer Ian MacHattie in Surrey contemplating a life outside football after his promising career was cut short by injury.
He had signed for Crystal Palace, spent two seasons with Toronto Metro and played against Pele.
On his return fom Canada he played for Dover and Ramsgate then in 1975 drifted out of the sport while still in his early twenties.
Deprived of top-level football, Ian, who grew up in Creetown and Palnure, found another team to play for – the fire brigade in Surrey.
The ethos at the station, Ian tells me in his High Street home, was essentially the same as on the pitch with each team member supporting the others.
“It was like a brotherhood and for me it was magical,” he smiles.
“Before that I had been working for a stockbroker in the City for six months.
“Then I saw the advert for a fireman and just rang them up.
“At the interview they asked what I did.
“I said I worked in a stockbroker’s the guy replied ‘are you sure you are applying for the right job?’
“But when I said I played professional football that was that.
“I did my training and basics and spent 15 years in the fire service.
“To me it was not like a job – it was having fun with your mates. I absolutely loved it.”
However, judging by Ian’s expression, there must have been times when he and his comrades had to call on every ounce of their professionalism to get them through.
“I was based on the M25 in Surrey and we had to deal with loads of road accidents.”
“When adults were involved it wasn’t so bad,” he says quietly.
“You would think ‘well, they have had their life’. But anything involving children – that would really get to me.
“There was one time where a group of French kids on an exchange trip were larking about at the train station.
“We had to go down because a wee girl had been pushed under a train and lost her arm.
“I got underneath to comfort her yet for some reason I don’t remember a thing about it.
“The guys told me later I was talking French to the lassie.
“And that was strange because I had not spoken a word of French since second year at the Douglas Ewart. Tell me – how does that happen?”
I suggest the mind is capable of weird and wonderful things in times of stress and danger, including, perhaps, blanking out visual trauma.
In reply, Ian cites another incident which left its mark on him – a family occasion which showed how a moment’s carelessness can have terrible and tragic consequences.
“A guy was trying to light a barbecue with a can of petrol,” he recalls.
“When it went up in flames he threw the can away but it went right over the wee boy, who was standing next to him.
“The boy was very badly burned and died soon after.
“When children got hurt that was hard because they have never had the chance to live their life.
“But you come back from a job, put a pot of tea on, sit down, have a cuppa and a chat – and then you were alright again.
“You would just discuss it and I have seen a couple of guys and me shedding a few tears.
“Then they would put their arms around you and say it’s okay pal – it was never seen as a sign of weakness.
“That was the positive side of things – the camaraderie.
“Some of the laughs you had, especially at others’ expense,
were brilliant.”
Ian was medically discharged from the service in 1990, he explains ruefully, because of “asthma caused by non work-related stress”.
“My time in the fire brigade was one of the most enjoyable periods of my life.
“I got a pension but I still needed to look for a job.
“I sold insurance for a bit and moved to Somerset but was not making much money.
“One day I was playing golf with a pal whose company was looking for fire sales guys.
“I applied and got the job selling wood burners, gas fires, surrounds and so on.
“I would go round retailers and sell direct to them for sale to the public.
“I did that for 25 years until I retired and then came back up to Galloway three years ago.”
It turns out there was a bit more to Ian’s job than one might suspect – he was a far travelled salesman for a start.
“I used to do around 1,000 mile per week round my initial patch, which was Cornwall over to Kent – everything south of the M4,” he says.
“My last territory was the whole of Wales, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Staffordshire and all the way up to Liverpool and Manchester.
“Liverpool was great – there were some characters and because the dealers were small businesses it was not a hard sell.
“A lot of it was relationship selling – you were trusted and that was the most important thing.
“Sometimes they would ask about a new product and I would advise them to hold off a bit because there were a couple of teething problems with it. The customers really appreciated that.”
Ian chuckles at the memory of being handed the challenge of boosting sales across the Irish Sea as the company continued to grow.
The travelling Scotsman was well received in the north – at a time when wounds from The Troubles were still raw.
“I covered Northern Ireland for a bit and got on great,” he recalls. “One of my first jobs was to visit a big customer near Newcastle in County Down.
“The owner was a guy called Leo and he was having problems with a gas fire in his home.
“Until the day I flew out I had been office based and had never dealt with technical faults on gas fires before.
“The company gave me a three-hour training session on Friday afternoon – and I was flying out on Saturday morning!
“You have to remember this was a big customer – and here’s me being taken out to his great big mansion with electric gates.
“It was quite a posh area just outside Belfast. I had a tool kit and all the components I needed and in we go.
“I’m down on my hands and knees taking the old bits out and there’s the dealer sat there on the sofa with the lady of the house, and they’re both watching me.
“It was the first fire I had ever worked on – I replaced everything and then lit it up.
“You have to let it burn for a couple of minutes and it looked absolutely lovely.
“He was delighted, she was delighted but I was just relieved.
“We came out and Leo said: ‘Well, that went well’.
“‘Aye, but you didn’t see what I was doing on my hands and knees, did you Leo?’
“‘No, what would that be? I was prayin’! Funnily enough, so was I!’
“When we pulled out of his place I’m thinking why could it not just have been a humble wee house instead of them sitting there with their bone China?
“But I went on the have a fantastic relationship with Leo. He was a great guy and so down to earth.”
Ian smiles as he recalls legendary Irish hospitality, which often seemed a test of endurance more than anything else.
“I did two years in Northern Ireland and would go over for two weeks at a time then return to the office for two weeks.
“Every time I came back I was absolutely wrecked. The Irish folk were so hospitable and would take me out for meals.
“I had a wife and babies and would arrive home looking like death – the folk were just so friendly.
“It was still the time of The Troubles and one day I could not get a guy in Cookstown, County Tyrone, on the phone.
“So I thought I would just drive down and introduce myself.
“I didn’t know it was a nationalist area and had not been bothered to check it out.
“So I arrives at this shop in Cookstown and met this lovely receptionist called Bridie.
“I said ‘I’m the new rep – we used to do a lot of business with you and would like to have a chat to see why sales had dropped out.
“Things went great and I came out with a stonking order.
“The boss was seeing me off the premises and took me aside and said ‘next time you come to see me don’t come in a car with UK plates’.
“Get a hired car instead – it’s for your own good.
“When I came back I was the company’s golden boy for resurrecting the account!”
Ireland, it seems, provided many happy memories for Ian who can recall only one occasion which threatened trouble – and even that was quickly dealt with by his new-found pals.
“I was staying at a place called Randalstown and didn’t know the pub was where all the Catholic boys drank. They were all Lough Neagh fishermen.
“The pub had rooms above it which were immaculate but the bar had not been worked on for years.
“The seats were all bus seats and bare benches and the place would be rocking until 2am.
“One night I was enjoying a pint and a guy came in and said ‘you’re the Protestant bastard who lives here then!’
“‘I know about you’.
“With that one of the boys came up, grabbed him by the neck, threw him out and told him never to come back.
“‘How the hell did he know I was a Protestant?’ I asked – and the whole place fell about.
“‘Think about it,’ my pal says, ‘your first name is Ian and you’re from the west coast of Scotland.’
“But I loved it over there and I could not wait to go back every time.
“Perhaps because I was Scottish – maybe it was this Celtic thing. I could not have wanted to be with nicer people.”
Now happily settled in Gatehouse, Ian and wife Julie have three grown up children, Iain, Amie and Callum.
The couple had not yet tied the knot when second child Amie arrived but, Ian tells me with a smile, that was soon to change.
“We were getting Amie christened,” he recalls. “The minister was checking his diary and asked why we had never married.
“We’ve both been married before and never got round to it,” I said. “‘Shall I fix a date then – March 23?’
“‘That would be great.
“‘Would that be for the christening or the wedding?’
“‘Wedding I suppose.’
“We came out and Julie looked at me. ‘Was that a proposal?’ she asked.
“‘Aye, I suppose it was!’ says I.
“He was a fantastic vicar – he arrived at the church on his bike with his bicycle clips on!”
Some 29 years later, in August 2020, the couple set up home in Gatehouse – and love the place.
“I always had a hankering to come back to Scotland,” Ian tells me. “After a wee while we decided to get a dog and went down to Glencaple rescue centre.
“They asked how we felt about having an older boy. Then we saw Rio – he’s 12 – and straight away that was it.
“I was sitting with him between my knees and I said ‘we’ll just take him now’.
“But they told us there was a 24-hour cooling off period so the prospective owners were sure.
“We were – and he came home with is the next day.”
“It’s great here,” Ian adds.
“You have the woods, the hills and people have time to talk to you.
“And there’s enough characters around to give you a laugh.”
