Super-fixer, 81, who repairs everything from statues to record players has ‘no intention of hanging up my screwdrivers’

An 81-year-old “super-fixer” from Northern Ireland, who has repaired everything from clocks to statues, has no plans to put down his screwdriver anytime soon and hopes to inspire future generations to whom “fixing things does not come easy”.

For Brendan Mulhall, from Downpatrick, fixing things is more than a passion, it’s a part of who he is.

A true pillar of the community, Brendan is rarely short of work and said he receives calls every day about broken objects. Whether it’s a record player or a children’s JCB toy, he’s the man people turn to.

“Some people are good at art, some people are good at football, it just happens to be that I can fix, repair and make things,” Brendan told PA Real Life.

“It’s just one of those things that I feel at home doing, and I feel it’s just something that is part of me.”

Growing up, he said he eagerly watched his father repair things and the skill came naturally to him. His earliest memories of fixing date back to when he was just 10 years old working on his friends’ bikes before quickly progressing to cars.

“My friends used to bring their bicycles to get the punctures, gears and steering fixed. Then after that I used to make carts to help people transport things around the village,” recollected Brendan.

“When my dad was younger he worked in the motor industry, so I learnt how to bleed the brakes in a car, how to change the clutch, how to put a radiator in and I was doing all that from a very early age.”

After leaving school at 15, Brendan had a varied career that included working as an electrician in a pigsty, fixing televisions and working as a chief electrical officer on a ship in the Suez Canal – but it always centred around repairing things.

After retiring Brendan was keen to continue to utilise his skills so started volunteering with a National Lottery-funded project, Repair Cafe Northern Ireland. He now helps people restore sentimental items and save money across six locations in Northern Ireland.

“About seven years ago, I was at a bit of a loose end, and I always wanted to get back into repairing and fixing things,” said Brendan.

“I thought maybe I could help people who might not be able to afford to get a repair done, or prevent something heading towards the landfill, so I got in touch with the repair cafe in Belfast.

“I really like to fix cherished items, things that really mean something to people.”

One of his most memorable fixes to date was a handmade cigarette dispenser that was made in a prisoner of war camp.

“The handmade cigarette dispenser had a circle with little pictures on it, and this lady brought it to me last year and said it was her grandfather’s. Everything inside was handmade as he would have not have had access to anything of any significance in the prisoner of war camp,” said Brendan.

“When you lifted the lid off it played a little tune, and the cigarettes rose up out of it, and when I put all of that back together again she was absolutely delighted.

“When I repair something I get a real buzz especially when seeing the delight on the client’s face as sometimes the item will have been broken for many years and having it repaired is often a dream come true.”

During repairs Brendan is completely focused.

“When I repair something, I feel euphoria to have succeeded in doing something,” said Brendan. “I feel totally zoned out, like I’m not on this planet.”

His three sons have also picked up his skills.

“It wasn’t actually a question of teaching them, they used to just get involved whenever I’d be doing things. It was just part of their growing up,” said Brendan.

He is afraid that young people will lose these crucial skills.

“When I was at school, we did technology and we learnt how to use all the hand tools and I don’t know whether that happens anymore. In this present day and climate, fixing things does not come easy to younger people,” said Brendan.

“I think they have been brought up in an environment when it’s broken, they can just go get another one, because the new one will have more gizmos on it. It’ll do more, it’ll last longer, and their friends have got a new one, so they’re not really interested in fixing it.”

One of his biggest motivations for fixing and volunteering at the repair cafe is to reduce things going to landfill.

A survey of 2,752 UK respondents conducted on Censuswide, commissioned by the National Lottery Community Fund, showed nearly one in three adults in the UK (32%) have thrown away brand new clothes in the last year and found lack of mending skills was one of the reasons.

The research also found that an average 60% of adults in the UK have thrown away household items in the last year including toasters, washing machines and hairdryers, that may have been able to be fixed.

Repair Cafe Northern Ireland is using funding from the National Lottery Community Fund to expand their network of 12 repair cafes that are already making a big difference. So far, at least 3,500 items have been mended at these repair cafes and 7.5 tonnes have been saved from going to waste.

Despite being well into retirement and over 80, Brendan has no intention of slowing down.

“I am retired but I am not really retired, I have to be busy all the time,” said Brendan. “I’m 81 and I have just done my 52nd park run, I’m a chairperson of the local U3A and between that and the repair cafe, I never seem to stop.

“My wife says, ‘look, I would love to go on that cruise, it’s only three weeks’, and I thought, there’s no way that I am going on a cruise for three weeks unless they invite me down into the engine room to repair something,” he joked.

“That’s my life. I just think about resolving issues, resolving problems, coming to conclusions and making things better. Every day there are people talking to me about how they repair things, how they’re going to fix things, and I’m really glad to help them out.

“I will be doing this as long as I possibly can. I have no intention of hanging up my screwdrivers anytime soon, and I’ll keep my spanners well-polished. I just enjoy it. It is my life; it is what I do.”