OBITUARY: David O'Brien, Portskerra
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When I arrived in Bettyhill permanently in August 1973, Jenny and I went to live in 2 Gordon Terrace, overlooking Farr Secondary School football pitch.
I’d never been very interested in football but, as the field was the only one then functioning on the North Coast, the three local football teams – Melvich, Bettyhill and Tongue – each had it registered as their home pitch.
That meant that there was a game virtually every Saturday, two games on many occasions and, once or twice, even three.
I began to watch and a particular Melvich player took my eye. Initially because he looked quite old with the sun glancing off his balding head, but later because of the qualities he exhibited in play – his total commitment to the game, his remarkable fitness, and the skilful and determined player he evidently was.
That footballer was, of course, David O’Brien, who was then aged 38 but with a few years of football still before him, and the approach he took to his sport was mimicked in every area of his life. Whatever he did, he did it wholeheartedly and to the best of his ability.
Visitors to Skelpick may notice a small corrugated iron shack mouldering into the bracken and birch trees on the left hand side of the road just before the turn off to the Lodge.
That’s Skelpick Side School (Skelpick Academy to those who attended it!) where primary age children from Skelpick and Lower Strathnaver received their education in the first half of the 20th century.
David was one of those privileged to attend and was so impressed that, many years later, he acquired the very blackboard on which he had been instructed in the ‘three Rs’ of Scottish Education – Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.
The board can still be found in The Bungalow at Portskerra and remains in use by grandchildren and other youngsters who visit that most welcoming home.
David was called up for National Service with the Seaforth Highlanders in March 1956, aged 20, and after basic training at Fort George, was posted to Gibraltar for an 18-month stint followed by further service overseas, with six months in Germany.
There he took up boxing and, applying the same principles as he did to football, was very successful with many regimental honours under his belt.
On demob in March 1958, David was pretty fed up with following instructions from Sgt Majors and the like but, within two days of coming home, followed an order from his mother to pick up a job she had arranged for him as a tea-boy and apprentice brickie with local firm J & GB Mackay – universally known as ‘Belzies’.
His mentor was another member of the Belzie family, Gordon, who happened to be married to David’s sister Margaret.
On completion of his apprenticeship, and with a year or two of experience at his back, David fancied going it alone but, before he had a chance to implement his plan, J & GB Mackay suddenly went bankrupt and he bought his first cement mixer at the forced sale of their equipment.
Over the last 50 plus years, O’Brien Construction has survived through good times and bad and remains a major player in the building industry across the whole of Caithness and Sutherland - with the occasional foray across to Orkney.
It has provided work for his three sons – David, John and Mark – his eldest daughter Lynda and her husband Cathel Mackay, together with anything up to 100 local employees.
David, unlike most MDs, always led from the front and was far more likely to be found laying concrete in the foundations than anywhere near a desk.
From the very start he was the linchpin of the firm – up at the crack of dawn to start his round of picking up workmen and delivering them to sites, checking on progress wherever he visited, and up there on the scaffolding with the other brickies wherever the need was greatest. By the time he had done all that, it was almost time to start again so life at home was always pretty hectic.
All those years of early morning and late night travel presented dangers of their own and, when an OBC van was found abandoned and upside down round Eriboll, the police, fearing that the driver had been thrown from the vehicle and wandered off, were about to launch a search when it transpired that David had emerged unscathed from the wreckage and hitched a lift to Tongue to attend an afternoon meeting.
Following meeting with the then Prince Charles for the opening of Seaforth House Care Home in Golspie, David and his wife Lal found themselves stuck on Strath Halladale with a puncture when the future King and his entourage turned up heading north.
The O’Briens and the Prince then chatted by the side of the road as the bodyguards changed the wheel. Luckily David hadn’t changed back into his dungarees at that point.
David was exceedingly fortunate to have in Lal such an understanding, capable and hard-working wife. Not only did she manage to sustain a wonderfully warm, calm home filled with love, children and baking, but at the same time was producing pieces by the dozen every morning for David and the boys going out to work while ensuring that their working clothes remained presentable – a feat that required two washing machines!
David O’Brien’s spirit and determination lives on in his six children, 13 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, all of whom he adored and enjoyed watching make their way in life.
His built legacy is extant in numerous communities across Caithness and Sutherland where he personally laid the foundations for buildings of every kind - some of which are now being rebuilt and refurbished in this 50th anniversary year for OBC.
They include at historic buildings requiring specialist approaches – the Castle of Mey, the Boutique Hotel in Tongue and Strathnaver Museum for example – which illustrate how far the firm has advanced over the years.
When I was in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in 2012, there was a chap in the same ward having half his lung removed – a gravedigger from Wick. He heard I was from ‘up west’ and shouted over to me, “Do you know David O’Brien?” “Everybody knows David O’Brien,” I shouted back (he was a bit deaf). “What’s your connection?”
“I boxed against him in the Army,” he said, “He was a very hard man to beat.”
I’m sure we can all agree on that.
David was born on December 2, 1935, and passed away on December 3, 2022, at the age of 87.
His funeral service at Strathy Church of Scotland on December 13 was conducted by Rev Heather Stewart.
Pall bearers at Strathy Cemetery were: Lynda Mackay and Jacqueline O’Brien, daughters; David, John and Mark O’Brien, sons; Cathel Mackay, John Robb and Dougie Wright, sons-in-law; Abby O’Brien, granddaughter; Kenneth Mackay and Ian Macintosh, nephews; and Yvonne O’Brien, niece.
A lament was played on the pipes by Jack Cowan of Strathy.
