Cookstown family businesses included a bar & undertakers!
Jimmy Cricket was reminded of his childhood with a memory-evoking image taken of Cookstown, the County Tyrone town in which he was grew up.
The Northern Irish comedian was born James Mulgrew in Cookstown on 17 October 1945.
Now a popular all-round entertainer, Jimmy said he was recently sent the photograph seen here on the right.
He added: “As you can see, there’s a parade going through the town.
“But, if you look up, you can clearly see the name Mulgrew.
“My parents owned a bar and had an undertaking business at the back.
“And it didn’t finish there – my father was also a taxi driver and an auctioneer. He had four jobs!
“He was an entrepreneur and a character in Cookstown.”
Jimmy left school at 16 years of age and worked for the next two years in a betting shop.
He spent the summer of 1966 working as a Redcoat in Butlin’s holiday camp in County Meath.
That was followed by two more summers at the Butlin’s holiday camp in Essex.
By the early 1970s, he was living in Manchester and from 1972 worked at the Pontins holiday camps in Southport and Morecambe.
He became a household name though his TV series on Central Television in the mid-1980s called And There’s More.
Jimmy ended up settling in Rochdale in the North-West of England with his wife, May, herself a professional singer.
Also read: You Must Be Joking comedians meet up in Cookstown
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Jimmy Cricket enjoyed a reunion with some old pals at the Lyndene Hotel in Blackpool where he has been performing regularly over the past few years.
