This blog is by Josie Darkins, an intern studying MA Public History at Queen’s University Belfast.
The iconic gullwing DMC-12 made famous by the ‘Back to the Future’ films was a unique and futuristic car – made in Dunmurry, near Lisburn. However, the DeLorean Motor Company only produced around 9,000 of these cars over only a few years before the company failed. Poor business management, difficult market … or something else?
The DeLorean Motor Company was founded in Detroit by John DeLorean in 1975. He soon started eyeing opportunities for a bigger manufacturing facility and regions around the world with high rates of unemployment began reaching out to attract DeLorean’s attention. Puerto Rico and Limerick were looking like good candidates until Roy Mason, the then Secretary of State, made an offer of massive government subsidies if DeLorean created jobs in Northern Ireland. A site at Dunmurry was chosen and, despite the challenges of operating a large business in Northern Ireland in the ’70s, ground was broken in 1978.
But soon there was a problem. A lone hawthorn tree had survived the initial bulldozing of the site, and the local contractors were reluctant to cut it down. They had decided that it was a ‘fairy thorn’; something had protected it, and they each had no intention of being the one to disturb it. The American managers were not concerned about the bad luck which might result from felling the hawthorn and resorted to spreading rumours that there was money hidden under the tree to encourage the contractors to finish clearing the site. Eventually, the tree disappeared overnight, but no one owned up to chopping it down. There were rumours that the head manager had done it himself in the dead of night, but he never admitted it.
The site was built slower than anticipated and design challenges relating to the new cars delayed production until the first DMC-12 rolled off the Dunmurry assembly line in 1980. The cars did not go into commercial production until 1981, months behind schedule.
The problems didn’t end there. The factory itself was working smoothly, employing 2,400 people at its peak and hundreds more across the province producing and delivering components, but the cars simply were not selling fast enough to break even. The government was getting fed up throwing taxpayers’ money at DeLorean to keep it afloat and jobs were cut as money got tighter and tighter. The complete closure of the Dunmurry manufacturing facility was formally announced in October 1982.
The final nail in the coffin for the DeLorean Motor Company came hours later when John DeLorean was caught in a room with a briefcase full of cocaine, having agreed to bankroll a drug trafficking operation in a desperate bid to raise funds to save his business. Can’t really blame the fairies for that one!
The DMC-12 gained fame and appeal in 1985 upon the release of ‘Back to the Future’, too little too late to save the company. Today, they are a rare and expensive novelty item with only around 300 registered on UK roads. In June 2026, Belfast hosted DeLorean Eurofest where DeLorean owners came together to share their love of the quirky car and drive on the original Dunmurry test track, near Lisburn.
If John DeLorean had a real time machine, maybe he would go back and spare the fairy thorn …