‘It’s not just about performance, it’s about how carry yourself’

Regarded as one of the most successful business figures in the country, John Harkin’s Alchemy Techology Services provides many well-paid local jobs and was acquired by Dutch firm NTT Data towards the end of 2025.

Alchemy is a specialist insurance technology consultancy, and in the new set up, the company founded by John Harkin will serve as a Global Centre of Excellence helping shape and deliver complex transformation programmes for insurers worldwide.

The fact that the firm is now based in Derry’s Ebrington Plaza could be regarded akin to completing a circle for the businessman who grew up just a short distance away at Top of the Hill, a fact he remains very proud of.

It was in his childhood home that John fostered his lifelong love of music and from there proceeded to singing lessons and the inevitable boyhood journey to Derry Feis.

“Singing was never a planned thing with me – it was more of an impromptu thing with my mother saying, ‘you’ve a lovely voice John, get up there and sing’. I can’t remember if it was at the Derry Feis, but I can remember that around the age of six singing a children's song from ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ and forgetting the words. So, it wasn’t a great start for a six-year-old and I probably came off in a state”, John laughed.

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He continued: “What that did, however, was trigger the idea of ‘let’s get John off to James MacCafferty’, because I do remember starting singing lessons when I was six. I started with James MacCafferty around 1968 or 1969. I carried on doing that until my voice broke when I was about 12 or 13.

“My recollection of James is going into the hallway of his house in Francis Street having walked over there on Saturday morning’s. I would get a fair bit of stick from other kids for taking singing lessons, but we got a pep talk from James telling us to stick to our guns. The lesson would be attended by anywhere between half-a-dozen and ten of us.

John Harkin pictured when he won the U10 Solo competition at Letterkenny Feis.

"We’d all stand up in a line in the front room while he sat at an upright piano and he coached us in a group, but we’d all take our turns doing our bit. He would emphasise keeping our chins down and opening our lungs and he taught us how to sing in our heads. The object was to make sure we didn’t sing with our chins up and out of our throats. He was a lovely man, but he was straightforward and didn’t mess about.

“I always found him very warm and welcoming, but we got on with it. It was full-on for the whole lesson, and you had to have learned whatever song we were doing, and he could tell if you hadn’t been rehearsing. Even then I knew he was a significant figure, and I knew that I was lucky and privileged to be going over there. My mum knew him and my sisters had sung with him, so I knew to make the most of it”.

In fact, John’s identical twin sisters’, Catriona and Annette’s musical talent led to appearances on the famed former UTV programme of the 1960s and 70s ‘Tea Time with Tommy’ that featured most of the local star names of the era.

“I remember going up to the studios in Belfast to watch the recordings. They were five years older than me and they competed in feiseanna as well and they also did Irish dancing. After ‘Teatime with Tommy’, they got a TV advert for Bangor Maid Dairy Ice Cream as well. We got free Bangor Maid Dairy Ice Cream, I remember that”, laughed John.

While in his very young days travelling from Gobnascale to Francis Street for singing lessons John’s mum gave him “a couple of bob” to pay for his vocal tuition, it quickly dawned on him that he could earn the money himself. This was an indication perhaps of the entrepreneurial acumen that would serve him very well in the years ahead.

Pictured from the left are John Harkin, Cliodhan Regan inaugural winner of the Derry Feis singing competition sponsored by John, Aisling Bonner, Secretary of Feis Dhoire Cholmcille and Darren Hargan of Les Foyer des Artistes.

“I used what I learned at singing classes, to get the money to pay for more lessons. I would sing at weddings in St Columb’s on Chapel Road. That was my booster money. I was always working. My first job was when I worked for Watson’s Chemist, next to Kelly’s shop on Spencer Road - I was the message boy.

"I remember I took my brother’s racing bike down from the wall because I needed a bike. He was ten years older than me and had already left home. I think I was probably nine or ten years old then. I was still at primary school, I know that. You were earning from a young age because my mum had no money. So, if you wanted stuff you had to work to get it.

“I also used to volunteer to go across to the convent in Pump Street and collect the holy communion for St Columb’s. You got a few bob for that too”, John said.

The chance to expand his musical capabilities also came courtesy of the Waterside chapel where he also served as an altar boy. In preparation for singing at wedding ceremonies, John and the church organist had a novel way of putting his youthful vocal strength to the test.

John added: “He was a great organist, so he’d play and I’d sing in the empty church. He would see if I could out sing the organ. He’d see what level he could push the organ to, and he’d have me stand right at the altar as far away from him as I could and I’d start singing as he’d open up more and more pipes and I’d get the thumbs up if my voice could still be heard. He thought I’d got one of the most powerful voices he’d ever heard”.

A very young John Harkin, bottom left sporting a cowboy hat with his identical twin sisters pictured behind him. John says this picture was taken at a children’s party in the former St Patrick’s Hall on Spencer Road in the 1960s.

What was learned in singing class was put to the test at the various feiseanna which operated in that era, including Derry Feis of course.

“I always remember doing well in competitions. My father Barney would have said that worst case, I’d probably get a certificate. He was always very supportive, and it was from him that I got my love of opera and the classics. Wherever we lived, whether it was Strabane Old Road or up in Derryview Terrace, Barney would always have his record player playing some opera and always talked to me about music,” said John.

The nature of Derry Feis competitions in that era saw John learn songs in Gaelic, a song that James MacCafferty would have chosen and there were also sight tests where competitors would have a very brief time to get to grips with a previously unseen piece before performing it.

“It was a lot more than just picking a song and turning up and singing it. I had a great haul of medals from the different feiseanna. I was usually placed. I got an old cutlery box with a velvet interior, and the medals were hung from hooks inside it. In the bottom of it I kept my certificates. Some of them were amazing with the Celtic script on them, like the Book of Kells.

“Singing was my form of escapism to be honest, from the Troubles. I would go to another place. I loved to sing whether it was in the church, at a wedding – I’d sing, anytime, anywhere. I knew myself that I had a fantastic voice”.

John Harkin’s name as it appeared beside the number 7 in the Feis programme in 1970.

John said that he stopped singing after being told to ‘rest’ his voice after it broke.

He said: “I don’t know where the advice came from. It certainly didn’t come from James MacCafferty. I shouldn’t have stopped because it never recovered. I should have kept the vocal chords exercised without overdoing it. When I did go back, I could tell myself that it wasn’t the same. It wasn’t there. So, I just stopped singing. I didn’t want to be mediocre”.

However, the love of music persists in John Harkin, and he will sing for the “craic” when an occasion lends itself to it. He also regularly attends operatic performances in London whenever possible. His passion for classical music also led to his involvement with Les Foyer des Artistes, the brainchild of local man Darren Hargan, which has seen a series of concerts take place at St Columb’s Hall featuring internationally renowned classical stars. One purpose of the organisation is to show the city’s musical talent what can be achieved on a global stage and to illustrate that it the possibility of a career at that level exists.

Through Les Foyer des Artistes, John became reacquainted with Feis Dhoire Cholmcille and this year he will again sponsor the £1,000 prize money for the competition where performers sing a piece by Contemporary Irish Composers from the 20th or 21st Centuries.

John has also become a patron of Derry Feis and said: “I think that the element of discipline involved and the fact that the entire family gets involved is great. It’s a social outing as well. I loved seeing my niece’s daughter sing last year at the feis and then coming along to Les Foyer des Artistes as a nine-year-old and meeting Darren Hargan was fantastic.

On the left is Cliodhan Regan pictured receiving her winner’s cup on the stage of St Columb’s Hall at last year’s Derry Feis. Pictured far right is Darren Hargan who adjudicated at the feis in 2025.

“I remember the feis being a major milestone in the year and it mobilised the whole city. And I was delighted when I moved back here a few years ago and hearing that feis was still alive and well. It builds a quality into a person and creates a level of excitement and anticipation and a fear that individuals learn to handle and that’s the same as making a presentation in a boardroom in your job. It teaches confidence.

"That’s what I built into my company Alchemy. It’s also about being a good family and community person as well and how you handle competition and disappointment, how you pick yourself up and developing as a character.

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“These days they would call James MacCafferty a life coach. It wasn’t just about singing; it was about how you carry yourself”.

Feis Dhoire Cholmcille runs this year from Tuesday 6 April to Friday 10 April at St Columb’s Hall and The Playhouse, Artillery Street. Competition details can be found at www.derryfeis.com.