Tom Hartley: The Dealmaker

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There was a tremendous emphasis on the importance of education," he says. The fact chimes deeply with Hartley, who left school at 15 without qualifications to take up a job as a messenger and who for a long time felt a gap in his own education. Another grave belongs to John Creery Ferguson who was the first doctor in Ireland to access a stethoscope –"he would have been the first doctor here to hear the beating heart of a child in the womb"– and there are many others. This is what makes him so interesting: his deep knowledge and, because his business isn’t a franchise, his willingness to speak his mind. Witness his views on McLaren. He’s not shy about Ferrari, either.

They’ve started taking the piss out of customers,” he rails, “with cars like the 488 Pista, which it charges a fortune for but which isn’t really that different [from the regular 488 GTB].Now his latest work, the third in his series – which also includes a history of the City Cemetery – focusses largely on Presbyterianism through the history of another major Belfast graveyard.

I hope he won't mind my saying so but [the Rev] John Dunlop and I have now been arguing with each other for years," he says. I have often asked myself why in my youth did I not have that curiosity, the determination to find out and to understand. I don't know," he confesses.To put that in context, the city cemetery had something like 57,000 graves so Balmoral was a small cemetery by comparison. And there are graves there which I can't really find." But what impressed Hartley most from his studies was the realisation that Presbyterians opened around 80 schools and colleges across Belfast. That was probably Drumbo Church of Ireland and I don't know who it was they were burying," Hartley, who represented the Falls area on Belfast City Council for many years, says. Due out next week, Balmoral Cemetery: The History of Belfast Written in Stone is about a graveyard which was first known as Belfast Cemetery, Malone and which fell into disuse before being taken over by Belfast Corporation in the 1950s. In 2021, Hartley won the Lifetime Achievement Award at our Used Car Awards for his 50 years in business.

Hartley has been in the motor trade for 50 years and now runs his supercar dealership alongside Carl. As with his book on the City Cemetery, Hartley has uncovered some remarkable individuals this time around. "Graves always manage to upend your expectations," he says.

Thousands of investors lost their savings after the company is alleged to have used their money to lease cars to people with low credit scores. Nelson (1873- 1961) who joined the Royal Artillery regiment of the British army in 1894, is buried in Milltown Cemetery in Belfast, which Hartley researched for his last book, published five years ago. A spokeswoman for the SFO told Car Dealer today: ‘On November 9, 2023, the SFO confirmed it would no longer be proceeding with its prosecution of Mr Hartley for failure to comply with an SFO investigation. A rather more affordable Ferrari is a mint-condition 458 Spider. “These are interesting,” notes Hartley, “because they’re worth more than the 488, as people prefer the naturally aspirated engine.” The boy has turned out well. As covered in his book, Hartley, who left school at 11 himself, home-schooled both his sons and both his daughters. When I met Carl in 2002, I found the experience rather unnerving. A young version of Dad, in a sharp suit, very earnest and very controlled. I couldn’t imagine that he would grow up to be a normal person. He has – and we can bond over cars, too.