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The gains of the Celtic Tiger vs the losses of the recession

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    #32
    Lando Griffin
    Registered Users Posts: 2,952 ✭✭✭Lando Griffin


    I loved the Celtic Tiger.
    What a shame it left our shores.
    Bought 6 acres around our village years ago for development as an investment but didn't build anything.
    Its still worth more than I bought it for but thought that the average price of a 3 bed semi would climb to 500,000 then it would have been time to build.
    I even bought a Nissan Nirvara to lumber stuff round in, thats gone in all too.
    Oh well, give it 5-10 more years and hopefully I can make my move.


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    #33
    super_furry
    Registered Users Posts: 27,322 ✭✭✭✭super_furry


    When you can buy single cigarattes with butter vouchers again, we'll have come full circle.


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    #34
    eth0
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,635 ✭✭✭eth0


    starbelgrade wrote: »
    If you're travelling from Dublin to another part of the country, the roads are pretty good, but the major link roads between other cities and towns are very poor - especially in the West of Ireland.

    For example, if you want to travel from Galway to Belfast via Sligo, you'll take the N17 & N16 before you hit the A4. The N17 is a one lane country road for a large part of it, most of which doesn't even have a hard shoulder and the N16 is one of the worst roads in the country which frequently gets flooded. For the most part, there are only small stretches where you can overtake safely and the trip is full of hazardous bends and varying degrees in the standards of road surfaces.

    This is a 340km drive, which with a decent road should take about 3.5 hours, but which can take 5/6 hours or more, depending on how many Yarises and tractors you get stuck behind.

    It might be only one lane but the surface is fairly decent except for a few dodgy level crossings. They could do with bypassing a few more of the small towns because they get a bit congested if you're travelling at the same time as everyone else.

    There's some worse N roads around the place that are very narrow altogether and disintegrating on both sides


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    #35
    Lando Griffin
    Registered Users Posts: 2,952 ✭✭✭Lando Griffin


    ilovesleep wrote: »
    By any chance is the N16 the road with plenty of white crosses galore erected at the side of the road? Probably to mark a death. But there's 100s of the crosses.

    Probably engineers marking for road improvements Id say.


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    #36
    Quorum
    Closed Accounts Posts: 474 ✭✭Quorum


    Tyler Panicky Bass wrote: »
    No it isn't, its a great place to be fair.

    I was in college during the boom and I am earning money now so the recession isn't really have any effect on me apart from the fact I ended up doing a PhD rather than in an actual job which wasn't really a big deal. Hopefully I will get a job in Ireland when I finish though.

    Getting a PhD is no bad thing and should stand you in good stead in the future.


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    #37
    Quorum
    Closed Accounts Posts: 474 ✭✭Quorum


    bluecode wrote: »
    It also makes my blood boil when I read commentators who tell you we lost our way during the boom. That we are rediscovering all the old values now that the money is gone. Yeah sure, we're back were we belong, poverty, recession, unemployment, emigration. The old values we all knew and loved for those of us who grew up in the eighties. Most of us never lost our way. We couldn't afford to.

    And it's always well-heeled type that come out with that tripe. People who were always well-heeled and seemed miffed by the fact that more people were well off than ever before. Now we're back in our "place" they're happy, and some of us never left it in the first place.


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    #38
    ejmaztec
    Registered Users Posts: 23,984 ✭✭✭✭ejmaztec


    ScumLord wrote: »
    Ireland gained very little out of the boom. Our roads are still a joke bar a handful of privately run tolled motorways, all our services are a joke, town planning is still non existent. When we had the chance to improve all these things we squandered our money on trivial crap and now we can't afford to make these changes.

    We're too easily distracted by short term satisfaction and trinkets to run this country properly.

    It was a wasted opportunity and it will be a feckin long time before we get another one, if ever.:(

    I think that a lot of what was achieved will decay because the funds aren't available for adequate maintenance.


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    #39
    Quorum
    Closed Accounts Posts: 474 ✭✭Quorum


    ScumLord wrote: »
    town planning is still non existent.

    If anything, town-planning disimproved during the boom, with montrosities and prefab outskirts warehouses springing up everywhere. :( And now we're left with them, hurting our eyes as they disintegrate.
    ScumLord wrote: »
    We're too easily distracted by short term satisfaction and trinkets to run this country properly.

    Definitely some truth there, for a percentage of people in this country.


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    #40
    ilovesleep
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,619 ✭✭✭ilovesleep


    bluecode wrote: »
    One of the myths of the Tiger years was that everyone was rolling in money. Sure jobs were easier to get and that meant more people had money to spend. But the reality is that the boom passed the average person by. I got a job in a respected multinational back in '05. Production line job. Pay was €360 a week and believe me they worked you hard for every red cent. That was €18720. Some people complained about the money but a good friend of mine pointed out that most people were better off than those who would probably have shop or service jobs with considerably longer hours and less pay. So much for the boom.

    In practical terms I was on less money in 2005 than in 2000. No only that I was effectively worse off thanks to spiralling prices, rents and mortgages. Yeah sure mortgages were easier to get. But there was still a minimum. I was priced out of it.

    My story is far from unique. Indeed it's probably typical.

    The BIG difference was access to credit. Everyone had it and when you're on lowish pay it's a temptation. That's why so many people are in trouble now.

    It's gone the other way now. No jobs, no access to credit.

    So don't believe the hype about the boom. We weren't all greedy speculators. Most of us were actually worse off and now we're all paying for the criminals and politicians who used the boom to gamble wildly. As usual they're getting away with it.

    It also makes my blood boil when I read commentators who tell you we lost our way during the boom. That we are rediscovering all the old values now that the money is gone. Yeah sure, we're back were we belong, poverty, recession, unemployment, emigration. The old values we all knew and loved for those of us who grew up in the eighties. Most of us never lost our way. We couldn't afford to.

    That's it. Many people lived within their means. If they wanted something perhaps for example a playstation or a wide screen tv - they worked and saved for it. Perhaps some took a loan perhaps for a car or a holiday but the decision would have been well calculated and reasonable, as in they were able to pay it back.

    We're now being lumped into a bracket with others. Others who've been paid too well and generously. Others who mortgaged themselves without taking into consideration - what if I lose my job? How will I pay?


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    #41
    starbelgrade
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,739 ✭✭✭✭starbelgrade


    ilovesleep wrote: »
    By any chance is the N16 the road with plenty of white crosses galore erected at the side of the road? Probably to mark a death. But there's 100s of the crosses.

    That's the N4 Sligo to Dublin road. There's a stretch between Castelbaldwin & Sligo that is littered with white crosses.

    They only went up recently enough and it's a very sobering reminded of how dangerous some of our national roads are.

    Funnily enough, you will never see speed vans in operation along this part of the road.


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    #42
    anncoates
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,925 ✭✭✭✭anncoates


    The most harrowing aspect of the whole cycle was the lunatic amounts of smugness deposited in the banks of hindsight that are now being released into the economy.


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    #43
    darragh o meara
    Registered Users Posts: 3,221 ✭✭✭darragh o meara


    Quorum wrote: »
    Did you need all the clothes you bought?

    I know I did and I still have a lot of the clothes I bought there 5 years ago and wear them regularly. When I was there it was cheaper to buy for example a tommy hilfiger shirt than it was to buy a Dunnes or penneys shirt


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    #44
    fishy fishy
    Registered Users Posts: 3,456 ✭✭✭fishy fishy


    one of the most bizarre things that the imaginary celtic tiger brought

    communion do's.

    fake tan
    false nails
    high heels
    marquees with attendants
    limozines

    and that was just the kid.

    talk about trashy.

    they didn't know what to do with their "pretend" money. Wonder how many of them in negative equity now. :rolleyes:


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    #45
    ScumLord
    Registered Users Posts: 28,789 ✭✭✭✭ScumLord


    eth0 wrote: »
    It might be only one lane but the surface is fairly decent except for a few dodgy level crossings.
    The road surfaces around here are brutal, somehow every time they redo them they manage to bring through all the bumps and flaws. There's some serious pot holes that I've busted wheels on that are as deep as a can of monster and 3 ft long. All they do to fix them is throw in some chippings.


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    #46
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Quorum wrote: »
    Getting a PhD is no bad thing and should stand you in good stead in the future.

    Oh I know that well, I didn't mean it was a bad thing just more that the recession had a role to play in me doing it as I probably would have ended up in a graduate job if they were more plentiful.


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    #47
    eth0
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,635 ✭✭✭eth0


    ScumLord wrote: »
    The road surfaces around here are brutal, somehow every time they redo them they manage to bring through all the bumps and flaws. There's some serious pot holes that I've busted wheels on that are as deep as a can of monster and 3 ft long. All they do to fix them is throw in some chippings.

    Where I'm from they do a perfect job of creating a grand smooth surface, leave it for a few days or a week and then they chisel out a section to reveal a manhole cover but they are never flush with the surface always have to be at least 3" difference at least so there's a good bang when you drive over one.

    Other times they just put in a few speed bumps for political correctness reasons, nearby school and old biddy with nothing to do complaining. No point in having a good surface if you're putting in speed bumps


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    #48
    Mr_Roger_Bongos
    Registered Users Posts: 1,469 ✭✭✭Mr_Roger_Bongos


    brandon_flowers wrote: »
    Sorry to be so blunt but the two things I would use to measure the differences are suicide and emigration.

    Depression among boards.ie users would drop dramatically if we banned threads like this.

    EVERY THREAD'S THE SAME! EVERYBODY KNOWS WHAT HAPPENED FFS. ELECT BETTER POLITICIANS OR RUN YOURSELF!


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    #49
    bluecode
    Closed Accounts Posts: 794 ✭✭✭bluecode


    Mr_Roger_Bongos wrote: »
    Depression among boards.ie users would drop dramatically if we banned threads like this.

    EVERY THREAD'S THE SAME! EVERYBODY KNOWS WHAT HAPPENED FFS. ELECT BETTER POLITICIANS OR RUN YOURSELF!
    There are no better politicians, this government proves it. They are same semi competent self serving gimps they always were.

    As for running myself, yeah sure become an independent and line your pockets just like Wallace or end up being irrelevant and ignored by the main parties. Join the main parties and you're a cog in their wheel. Any form of dissent is stamped on. Everybody toes the party line.

    The whole political system is corrupt to the core.

    Oh yeah, one other thing, STOP BLOODY SHOUTING!


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    #50
    Mr_Roger_Bongos
    Registered Users Posts: 1,469 ✭✭✭Mr_Roger_Bongos


    It's much more fun to complain about things on the internet.

    People will say 'don't read/post' but i honestly think this is a real downer for alot of people reading it.

    You did well in the boom - you miss what you had
    You didn't do well in the boom - you're frustrated because it wasn't your fault and you saw very little of the upside.

    Lose lose.


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