Things that have changed in Ireland over the last 30 years

WildWater

Road fatalities:

1983 - 535
2012 - 162

dubaicentral

WildWater wrote: »

Road fatalities:

1983 - 535
2012 - 162

That is a pretty amazing statistic. In just under 20 years we have reduced our road fatalities by around 70%.

That's 373 families less that have to suffer every year, although still 162 too many. Obviously we will never see a day with no road deaths but I hope some day I will see a year with less than 100.

I suppose the rsa will take credit, but I would put it down to less drink driving, more educated drivers, less boreens and more motorways.

I personally think we will hit less than a hundred when some of the older generations die out and driver behavior begins to change, which it is already. But unfortunately some (not all) young drivers bot male and female think they are gods gift to driving once they pass their test and in some cases as soon as they get their learners permit.

astonaidan

dubaicentral wrote: »

That is a pretty amazing statistic. In just under 20 years we have reduced our road fatalities by around 70%.

That's 373 families less that have to suffer every year, although still 162 too many. Obviously we will never see a day with no road deaths but I hope some day I will see a year with less than 100.

I suppose the rsa will take credit, but I would put it down to less drink driving, more educated drivers, less boreens and more motorways.

I personally think we will hit less than a hundred when some of the older generations die out and driver behavior begins to change, which it is already. But unfortunately some (not all) young drivers bot male and female think they are gods gift to driving once they pass their test and in some cases as soon as they get their learners permit.

Gay Byrne sorted that out

WildWater

dubaicentral wrote: »

That is a pretty amazing statistic. In just under 20 years we have reduced our road fatalities by around 70%.

That's 373 families less that have to suffer every year, although still 162 too many. Obviously we will never see a day with no road deaths but I hope some day I will see a year with less than 100.

I suppose the rsa will take credit, but I would put it down to less drink driving, more educated drivers, less boreens and more motorways.

I personally think we will hit less than a hundred when some of the older generations die out and driver behavior begins to change, which it is already. But unfortunately some (not all) young drivers bot male and female think they are gods gift to driving once they pass their test and in some cases as soon as they get their learners permit.

It's even more amazing when you factor in the growth in the volume of vehicles on the road. I dont have a figure for 1983 but in 2000 there were ~1.6m vehicles on the road by 2011 that was ~2.4m (CSO). At a guess I would say there were in or around a million in 1983.

dubaicentral

WildWater wrote: »

It's even more amazing when you factor in the growth in the volume of vehicles on the road. I dont have a figure for 1983 but in 2000 there were ~1.6m vehicles on the road by 2011 that was ~2.4m (CSO). At a guess I would say there were in or around a million in 1983.

So we have basically more than double the road users/cars but more than half the fatalities. I think as whole we need a pat on the back.

Back on topic as a 90's kid I remember creches in supermarkets. Well maybe just Superquinn. And also the lads that used to fill your car at petrol stations (still happens in other countries and really slows everything down).

_Kaiser_

dubaicentral wrote: »

So we have basically more than double the road users/cars but more than half the fatalities. I think as whole we need a pat on the back.

Wouldn't get too carried away - certainly has very little to do with Gay Byrne and the RSA for one thing

- Cars are safer now with stuff like ABS, multiple airbags, crumple zones etc as standard which would have been unheard of in the 80s

- More motorways and better quality roads (yes many of them are still crap but in comparison to what was we're a lot better off)

- The NCT forces drivers to get their cars looked at/serviced more often, even if it is the minimum, and has taken loads of rustbuckets off the road

- It's not acceptable to drive without a seatbelt anymore

- It's not acceptable to drive with drink on you anymore (unless your name in Healy-Rae apparently)

That's to name just a few..

red sean

I personally think we will hit less than a hundred when some of the older generations die out and driver behavior begins to change, which it is already. But unfortunately some (not all) young drivers bot male and female think they are gods gift to driving once they pass their test and in some cases as soon as they get their learners permit.

Ridiculous statement when you consider the vast majority of road deaths are in the under 30 age category.
Kaiser is on the money, cars and roads have improved dramatically in the last 30 years and that is the main reason.

dubaicentral

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

Wouldn't get too carried away - certainly has very little to do with Gay Byrne and the RSA for one thing

- Cars are safer now with stuff like ABS, multiple airbags, crumple zones etc as standard which would have been unheard of in the 80s

- More motorways and better quality roads (yes many of them are still crap but in comparison to what was we're a lot better off)

- The NCT forces drivers to get their cars looked at/serviced more often, even if it is the minimum, and has taken loads of rustbuckets off the road

- It's not acceptable to drive without a seatbelt anymore

- It's not acceptable to drive with drink on you anymore (unless your name in Healy-Rae apparently)

That's to name just a few..

Completely agree with you and I was going to list most of them reasons but wasn't bothered.

Also although the RSA and Gay haven't done much to reduce the figures the tv advertisements are in my opinion a welcome addition. Surely there are some people who have never been told how to use a motorway or even a roundabout properly that might see one of the ads and change their driving style (unlikely but maybe).

dubaicentral

red sean wrote: »

Ridiculous statement when you consider the vast majority of road deaths are in the under 30 age category.
Kaiser is on the money, cars and roads have improved dramatically in the last 30 years and that is the main reason.

If you read the rest of my post which you actually quoted you will see that I go on to blame reckless young drivers. And yes most fatal crashes involving under 30's are to blame for high figures but I am hoping that is changing. In saying that there is a generation of around 45+ that are terrible drivers (not all but I would reckon a large proportion) but for some reason don't end up in fatal crashes, probably because they are experienced and are able to get out of sticky situations.

Now the key word here is experienced, just because they are experienced does not automatically mean that they are safe drivers.

And (was always told not to start a sentence with and but anyway) just to put on the record I hate generalising an entire age bracket or group i.e 45+ but I think young female drivers are possibly some of the most dangerous species on the road. You could say all the usual crap about putting on makeup while driving but i see more young woman on the phone driving than I see anyone else.

Pumpkinseeds

*Teenagers having their own cars was almost unheard of.
*Most soft drinks bottles were made of glass
*You could get money back in the local shop for returning the bottles
*Shops would sell ciggys to kids for their parents if they'd a note
*As a child you never heard the word paedophile, it was bogeyman
*Comics were just comics, not graphic novels
*Kids didn't really have any interest in fashion
*Getting grounded meant sitting in your room with a book
*No mobiles, no internet, no tv in your bedroom
*Almost everyone had their milk delivered
*Liver was commonly eaten in Irish homes
*Families ate dinner together at the kitchen table, every day.

red sean

There was no heroin or crack cocaine or such.
Ecstasy was what you got up to in a tent with some young one at a folk festival! ( where you could smoke a bit of weed in comfort!)
No news of another bombing or killing in the North now on the news every day.

eyeball kid

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

-
- It took about 20 mins to download a single MP3 file on dial-up

You had dial up and mp3's in 1983? Jeez, I didn't have that in 2003 :pac:

QuiteInterestin

If you didn't know the answer to something, you had to check the World Book Encyclopedia's, now you can have the answer in seconds on your smart phone.

mikom

WanabeOlympian wrote: »

Take pride in your personal hygiene and grooming. It's a sure sign to people of high value/self esteem and an essential for first impressions. Hope your dental hygiene is up to scratch too, floss + brush + mouth wash X minimum twice a day.

I believe in taking care of myself, and a balanced diet and a rigorous exercise routine. In the morning, if my face is a little puffy, I'll put on an ice pack while doing my stomach crunches. I can do a thousand now.

After I remove the ice pack I use a deep pore cleanser lotion. In the shower I use a water activated gel cleanser, then a honey almond body scrub, and on the face an exfoliating gel scrub.
Then I apply an herb-mint facial masque which I leave on for 10 minutes while I prepare the rest of my routine.

I always use an after shave lotion with little or no alcohol, because alcohol dries your face out and makes you look older. Then moisturizer, then an anti-aging eye balm followed by a final moisturizing protective lotion.

zenno

Technology aside, what little things have you noticed have changed since the early 80s?

Birdseye potato waffles have changed a lot and are more cardboardy taste to them.

Ruu

Wagon Wheels have been smaller for a number of years now, the bastids!

Super-Rush

Dinner was at 1:00pm.

A man used to call round to our house with a van full of videos for rent.

Thoie

ATMs were just starting to appear, and cheques/cash were the most usual payment method for anything. Not many people had credit cards, as your credit worthiness was checked carefully before they handed them out. If you were using a credit card, it went through the clunk clunk machine to take an imprint of the card.

Getstetners were more readily available than photocopiers. Most schools had one, but only one person was able to use it. Exam papers would be reused from year to year, with the school secretary keeping the original stencils on file.

You'd put two (or more) sheets of paper, with a sheet of carbon paper between them, into the typewriter if sending an important business letter, and the carbon copies (cc) would be saved/sent internally.

Offices had reusable envelopes for internal memos that were to be sent around, and all the people who were supposed to get it were written on the envelope. Each person would read it, cross their name off the list, and send it on in the same envelope to the next person on the list.

Kids and adults would go potato picking during the summer holidays - there'd be a "spot" where farmers would turn up in the mornings, pile as many people as he needed into the back of a van. The chosen people would spend the day in the field picking potatoes into burlap sacks, and the farmer would pay them by weight of pickings at the end of each day.

Many houses had daddies in England who would send money back in an envelope every week. A flight to London cost around £400 (close to €1,500 in today's money), so most used take the ferry. Bus Eireann ran buses from around Ireland to London and Liverpool, etc, which included your ferry fare. Trips home were comparatively rare. (Just checked and they still do this - a return to London Victoria next month costs around €75, and takes 12.5 hours each way. Ryanair will get you to Stanstead on the same dates for €50 + €38 for the Stanstead Express)

Mortgage interest rates were in the region of 16-18%

The school milk scheme started around then (or maybe a bit later), in part to help provide some bit of nutrition to children who may not have had much to eat at home.

There were comparatively few foreign holidays (mostly due to the cost of airfares) - the majority of people holidayed within 30 miles of their own home, or went to visit relatives.

To get an idea of what daily life was like, take a listen to "After redundancy" - recorded in 1985 : http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/rte-radio-podcast-unemployment-redundancy-cobh.html

Everyone was wondering where Shergar was. The P&T split into An Post and Telecom Eireann.

wow sierra

Motorways - flyovers - toll booths. Back 30 years ago these were things you saw on TV shows from the US.

Irish men in shorts and cut offs - and surfing???? Only noticed that about 10 years ago - Irish people surfing- Yes I know we have the most amazing waves in the known universe - but IN MY DAY we just ignored them and got on with making a living/getting pissed/playing GAA etc

Coffee - it was enough in my day that you wanted Coffee instead of tea - never mind the f&&king mindgame test of Lattee/Skinnylattee/espresso/mochiano etc etc **** we have going on now.

Bad hair - I miss bad hair. Yeah we wanted to be cool and look like Cyndi Lauper or Madonna but we had the class to do it badly. Todays young girls seem to spend more time preparing themselves for the night out than they do enjoying it. Less is more ...

The real thing I miss about 30 years ago though is - no Internet (ok I also love it and use it hourly but .....) Back then you could go to a cool gig and be thrilled that you found it and most people missed it - now some f**ker will be filming it on their smartphone and it will be on Youtube before you can tell your mates what they've missed.

Regional accents - this isn't just a Culchie thing - 30 years ago you could tell a DUB to about 3 streets and a Culchie to a parish. Now we are so mobile, both physically and with TV, Internet, phones etc we have lost our quaint nuances that told you where we were from.

the purple tin

mikom wrote: »

I believe in taking care of myself, and a balanced diet and a rigorous exercise routine. In the morning, if my face is a little puffy, I'll put on an ice pack while doing my stomach crunches. I can do a thousand now.

After I remove the ice pack I use a deep pore cleanser lotion. In the shower I use a water activated gel cleanser, then a honey almond body scrub, and on the face an exfoliating gel scrub.
Then I apply an herb-mint facial masque which I leave on for 10 minutes while I prepare the rest of my routine.

I always use an after shave lotion with little or no alcohol, because alcohol dries your face out and makes you look older. Then moisturizer, then an anti-aging eye balm followed by a final moisturizing protective lotion.

Luis Carruthers is looking for you

Wibbs

Thoie wrote: »

ATMs were just starting to appear, and cheques/cash were the most usual payment method for anything.

i had one of the earliest ATm cards issued, like in the first 100 or so. On the ball I was.

Not many people had credit cards, as your credit worthiness was checked carefully before they handed them out.

True and you had to pay em off at the end of each month. American express was the CC. Now where are they? It's damn near all Visa these days. TBH I'm not so sure easy access to CC is such a good idea. Too easy for the profligate to get into trouble.

Getstetners were more readily available than photocopiers.

My school had one of them and a photocopier. I remember being fascinated by the latter yoke.

Kids and adults would go potato picking during the summer holidays - there'd be a "spot" where farmers would turn up in the mornings, pile as many people as he needed into the back of a van. The chosen people would spend the day in the field picking potatoes into burlap sacks, and the farmer would pay them by weight of pickings at the end of each day.

I quite honestly didn't know that went on. Jaysus I'm such a Jackeen alright. :D

There were comparatively few foreign holidays (mostly due to the cost of airfares) - the majority of people holidayed within 30 miles of their own home, or went to visit relatives.

Actually that's why I realised me and most of my mates were better off than the average as many of us were going on foreign holidays. Only the once a year, not like the flash bastids now. My first foreign trip as a kid was to Spain and Franco had just kicked the bucket. If you went even slightly off grid and avoided the package trippers(mostly from the UK I seem to recall, very few Irish) the 'real' Spain was much more in evidence with sleepy villages yet to feel the stamp of timeshare concrete. I had a very lucky childhood holiday wise. France Spain, Italy, the UK, even the US and Bahamas. We weren't that well off, the family fortune had long been pissed up a wall, but my da had lived all over the world so knew all the travel tricks and the folks did that odd thing these days they saved up.

Actually that kinda ties into something that iMHO has defo changed in the last 30 years. There is far more contact between urban and rural and between different 'classes'(for the real want of a better word) of society. Growing up I knew very few people beyond Dublin and even fewer beyond my suburban rugger bugger types. That said I didn't notice the real big differences in the accents associated with the different groups. Not nearly like today. The D4 accent had yet to emerge to any great degree and the 'well spoken' Dublin accent was in the majority of cases like any other Dublin accent but diluted down with better enunciation. The gap between the "oleaviroh!" and "oh roish" wasn't nearly so big IMHO and IME. That breakdown in social strata has been a major bonus. You're far more likely to meet and hang out with people with all sorts of different backgrounds.

Capercaille

30 years ago there was 1000's of Corncrakes in the Country. Last year's total was 125 calling males:(

Wibbs

Capercaille wrote: »

30 years ago there was 1000's of Corncrakes in the Country. Last year's total was 125 calling males:(

Yea C a real tragedy and don't get me started on seatrout.

dj jarvis

DellyBelly wrote: »

Holy Hour on a Sunday....

oh you mean pull the blinds and close the door hour - happy times :-)

Frank Lee Midere

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

Wouldn't get too carried away - certainly has very little to do with Gay Byrne and the RSA for one thing


- It's not acceptable to drive without a seatbelt anymore

- It's not acceptable to drive with drink on you anymore (unless your name in Healy-Rae apparently)

That's to name just a few..

But the latter two must be because of the RSA. People had to be educated not to do it.

red sean wrote: »

There was no heroin or crack cocaine or such.

Except there was. Thats when it started.

wow sierra wrote: »

Regional accents - this isn't just a Culchie thing - 30 years ago you could tell a DUB to about 3 streets and a Culchie to a parish. Now we are so mobile, both physically and with TV, Internet, phones etc we have lost our quaint nuances that told you where we were from.

I think the opposite. Maybe culchie accents have equalised but Dublin accents have made the north south side divide look loke a chasm.

Electric Universe wrote: »

ᶘ ᵒᴥᵒᶅ

Good point, nobody has mentioned soda streams.

pauly58

People used to smile.

Femme_Fatale

Colossal bang of "Eeee... things were better in mah day."

The very same will be said of 2013.

For sure there are things that have changed for the worse, but there are definitely things that have changed for the better too. Personally I prefer being an adult now than to have been one in 1983, when things were a lot gloomier.

Fox_In_Socks

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

Colossal bang of "Eeee... things were better in mah day."

The very same will be said of 2013.

For sure there are things that have changed for the worse, but there are definitely things that have changed for the better too. Personally I prefer being an adult now than to have been one in 1983, when things were a lot gloomier.

Yeah, but I was born in 1983. Obviously, once that happened, the gloom lifted.:pac:

Thoie

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

Colossal bang of "Eeee... things were better in mah day."

Other than the relative size of Wagonwheels, I think most people agree that the 1980s in Ireland were a pretty grim time to be an adult.

Eeden

wow sierra wrote: »

Irish men in shorts and cut offs.

You would never, ever see a male over the age of 12 in shorts!!