14 things Irish people did during the Celtic Tiger (some of which you won't believe)

IvaBigWun

From http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/ThreeTrending/blog/14-things-you-wont-believe-irish-people-did-during-the-celtic-tiger-29825905.html?hyd


1. Getting 100% mortgages.

Some people were even getting up to 110% mortgages - a bit extra to cover some nice furniture. Wasn't that nice of the banks?



2. Christmas Shopping in New York

Some Irish people used to just 'pop over' to New York for a bit of shopping - as you do!



3. Drink champagne in the hairdressers

Back in the 'good times', Irish people were not only offered tea and water in the hairdressers but also had the option of champagne.



4. Getting student loans on minimum wage

Many students working minimum wage jobs were able to get loans and overdrafts of a couple of thousand euro, with no way to pay it back in the foreseeable future.



5. Arriving to your children's First Holy Communion in a helicopter

In 2007, Celtic Helicopters recently reported a healthy business from the parents of children taking Communion at a measly cost of €1,250 an hour.

Business meetings were sometimes scheduled based on the nearest location to a heli-pad, often meaning those people still using cars were heavily inconvenienced.

At least one company saw the funny side and offered to put the 'leftover Celtic Tiger helicopters' to a good use.



6. Lavish 21sts

In 2007, a property developer booked Girl Aloud for his daughter's 21st. The group were reportedly flown by private jet to Dublin and performed on stage before mingling with guests. According to event planners, the cost of the band alone could have been anything up to €400,000.

Developer Johnny Ronan was also reported to have gifted his daughter a 'Super Sweet 21st', with a €500,000 price tag. Guests at the party in Enniskerry downed gallons of Montrachet wine at €150 a bottle.

Let's not forget that giving cars as 18th and 21st presents also became the done thing in the Celtic Tiger.



7. Skiing holidays

Anyone who was 'anyone' went skiing at least once a year, if not twice.



8. Gran Canaria 'Leaving Cert' holidays

Leaving Cert students would often celebrate the end of their Leaving Cert by jetting off as a group to Gran Canaria or even Ibiza. These excursions would often be wild, and young Irish people developed quite a bad name overseas for a while.



9. Giving shares as presents

The daughter of one wealthy business family had to make do with shares for her 30th birthday. Unimaginative present but we're sure she wasn't too upset as she was given €11 million in company shares.



10. Visiting Santa in Lapland

Children used to be brought by their parents to meet the main man himself in person. In Lapland. Those were the days.




11. Vera Wang Wedding dresses

Vera Wang dresses in Brown Thomas retailed at more than the average recession wedding budget - a simple Wang could be bought for a cool €25,000.



12. Luxury gyms

Looking back, did Irish people really need gyms with chandeliers?




13. Max the Credit cards

During the Celtic Tiger, it was no problem to 'put it on the credit card' and worry about it later- sure, you could always get a loan to pay it off if you had to.

Some would argue this attitude may have somewhat contributed to where we are now.



14. Watched '30 Things to do with your SSIA'/Listened to Eddie Hobbs

The notion of a 'Special Savings Incentive Account' seems like a distant memory now. Even more distant is the image of Eddie Hobbs on the television telling us the best way to spend our plunder. It's so long ago now, we can't remember how tongue-in-cheek it was, but the number one things to spend your SSIA on was getting elected to politics.

"Take a punt on politics. Popularity with the public could win you some perks - and potentially give you a 3,500pc return on your investment," we were told.


How many did you do and what did they leave out?

b318isp

I did none of those things, and I don't know anyone who did either. I did cripple myself with a massive mortgage though.

buyer95

No.8 is still very much a done thing. Masses of leaving cert students descend on Santa Ponsa still after the leaving cert.

diomed

Getting the garden "landscaped".
Wedding in a castle in Italy.
Re-mortgaging the re-mortgaged, re-mortgaged mortgage.

131spanner

14 things Irish people did? I don't remember doing any of that

Ruu

Plenty still go to NY for presents.

SEPT 23 1989

i did none of those things and i am still fcuked:D

I'm in a fancy gym and going shopping in new york this month.
Hmm
Never had any interest in skiing though, know some who went/go every year

griffdaddy

Going on Leaving Cert holidays is hardly a Celtic Tiger thing. A package holiday costs about €350 and then you spend the holiday drinking extremely cheap booze while trying not to shart or fall off your quad/moped.

statss

what we should have done was burn down the offices of the Irish Independent.

SpaceTime

Trips up NYC are cheap enough if you watch for bargains. I wouldn't consider that all that crazy. Likewise with Lapland. There are packages and they're not really any more lavish than any other package holidays.

Communion by helicopter is crazy though.

Student loans are meant to be on the never never while you're studying. You pay back after. That's basically the whole point of them.

The most problematic aspect of the Celtic tiger was property investing and speculation. For most people consumer spending wasn't what drove them into debt. It was the huge mortgages on overpriced properties and multiple investment properties that ended up in negative equity.

We borrowed money and handed it to big developers / speculators. A generation lost all of its money and is leveraged to hell and back. That's all trickled up to a small number of speculators at the top of the pirimid scheme that was the property bubble.

Muise...

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

i did none of those things and i am still fcuked:D

you're fcuked because some people did all the things.

Agent Coulson

I didn't do any of those things!!

Yet for some reason I seem to be paying for it now!!

MurdyWurdy

I still go skiing once a year

LOOK HOW RICH I AM!! Nah, not at all. I didn't do any of the others apart from a leaving cert holiday to Santa Ponsa. I don't think the leaving cert holiday has gone away anyway.

Gyalist

My dentist bought a villa in Italy, worked Monday to Thursday and got a locum in to cover on Fridays while he flew off to spend his weekends at the villa.

No. 2 definitely happened. In fact, it affected a business that I owned so badly that I eventually closed it. We'd have gangs of young people coming in to try on clothes before going to buy them in New York.

I'm surprised that the article mentioned that some of those things were still going on in 2007. By Christmas 2006 I could sense that something was badly wrong judging from the very sharp decline in footfall in Dublin City Centre and the resulting drop in sales.

glass_onion

Boards favorite- Everybody bought decking for the house.

Somethings i remember-

Property abroad expo in hotels.
Trading up cars for the new model,a rush to see who got the 06 or 07 model.
Suv's!- Nearly everyone had one.Now they seem to be endangered species.

It's Ironic the sindo wrote that article-The same paper that gave pages to property developers and writing about how "successful" they were.

paulbok

Thought I'd clicked on Journal.ie there for a minute

ScumLord

IvaBigWun wrote: »

5. Arriving to your children's First Holy Communion in a helicopter

In 2007, Celtic Helicopters recently reported a healthy business from the parents of children taking Communion at a measly cost of €1,250 an hour.

Father: I got a helicopter to bring us to your first communion!
Daughter: A helicopter? Really?
Father: Yeah, I'm so excited!


What were we supposed to do with our money though. Hide it in the banks? I have no problem with people spending their money on whatever silly things make them happy.

weiland79

Yes we did the Santa Ponsa thing too.
In 1994.

Twas great craic, total sh!t hole mind.

billie1b

My leaving cert was 14 years ago, we went to Santa Ponsa for a week, the amount of leaving cert kids that went to different Spanish destinations this year was or just about the same as during recession times. That wasn't a Celtic Tiger thing.
The rest of the list is a sham, its based on property developers of the likes of it, i'm in the same job 12 years now and to take a holiday or trip to New York or even a ski-ing holiday, I had to save pretty god damn hard, never maxed a credit card or got a loan to clear any either

Captain Farrell

Off to New York this weekend to go shopping/dining/whatever else. Not a big deal really?

Specialun

must be a right slow news days to write that garbage

Mountainlad

In fairness, don't think the article is representative of the majority of the Country. Some things like Mortgages or student loans are real issues that arose for a lot of people but in fairness it was a minority doing things like flying by helicopter to a communion or having 21sts worth a few 100k.

Half that article should be renamed "Rich (or artificially rich) people confirm they are divorced from reality."

SpaceTime

Again, the problem here was that all available cash and credit went straight into property speculation.

Increased consumer spending would have been a good thing!

A small number of speculators who we call developers lived the high life on money that ordinary people borrowed.

Most of us were not living the high life. We were buying overpriced undersized homes in stupid locations because that's all we could afford.

This attempt to spin it as "we all partied" is a crock of ####

All I remember was being in the end of a masters and early stage of my career being milked dry by a celtic tigre landlady for my shoebox apartment !

billie1b

Captain Farrell wrote: »

Off to New York this weekend to go shopping/dining/whatever else. Not a big deal really?

Your right, its not a big deal, more than likely you have worked and saved hard for it, regardless of what anyone thinks, enjoy yourself, bring some winter woolies with you

Muise...

ScumLord wrote: »

What were we supposed to do with our money though. Hide it in the banks? I have no problem with people spending their money on whatever silly things make them happy.

that's your problem right there.

jobeenfitz

IvaBigWun wrote: »

From http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/ThreeTrending/blog/14-things-you-wont-believe-irish-people-did-during-the-celtic-tiger-29825905.html?hyd


1. Getting 100% mortgages.

Some people were even getting up to 110% mortgages - a bit extra to cover some nice furniture. Wasn't that nice of the banks?



2. Christmas Shopping in New York

Some Irish people used to just 'pop over' to New York for a bit of shopping - as you do!



3. Drink champagne in the hairdressers

Back in the 'good times', Irish people were not only offered tea and water in the hairdressers but also had the option of champagne.



4. Getting student loans on minimum wage

Many students working minimum wage jobs were able to get loans and overdrafts of a couple of thousand euro, with no way to pay it back in the foreseeable future.



5. Arriving to your children's First Holy Communion in a helicopter

In 2007, Celtic Helicopters recently reported a healthy business from the parents of children taking Communion at a measly cost of €1,250 an hour.

Business meetings were sometimes scheduled based on the nearest location to a heli-pad, often meaning those people still using cars were heavily inconvenienced.

At least one company saw the funny side and offered to put the 'leftover Celtic Tiger helicopters' to a good use.



6. Lavish 21sts

In 2007, a property developer booked Girl Aloud for his daughter's 21st. The group were reportedly flown by private jet to Dublin and performed on stage before mingling with guests. According to event planners, the cost of the band alone could have been anything up to €400,000.

Developer Johnny Ronan was also reported to have gifted his daughter a 'Super Sweet 21st', with a €500,000 price tag. Guests at the party in Enniskerry downed gallons of Montrachet wine at €150 a bottle.

Let's not forget that giving cars as 18th and 21st presents also became the done thing in the Celtic Tiger.



7. Skiing holidays

Anyone who was 'anyone' went skiing at least once a year, if not twice.



8. Gran Canaria 'Leaving Cert' holidays

Leaving Cert students would often celebrate the end of their Leaving Cert by jetting off as a group to Gran Canaria or even Ibiza. These excursions would often be wild, and young Irish people developed quite a bad name overseas for a while.



9. Giving shares as presents

The daughter of one wealthy business family had to make do with shares for her 30th birthday. Unimaginative present but we're sure she wasn't too upset as she was given €11 million in company shares.



10. Visiting Santa in Lapland

Children used to be brought by their parents to meet the main man himself in person. In Lapland. Those were the days.




11. Vera Wang Wedding dresses

Vera Wang dresses in Brown Thomas retailed at more than the average recession wedding budget - a simple Wang could be bought for a cool €25,000.



12. Luxury gyms

Looking back, did Irish people really need gyms with chandeliers?




13. Max the Credit cards

During the Celtic Tiger, it was no problem to 'put it on the credit card' and worry about it later- sure, you could always get a loan to pay it off if you had to.

Some would argue this attitude may have somewhat contributed to where we are now.



14. Watched '30 Things to do with your SSIA'/Listened to Eddie Hobbs

The notion of a 'Special Savings Incentive Account' seems like a distant memory now. Even more distant is the image of Eddie Hobbs on the television telling us the best way to spend our plunder. It's so long ago now, we can't remember how tongue-in-cheek it was, but the number one things to spend your SSIA on was getting elected to politics.

"Take a punt on politics. Popularity with the public could win you some perks - and potentially give you a 3,500pc return on your investment," we were told.


How many did you do and what did they leave out?

Ah, the good auld days.

Roll on the next bubble.

pappyodaniel

ScumLord wrote: »

I have no problem with people spending their money on whatever silly things make them happy.

Yes that's fine as long as I don't have to bail them out when they get into financial difficulties.

Agent Coulson

paulbok wrote: »

Thought I'd clicked on Journal.ie there for a minute

They get their news stories from here. Expect to see this on Journal.ie later

looking_around

the 100% mortgages were ridiculous, but very common, My OH got one >:[

He still has the attitude "ah we'll just get a loan". Drives me nuts.
_____

I knew people who bought new furniture because they had tired of the "old" set \:

ScumLord

pappyodaniel wrote: »

Yes that's fine as long as I don't have to bail them out when they get into financial difficulties.

The banks got into financial difficulties and pulled the rest of us down with them.

DrumSteve

If Irish people did any of those things... so ****in what.

I forgot; the good things in life are for other people?

**** that.

pappyodaniel

ScumLord wrote: »

The banks got into financial difficulties and pulled the rest of us down with them.

So the borrowers are exempt?

jimgoose

Aye, the whole country was essentially a giant Big Fat Gypsy Wedding! :pac::pac::pac:

I never did any of the above-enumerated things either. In fact, the whole thing seems to have largely gone around me. :P

Geomy

Im telling ye one thing, people have let their gardens go to **** since the recession. ...

Just take a look at people's front gardens, look at all the weeds and overgrown shrubs etc

No need for it is there. ..

vitani

I did the Gran Canaria Leaving Cert holiday in 2003. I saved up for flights and accommodation from the money I'd earned working full-time that summer. Is it a Celtic Tiger thing because I had a job or something?

Muise...

Geomy wrote: »

Im telling ye one thing, people have let their gardens go to **** since the recession. ...

Just take a look at people's front gardens, look at all the weeds and overgrown shrubs etc

No need for it is there. ..

Good! Maybe the bust will save the bees.

SpaceTime

Don't forget the other myth: ah sure nobody saw it coming... (Apart for RTE Primetime, David McWilliams, several other major economists, the European commission etc… everyone in the propertypin website etc and many other people who could add and subtract)

Even my granny was asking where all the money was coming from as she saw neighbours move in and spend hundreds of thousands on renovation when they only had normal jobs.

Anyone publicly pointing to the impending problems was treated as a party pooper trying to talk down the economy.

RoboRat

A couple of my mates have multiple properties as it was the done thing... late 20's with a property portfolio, when you think about it, it beggars belief. They tried to get me to invest and thankfully I declined as some of them are now over €1,000,000 in debt (none defaulting on the debt but its a big burden to carry).

I was happy with my little pad that I spent 5 years doing up because I couldn't get a tradesman to even price it up. I remember getting a quote for €8,500 to rewire my 3 bed house, thought to myself feck that and did all the wiring myself and got an electrician to inspect and finish it off - still cost €1500 for that privilege which was about a days work! I still remember asking a tiler to come out and price the job and he laughed at me saying it wasn't worth his time.

I think the most shocking thing about the celtic tiger was labourers on about €1000 - €1500 a week. I don't know how many times I considered jacking my job in to do it but thankfully I didn't.

Stark

You can go skiing once a year and not be super rich. Perfectly possible to do a ski holiday on a budget. (I should know, I've gone skiing with people who trade Travel 90 tickets like cash).

Fighting Irish

People who can and could always afford to do stuff from that list are still doing them

jimgoose

vitani wrote: »

I did the Gran Canaria Leaving Cert holiday in 2003. I saved up for flights and accommodation from the money I'd earned working full-time that summer. Is it a Celtic Tiger thing because I had a job or something?

"Job"? "Saved up"?? Where the fock did you spend the Toiger period roysh, focking Cambodia??

Frank Black

SpaceTime wrote: »

Most of us were not living the high life. We were buying overpriced undersized homes in stupid locations because that's all we could afford we were stupid.

FYP

Fighting Irish

RoboRat wrote: »

A couple of my mates have multiple properties as it was the done thing... late 20's with a property portfolio, when you think about it, it beggars belief. They tried to get me to invest and thankfully I declined as some of them are now over €1,000,000 in debt (none defaulting on the debt but its a big burden to carry).

I was happy with my little pad that I spent 5 years doing up because I couldn't get a tradesman to even price it up. I remember getting a quote for €8,500 to rewire my 3 bed house, thought to myself feck that and did all the wiring myself and got an electrician to inspect and finish it off - still cost €1500 for that privilege which was about a days work! I still remember asking a tiler to come out and price the job and he laughed at me saying it wasn't worth his time.

I think the most shocking thing about the celtic tiger was labourers on about €1000 - €1500 a week. I don't know how many times I considered jacking my job in to do it but thankfully I didn't.

EVERYONE tries to make as much money as possible. Customers set the prices at the end of the day.

SpaceTime

Frank Black wrote: »

FYP

Problem was though, it seemed like that was the only option at the time. You were sold a story that prices would rise and you had to buy now or forever live on your ma's sofa!

The rental prices were high and the quality very low and really mostly only suited to singletons with low expectations So if you'd a job and especially if you'd kids what options did you have other than emigration?

I didn't buy, but it's easy to criticise people who did with the benefit of hindsight.
They did the best they could do in the circumstances they were presented with.

I've little sympathy for people who went on speculation binges and got burnt. That's a business decision and you lost your shirt on a bad investment. However, I've a lot of sympathy for the many, many people of my generation who just wanted a roof over their heads and were basically ripped off royaly by the developers and put into unsustainable debt by idiotic banks.

Your average person isn't a financial genius. They trust experts like banks, mortgage brokers and estate agents and most of all the state itself!

The government just threw a whole generation to the wolves for the sake of getting tax revenues from new build houses and it basically got involved in marketing the Irish Dream of homeownership with a vast mortgage.

It's no wonder there's no trust of the governance system anyone and that people don't bother to engage.

Captain Farrell

Stark wrote: »

You can go skiing once a year and not be super rich. Perfectly possible to do a ski holiday on a budget. (I should know, I've gone skiing with people who trade Travel 90 tickets like cash).

Have a lovely ski holiday booked for the kids half term in february, do it every year and have done since 2002. We take 4 holidays a year though and have done since 1996.

People tell me we're "lucky". Bullshit. We've worked hard to be in the position we are, why should we be made to feel guilty just because we have been succesful?

TeddyTedson

How many people realistically went to Religious Cerimonies in helicopters.
It's a meaningless list for the most part.

cantdecide

I tried to buy a house at 24 in Summer 2006 but it fell through when the house I'd paid a deposit on was withdrawn from the market.

/bullet dodged:cool:

Mr Freeze

I did one of those things.

I went on a skiing holiday. Once. Ever.

iguana

I would love to do 10 when my little boy is the right age. Though I saw an ad for it recently and the Santa had a fake beard. If I'm going all the way to Lapland for a Santa visit the least they can do is hire a guy with an actual white beard.

MurdyWurdy

Captain Farrell wrote: »

Have a lovely ski holiday booked for the kids half term in february, do it every year and have done since 2002. We take 4 holidays a year though and have done since 1996.

People tell me we're "lucky". Bullshit. We've worked hard to be in the position we are, why should we be made to feel guilty just because we have been succesful?

I was in Aldi last Thursday morning because the ski stuff was in and I needed a few bits and pieces. There were hordes of people there so looks like a lot of people will be skiing this year (in Aldi ski suits!)

If you're working and don't have a huge mortgage holidays are affordable. You just need to save a bit during the year.