Ireland a wealthy country

Its only a small thing but one of the things I have noticed is that you not longer see cheap cuts of meat in the butchers, for example neck of lamb, Lap beef, lambs hearts, brisket corned beef, knuckle of bacon ect. That was the majority of our diet when we were young and we were by no means badly off.

My local butcher and the butcher counter in the supermarket is full of rib roast beef, steaks and other top end cuts of meat which is what people are eating and expecting to eat now.

I think we have become a wealthy country with out even noticing it.

The Backwards Man

Yeah! I haven't had any tongue in ages.

floggg

Of course we are a wealthy country. Anybody who disputes that is an idiot.

Sure, there are wealthier, but there always we be (unless you are Carlos Slim), bur doesn't mean we don't have it friggin' amazing here compared to how things are for the vast majority of the world..

5starpool

mariaalice wrote: »

Its only a small thing but one of the things I have noticed is that you not longer see cheap cuts of meat in the butchers, for example neck of lamb, Lap beef, lambs hearts, brisket corn beef, knuckle of bacon ect. That was the majority of our diet when we were young and we were by no means badly off.

My local butcher and the butcher counter in the supermarket is full of rib roast beef, steaks and other top end cuts of meat which is what people are eating and expecting to eat now.

I think we have become a wealthy country with out even noticing it.

I think most people have noticed. If you are old enough to remember those cuts of beef being commonly used (I can't and I'm not far off 40) then you will very well know the contrast between the country now and before the 90's. Even 30 years ago we were far behind the majority of western Europe in living standards generally, whereas now we average above a lot of them.

It hasn't been a secret, stealthy process. Yes there are still people living in poverty (perhaps more in relative terms to the rest) but overall most boats have risen on the tide, even a lot of those complaining most about austerity.

whiskeyman

“They can't seriously expect us to swallow this tripe! ...


“Now, as a special treat courtesy of our friends at the Meat Council, please help yourself to this tripe,”

lazeedaisy

mariaalice wrote: »

Its only a small thing but one of the things I have noticed is that you not longer see cheap cuts of meat in the butchers, for example neck of lamb, Lap beef, lambs hearts, brisket corn beef, knuckle of bacon ect. That was the majority of our diet when we were young and we were by no means badly off.

My local butcher and the butcher counter in the supermarket is full of rib roast beef, steaks and other top end cuts of meat which is what people are eating and expecting to eat now.

I think we have become a wealthy country with out even noticing it.

My butcher still sells them, as for supermarket butcher counters, they only sell what's popular, you need to go to a local butchers where they actually still bone the meat. Most places now are pre pack.

Have you asked your local butcher as most will have this stuff in the fridge. My dogs love lambs hearts, is a special treat for them, when we were kids we lived off ox tails and beef hearts.

There are a lot of people still struggling to survive, and the slow cooker is great for cheap cuts of meat.

beardybrewer

I would expect a good butchers to be able to get anything, on request. Just be careful, a lot of foods which were cheap and common when a country were poor become expensive delicacies once the country is rich.

Baggy Trousers

Jeezus I hated liver!!!

I do remember a lot of mutton. I liked that.

I think its almost unnoticed how it has happened, and then suddenly you see something that make you realise what a wealthy country we are.

imitation

Its not hard to see really, new cars and beemers are common enough. Even in europe you would see such a high percentage as new cars. While i dont dispute plenty have it tough, it seems a big thing ireland to make out you dont make much and that the whole country is in some post apocolyptic recession.

lazza14

Ireland is rolling in it ... the recession was a big lie ... sure everyone was out throwing money about ..

Even "poor" people go out in Dublin on a saturday night and spend €100 minimum - and sure it's nothing lioke ..

gandalf

Baggy Trousers wrote: »

Jeezus I hated liver!!!

I do remember a lot of mutton. I liked that.

I hated liver until I realised that the way my mother cooked it in the 70's and 80's was destroying it's taste and texture.

Cooked properly it is a lovely piece of meat.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

BoJack Horseman

If your on the average wage here, your one of the top 2% earners on the planet.

Ireland is & has been for a while one of the top 20 wealthiest nations on earth.

StewartGriffin

How DARE you say this is a wealthy country!!

I earn 92,000 yr, (I'm a teacher AND a Garda), my kids ate a cardboard cornflakes box for breakfast this morning, (Lidl cardboard, of course,) and we might not be able to change the car this year.

We're on our knees!!

SEPT 23 1989

I know i am not poor because i own two pairs of strong shoes and a warm waterproof overcoat

ElvisChrist6

lazza14 wrote: »

Ireland is rolling in it ... the recession was a big lie ... sure everyone was out throwing money about ..

Even "poor" people go out in Dublin on a saturday night and spend €100 minimum - and sure it's nothing lioke ..

Jesus Christ... now I know why Boards people think the poor are scabbing bastards; they think everyone is doing this. Are you joking? Maybe you are, because it just seems too much. A country can be wealthy when the people aren't. There's a big gap between the upper and working classes and just because there are the wealthy, I honestly don't see how you can deny that there are people scraping by. Astounding.

Agricola

StewartGriffin wrote: »

How DARE you say this is a wealthy country!!

I earn 92,000 yr, (I'm a teacher AND a Garda), my kids ate a cardboard cornflakes box for breakfast this morning, (Lidl cardboard, of course,) and we might not be able to change the car this year.

We're on our knees!!

Yeah, to be serious for a second, theres truth in that. Aside from emigration maybe, (which is itself a far less harrowing and permanent experience than it was 30/40 years ago) the effects of this recession on most people would seem like a walk in the park to our grandparent's generation. They would have dreamed of a country where you could walk into huge supermarket and get a truckload of food for relatively small money, where most people had reliable cars to get them around and where you could sit at home watching 200 channels or talking to friends on the other side of the world in real time in a comfortable centrally heated house.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

Mesrine65

Baggy Trousers wrote: »

Jeezus I hated liver!!!

gandalf wrote: »

I hated liver until I realised that the way my mother cooked it in the 70's and 80's was destroying it's taste and texture.

Cooked properly it is a lovely piece of meat.

Liver & fried onoins in gravy...nom nom

Grayson

Agricola wrote: »

Yeah, to be serious for a second, theres truth in that. Aside from emigration maybe, (which is itself a far less harrowing and permanent experience than it was 30/40 years ago) the effects of this recession on most people would seem like a walk in the park to our grandparent's generation. They would have dreamed of a country where you could walk into huge supermarket and get a truckload of food for relatively small money, where most people had reliable cars to get them around and where you could sit at home watching 200 channels or talking to friends on the other side of the world in real time in a comfortable centrally heated house.

Not to mention all the other comforts. Play stations, take aways etc...

Yes, there are people who are poor, but an average working class family has it far better than they did 20 years ago.

We'd have liver or heart at least once a week. We had spam a few times. There are far, far fewer households still eating like that. the lives we have are far better than our parents and this recession, as bad as it is, isn't hurting people as much as the one in the 80's.

Pinch Flat

My maM used to make skirt and kidney stew for us. I googled what the skirt part was recently - wish I didn't know now

Also chuck stew popular where I lived as well as pigs feet, tripe and dricheen

the groutch

Mesrine65 wrote: »

Liver & fried onoins in gravy...nom nom

I prefer mine with some fava beans and a nice chianti

Don't think I've ever eaten any of the cuts of meat on that list growing up, we always ate good quality meat.

Philo Beddoe

Of course we're a wealthy country, how on Earth would we be paying billions of Euros a year in interest payments on our debts if we weren't!

Lewis Fat Graphology

Lewis Fat Graphology wrote: »

Don't think I've ever eaten any of the cuts of meat on that list growing up, we always ate good quality meat.

How old are you?

Just because a cut of meat is cheaper does not make it is of less quality.

MRnotlob606

Can't even go on three holidays anymore

Dog of Tears

Ireland in an incredibly wealthy country with a very high standard of living for the vast majority of its citizens.

Not only that, but it's getting wealthier.
Crime rates are going down and have been for some time.
Life expectancy is increasing.
People have more leisure time and more disposable income than people from even a couple of generations ago could conceive.

We've temperate weather with no major extremes in heat or cold, no earthquakes or tsunamis, no dangerous creatures roam our land.


Not that you'd no any of this if you switched on the news, which is wall-to-wall negativity as the media gleefully revel in every unsavoury incident and an array of loony-left politicians queue up to tell you how **** your life is (if only you'd vote for them instead :rolleyes:).

If you want to see how good we have things in Ireland - travel.

mariaalice

mariaalice wrote: »

How old are you?

Just because a cut of meat is cheaper does not make it is of less quality.

30.

I'm not against cheap cuts and if I ever get a slow cooker then I will try them. But they are cheaper for a reason as they take much more time to prepare etc and before slow cookers would be difficult to not end up eating shoe leather.

donegaLroad

mariaalice wrote: »

Its only a small thing but one of the things I have noticed is that you not longer see cheap cuts of meat in the butchers, for example neck of lamb, Lap beef, lambs hearts, brisket corned beef, knuckle of bacon ect. That was the majority of our diet when we were young and we were by no means badly off.

My local butcher and the butcher counter in the supermarket is full of rib roast beef, steaks and other top end cuts of meat which is what people are eating and expecting to eat now.

I think we have become a wealthy country with out even noticing it.

Which part of the country do you live in?

jimbly

I sympathyse with the peole who are struggling.
Ireland has the same population as a large English city e.g. Birmingham.
How many private hopsitals are in Birmingham?
How many are in Ireland? Someone can afford it all.

K-9

Yep, a lot of people are doing fine, but you wouldn't know it according to the press:

http://www.thejournal.ie/mortgage-debt-irish-cso-1911304-Jan2015/

The media prints recession and mortgage debt porn, they peddle in spin:

IRISH MORTGAGE HOLDERS are carrying the highest mortgage debt ratio in the euro zone – relative to the value of their homes.

According to figures from the Central Statistics Office - the median ratio for owner-occupier mortgage holders in Ireland is nearly twice the eurozone average.

Yeah but:

The survey found that while 70% of Irish households own their own home – just 34% still had money owing on their mortgage debt in 2013.

Figures released by the Bank and the CSO also found that young people in the 30-34 age group are carrying too much debt.

Just over 57% of households with people aged between 35 and 44 had a mortgage compared to only 3% of households for people aged 65 or older.

There's a hell of a lot of positives in there but you wouldn't know it to glance at the article. A surprising amount of people have no mortgage debt whatsoever or small mortgage debt.

imitation

Grayson wrote: »

Not to mention all the other comforts. Play stations, take aways etc...

Yes, there are people who are poor, but an average working class family has it far better than they did 20 years ago.

We'd have liver or heart at least once a week. We had spam a few times. There are far, far fewer households still eating like that. the lives we have are far better than our parents and this recession, as bad as it is, isn't hurting people as much as the one in the 80's.

The funny thing is you mention 80s to some people are they start frothing about that generation wrecking it for everybody, and how they got houses for "nothing", guess they musta paid that 20k with 12% interest off with all the dole money they used to get ?

Pinch Flat

imitation wrote: »

The funny thing is you mention 80s to some people are they start frothing about that generation wrecking it for everybody, and how they got houses for "nothing", guess they musta paid that 20k with 12% interest off with all the dole money they used to get ?

I grew up in the 80s and can remember the general air of grimness and depression of that era. Unrest, power cuts, mass unemployment (worse than today). Tax was horrendous - pay very low for an ordinary joe. Running a car was barely affordable.

I suffered badly in the recent recession here - lost my job twice - but no where near what went on in the 80s. At least I got butter vouchers when I was on the scratcher in the early 90s.:)

I can remember ad hoc shops being set up in people's garages - to sell the basics cheaply. Petrol was so expensive and so scare at one stage that cars were regularly siphoned - we had to park our car with the petrol cap tight against the wall to prevent this. And the queues could be bad to get petrol - helping to push ths family car when I wad 10 cos you wouldn't sit there with the engine on.

Things are definitely bad today - no doubt about that - but people are falling from a much higher level as well

Buford T. Justice XIX

Lewis Fat Graphology wrote: »

Don't think I've ever eaten any of the cuts of meat on that list growing up, we always ate good quality meat.

Oh, you're missing out on some fantastic cuts of meat.

I love steak and kidney pie, am partial to a bit of liver and my OH makes a fantastic slow-cooked lamb shank. None of those would be considered prime, desirable cuts but would be equally delicious as prime steak or a T-Bone.

But you are right about good quality meats. You get what you pay for and if the 'meat' in a meal you get is cheap, there is a reason for it.

But i absolutely draw the line at tongue and pigs head, NO, just NO!!!

Alun

Lewis Fat Graphology wrote: »

... and before slow cookers would be difficult to not end up eating shoe leather.

Not true, you just have to cook them long and slow, something that can be done just as well by conventional means either in a low oven or simmering gently on top of the cooker. Also, although slow cookers seem to be a bit of a 'new' fad, they've been around since the 70's.

Baggy Trousers

Mesrine65 wrote: »

Liver & fried onoins in gravy...nom nom

I bet you fart excessively...

kowloon

Some of these 'cheap cuts' actually taste better, but people can't put the time into it. Families often have both parents working now, so there just isn't the time to slow cook anything. You can get all sorts of cuts if you ask and don't go to a supermarket that only sells pre-packaged meat.

my teapot is orange

While I agree that Ireland is a fairly well-off country, I do think that due to the particularly strong agricultural sector, the quality of food is very high. Irish people expect it. I wouldn't assume everything is rosy in Ireland because we have some top class butchers.

Tazio

you know what.. I could not find replacement tungsten bulbs to fit the chandler in my walk in wardrobe.. they don't make old fashioned bulbs anymore!! its all led and cfls. what am I to do?? only 3 of the 48 bulbs are blown...

johnohanlon

How much do your 2 litre bottles of club lemon cost? They are £1 here

_Brian

I think being wealthy is all relavent.

If you travel through some of the countries in Africa and Asia and see true absolute poverty, then you realise that Ireland is indeed a wealthy country. I see families here living completely on SW with incredibly better standards if living than some I visited in countries like Egypt or China.

Now, relative to families where perhaps both parents are working in steady jobs. The same families in SW have low standards of living.

Ireland is a wealthy country, the vast majority of it's citizens enjoy decent to good standards of housing, education, healthcare, nutrition and general social experiences.

The recent recession was tough compared to the few years of extreme prosperity we experienced. But it was nothing compared to the late 70's and 80's.

mags1962

You know they are poor in China when you realise that they eat every part of a duck except the quack.
The price of meat is solely down to supply and demand e.g. a beef fillet is less than 1% of the animal but is the most expensive and the reason you don't see older traditionally cheaper cuts is that there is no demand and as a result it is sold off for export, ready meals, burgers and even pet food, in fact wherever it can be off loaded in bulk.

Tarzana2

Lewis Fat Graphology wrote: »

30.I'm not against cheap cuts and if I ever get a slow cooker then I will try them. But they are cheaper for a reason as they take much more time to prepare etc and before slow cookers would be difficult to not end up eating shoe leather.

I don't own a slow cooker and can cook slow cook tougher meat properly so that it's tender. It's actually really easy, I'd actually find a good few more expensive cuts much easier to ruin.

And low quality? Pork belly is a very cheap cut. Do you consider that to be low quality? What about lamb shanks?

Tarzana2

Lewis Fat Graphology wrote: »

Don't think I've ever eaten any of the cuts of meat on that list growing up, we always ate good quality meat.

I can't believe somebody who grew up on a farm has so little experience of eating as much of an animal as possible.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

Mesrine65

Baggy Trousers wrote: »

I bet you fart excessively...

I do :eek:

liam24

Wealthy but still primitive, where we torture animals to death so we can eat their flesh.

FTA69

I'm just back from a month in Bangladesh and Nepal and anyone who thinks Ireland is a "poor country" in the global sense is talking out of their hoop.

In Dhaka I saw people whose only home was a 36-inch diameter length concrete pipe by the river side; they washed and drank from the Buriganga River, a ****-sodden slop that's one of the most polluted rivers in the world. Other times you might see a family of four living in an alcove in a wall, multiple people living, eating, sleeping and sh*tting in a space the size of a large bathroom. If people were pulling a rickshaw for 14 hours a day for the equivalent of $2 they'd know all about poverty and hardship.

There is systematic inequality in Ireland, there are also many people struggling and the above stuff doesn't negate the fact that working people in Ireland are getting a pretty raw deal across the board. Similarly, poverty is relative and massive inequality is a bad thing in the first world as well as the third.

However, when talking about Ireland's problems, a sense of perspective is also needed if you're going to compare the poverty there to the poverty in other parts of the world.

liam24

liam24 wrote: »

Wealthy but still primitive, where we torture animals to death so we can eat their flesh.

Here we go :rolleyes::rolleyes:

TheDoc

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

I know i am not poor because i own two pairs of strong shoes and a warm waterproof overcoat

The lack of likes for this post obviously indicates no one knows how we measure "poverty" as a type of metric in this country