The 70's and 80's in Ireland

freddie1970

Sycamore Tree wrote: »

Yes but the question must be would you rather you lived your childhood in the 70s/80s or 2010+.

I know I would prefer to grow up in the 70s & 80s. The kids today spend way too much time indoors looking at screens and they are mollycoddled in every other aspect of their lives.

Dont know about that my young fella is a damn sight happier now than i was ...belted at school and back handers and wooden spoon daily for any little thing at home ....Lot of kids went through pure shiite back then
Was in my young fellas school a few times and the atmosphere is great he loves it there

Ash.J.Williams

One could buy a house or alternatively one could rent one. Dublin was extremely violent especially for gig goers. The baaiis drove opel katettes.

dxhound2005

If you had a job it was very easy to buy a house. But the only place you could get a mortgage was from a building society. Who made you save to show that you could afford the repayments, and to provide a proper deposit. And then you had to get a bridging loan from a bank, until the building society lowered themselves to give you the money.

The only type of mortgage available was the old fashioned variable rate. So someone could finish up paying €1,600 a month, having been paying €1,000 a month six months earlier (those are the modern day equivalents to simplify it). It was so easy for first time buyers that the government was forced to introduce a first time buyers grant of IR£3000 in the early 1980's from memory. And there was fierce pressure to have a mortgage interest subsidy, although I think that never came in.

People today do not know how lucky they are to have a stable interest rate regime, once they do make their purchase.

http://www.moneyguideireland.com/history-of-mortgage-rates-in-ireland.html

Stephen Gawking

This thread has certainly brought back some memories, when I tell my kids of the differences between then & now it's like I was in a parallel universe, found this on the web; I remember having to watch this ****e in school which was unusual because it was a mixed school & our religion teacher was (allegedly) a former nun who 'got up the family way' or so the story went.

https://youtu.be/cxgXWHo9jvI

oceanman

pubs as packed every Monday morning as Friday night...great days

branie2

The Crowman wrote: »

That was the one with the scary middle aged woman who gives out hell to her young daughter and then turns to the camera and says "kids, wouldn't ye die if anything happened to them"? I'd say it worked too, she used to scare the bejasus out of me.

She was the Whirlegig Witch in Fortycoats & Co

branie2

Thankfully, hipsters weren't around.

Charles Babbage

Differences with the 80s might seem great, but if you take the Back to the Future approach and compare the 80s with 30 years before the difference was much greater.

In the mid 1980s I only lived in a house with a landline phone, but you could still contact people easily enough. There was a washing machine, colour TV and most other gadgets people use and I had my first car and went around Ireland in it. I went on two Interrails and many people went to Spain for their holidays, although not as many as now. I had a degree. Life was not quite as convenient as now, but people's horizons were broadly the same.

Thirty years before in the mid 1950s, that house (subsequently reconstructed) had no electricity or water, most people cycled although my Dad had a car then, there wasn't a phone nearby. People's horizons were entirely different.

branie2

The Late Late Show was on a Saturday evening until the early 80s

Grandeeod

I grew up in the 70s and 80s in Dublin council estates or "Corpo" estates as they were known because they were built by what was then Dublin Corporation. The Dublin County Council estates were apparently "posher". My father was a lorry driver and always worked but was taxed to the hilt. High taxation lead to rampant cases of people working for a small cash in hand sum topped up by the dole. Employers were actively engaging in it. Our neighbours who did this always had more than we had. I was 8 when we got our first car and it was only as a result of the Credit Union. It took years for my father to build up enough savings. Before that it was buses and trains.

I often laugh at my wife during the winter when she complains about the cold while simply hitting a button for the central heating. She had a slightly posher upbringing than me.:D I didn't live in a house with central heating until I was 17 and even then you had to have the fire lighting. That was the first house my parents bought in the late 80s. A 27K mortgage with a 300 pound a month repayment. Savage interest rates. It was the early 90s before they could convert to oil fired central heating. But growing up, I was never cold in Winter. The fire was always burning when I came home from school and a hot water bottle in my bed at night. My childhood memories are happy ones. The food was boring, but we always had enough of it. Playing outdoors till all hours all year long. The different "seasons" when Conkers and Marbles were the done thing. The Friday evening treat when the weekly shop was done after waiting on my Father to come home with his wage packet. He'd also bring home the Beano and the Dandy comics. Christmas didn't start in September. It started in December and the build up was short and intense making it so much more enjoyable.

As a teenager in the 80s the music was epic and accessing it was an adventure in itself. The opening of HMV and the Virgin Megastore in Dublin lead to many Saturdays browsing for hours while also listening to great tunes, despite not having a penny in your pocket to spend. The city centre cinemas that despite being subdivided in the 70s still retained an element of the old days. Curtains across the screens that opened as the movie started. Ushers with torches. The last remaining cinema screen from my 70s and 80s childhood, the Savoy One, is now gone. But I was so glad that I managed to bring my young daughter to it and share my memories of Star Wars (1977) and Star Wars (2015).

I suppose I can't leave things until I mention Religion, sex and booze. In the 70s I was a God fearing child taught by Nuns and Brothers. Corporal punishment was still legal and many a caning I got. You learned all the tricks to try and prevent the pain like sitting on your hands until called in for the slap. But even before Corporal punishment was banned, many schools were already moving away from it as policy, but I do remember a few asshole teachers getting physical in Secondary school in the 80s. I was 13 when I decided that I didn't believe in God and started skipping Mass. I'd learned the facts of life aged 9 via a book called "Where do I come from." I remember my parents sitting down with me after reading the book to ask if I'd any questions. During the conversation my Father muttered, "He knows more than me".:D Lost my virginity aged 15. It was aided by a friend selling condoms in school that he had nicked from his parents. Because I'd read that little book from Easons, I knew a girl could get pregnant despite doing it for the first time, standing up or me whipping my todger out before the business end.:D As for booze? Cheap enough compared to earnings. I had a part time job from the age of 14 up to full employment after college. Drinking in fields was in but getting served in pubs was fairly easy.

I'm delighted to have grown up back then. It wasn't perfect, but it had so many things that I wished my daughter could experience now.

branie2

LaserDiscs, the forerunner to DVDs came out in the late 1970s

dxhound2005

sunbeam wrote: »

Does anyone remember the evangelical Christian station that used to broadcast on the same frequency before the Radio Luxembourg English service would start in the evenings?

The great thing about winter if you lived in two channel TV land in the west of Ireland was that at least you could get better medium wave reception of the UK Radio stations in the darkness. In addition, I remember listening to Radio Sweden, Radio Moscow and a host of other eastern European stations that used to broadcast for an hour or two in English around the time of the fall of the Berlin wall.

I don't think there were religious broadcasts from Luxembourg, it was all pop music by then. There was another high power transmitter in Monte Carlo which sold air time to among others Trans World Radio, a religious station. It was on 1467 kHz very close to Luxembourg on 1440.

Those other stations were also on medium wave, but had a much greater presence on shortwave. That is a thing of the past now. At the height of the Cold War, Radio Free Europe was broadcasting to the East, from massively powerful transmitters. And the Soviet Union was using even higher power to try to jam them, and the BBC and other stations. They were reputed to be spending around $100 million a year back then to stop people listening to news and pop music from the free world.

NewbridgeIR

Outdoor toilets in primary schools.
If you wanted to use a cubicle you had to obtain the key in advance.
This was held on a rotation basis in different classrooms so you'd have to call around to that particular classroom and say "Can I have the key of the toilets?". Which meant that everyone knew you were going for a sh*t.

Galwayguy35

The Crowman wrote: »

The fella on the right, who was known in the 80's for being the first black presenter on Irish tv, long before he became better known for being a complete headbanger. On the left Flo McSweeney, the subject of many a teenage lads fantasy in 80's Ireland.

Isn't that the fella who wants to be President, it looks like him anyway.

Galwayguy35

fleet_admiral wrote: »

Vatican roulette. Pull out and pray

Casey must not have heard of that one!

padd b1975

NewbridgeIR wrote: »

Outdoor toilets in primary schools.
If you wanted to use a cubicle you had to obtain the key in advance.
This was held on a rotation basis in different classrooms so you'd have to call around to that particular classroom and say "Can I have the key of the toilets?". Which meant that everyone knew you were going for a sh*t.

I'd bake it until I got home to save the embarrassment.

Purple Mountain

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

Isn't that the fella who wants to be President, it looks like him anyway.

Kevin Sharkey?

Grandeeod

Purple Mountain wrote: »

Kevin Sharkey?

That's the lad alright. Presented a Music TV show with Flo from a building across from Christ Church. Was it called Megamix?

Grandeeod

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

Casey must not have heard of that one!

In 1989 the singing priest (Cleary) came into my secondary school and in his thick Dublin accent told us all about God and Girls and temptation. I'd already abandoned God, discovered Girls and given in to temptation. So had he.:D

squawker

Purple Mountain wrote: »

Kevin Sharkey?

also hired his ass out for €250 quid an hour (or so he says)

would say he was lucky to score €25 a week

the purple tin

Purple Mountain wrote: »

Kevin Sharkey?

Was he the 'african' priest in Fr Ted who turned out to be fron Donegal?

Kermit.de.frog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC7s17K2uMY

jimmytwotimes 2013

NewbridgeIR wrote: »

Outdoor toilets in primary schools.
If you wanted to use a cubicle you had to obtain the key in advance.
This was held on a rotation basis in different classrooms so you'd have to call around to that particular classroom and say "Can I have the key of the toilets?". Which meant that everyone knew you were going for a sh*t.

To be fair, could have been for a wānk or a pīss too.

JupiterKid

Auntie Poppy’s Storytime...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgHPV1mTqIo

JupiterKid

Lydia Faithful Swordplay wrote: »

Public safety ads and the sheer brutal starkness of them! Where's Grandad? (Water safety along with a bunch of other ones featuring children drowning) and the "Don't stand near a gas heater or open fire wearing a synthetic night dress!"

Scared the crap out of me. There was no pussyfooting around. And they made you do as they said too!

Don’t forget the ones where little Timmy gets horrifically electrocuted whilst climbing an electricity pylon trying to retrieve his frisbee...

Grandeeod

The Cure, Depeche mode in the RDS. Simple Minds in Croke Park in '86 with the Lightening and the long walk home with a massive electric storm raging. Duran Duran in '87 in the RDS on the come back trail. Saw them at the EP last year, some throwback. New Order in the SFX. 7 bands on the up sponsored by 7-Up in the SFX. Was on TV too. Saw Something happens at that. What about Self Aid? So many great Irish Bands on a big stage. All 80's stuff.

JupiterKid

My very first gig was INXS at the (then) Point in December 1990, aged 15. It was like an amazing dream to see my favorite band at the time live.:)

NewbridgeIR

jimmytwotimes 2013 wrote: »

To be fair, could have been for a wānk or a pīss too.

There were urinals for pissing in - didn't need a key for them.

NewbridgeIR

Grandeeod wrote: »

The Cure, Depeche mode in the RDS. Simple Minds in Croke Park in '86 with the Lightening and the long walk home with a massive electric storm raging. Duran Duran in '87 in the RDS on the come back trail. Saw them at the EP last year, some throwback. New Order in the SFX. 7 bands on the up sponsored by 7-Up in the SFX. Was on TV too. Saw Something happens at that. What about Self Aid? So many great Irish Bands on a big stage. All 80's stuff.

The Cure in The RDS remains my favourite gig of all time.

Grandeeod

NewbridgeIR wrote: »

The Cure in The RDS remains my favourite gig of all time.

Massive. Saw them too in the point in '92. A very long set. 3 hours. But I loved the RDS Simmonscourt for all gigs. Saw Frankie Goes to Hollywood there too among others. Who remembers the National stadium for 80s gigs? I did Howard Jones and Clannad.