The 70's and 80's in Ireland

Cabaal

Josiah Greasy Barefoot wrote: »

Both decades were, to my experience, marked by high unemployment and high interest rates.


I wouldn't go back to them for any reason.

My parents had a mortgage with 18% APR.....18% was also the unemployment rate at that time too when they got the mortgage. Yet we have people trying to claim we were better off
:rolleyes:

whisky_galore

road_high wrote: »

Coffee was a jar of Maxwell house or Nescafé (there were cheaper own brands too!).

Or an Irish made brown sludge in a bottle called Irel.

Eggs For Dinner

The 70's for me

Hated every minute of school
Driving the electric milk truck every Saturday morning at 14 years of age
Going to Lansdowne & Dalymount to watch Ireland
Met my current wife
Working with my Dad in his shop (miss you Dad)
Eating a proper size Curly Wurly
Spending 3 months every year in our mobile in Wexford
**** like my life depended on it
My 1st Summer job
Flares

Wibbs

whisky_galore wrote: »

If people think the world is batsh*t crazy now, this was nothing short of mass hallucination.

The last frantic death rattle of a dying church and that period of old Ireland with it. Statistically at the time Ireland was the youngest nation in Europe and watching that nonsense even the younger holy joes in more isolated rural Ireland started to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all.

Coillte_Bhoy

Bringing rakes of hang sandwiches and flasks of tea to big matches, and standing around at the boot of the car eating them. None of this running into a garage to pick up a bite to eat.

Big Nasty

Coillte_Bhoy wrote: »

Bringing rakes of hang sandwiches and flasks of tea to big matches, and standing around at the boot of the car eating them. None of this running into a garage to pick up a bite to eat.

Still the norm at classic car shows!

iguana

The 80s were my childhood and my memories of it are mainly colourful and wonderful. My parents didn't have a lot of money but my mum is just excellent at financial management, both my parents are crafty/capable DIYers and my dad was a binman who regularly rescued other people's rubbish and brought it home for them to fix up. They were also really great at getting us to want what they could give. So while we didn't ever have any of the latest stuff, we always really, really wanted what we could get and we had so much. They never shied away from being honest about what we couldn't afford but did it in a way that made us focus on everything we did have. Rooms full of toys, so much clothes, everything was so colourful. Great cartoons on tv, the excitement when movies like Superman finally made it on to tv, lots of freedom to play and have adventures.

I know that my son is likely having a much better childhood now. And that it's a lot less financially stressful for me to provide him with most things he wants/I know he'd love. (Though plenty of his stuff has also been rescued from skips/the recycling depot.) Trips like Disneyland/Legoland are also feasible rather than total pipedreams. But I do know that some of the best elements of my childhood, like the freedom, don't come as easily these days, so I go out of my way to ensure he can have similar experiences.

zmgakt7uw2dvfs

Deleted User wrote: »

I think when most people look back, their late teens/college years are the happiest. It’s a time of blossoming, learning, experimenting, become a person in their own right.

Maybe most people. Personally I was quite unhappy and awkward at that stage. I really came into my own at 30, when everything fell into place for me.

I often think if suicidally ideated young men in their late teens and twenties could only wait until 30+, life would get a lot easier.

2011

Just look at this 1985 RTE new report:

I remember it so vividly.

Dakota Dan

zapitastas wrote: »

Were an awful lot less tubby feckers about in the 80s

Saying that once someone hit 70 they looked about 100. Most pensioners back then resembled Eamon dunphy.

When women hot their late 30’s early 40’s they were like old women compared to the women today who still look young in their 50’s. Or maybe it’s me just getting older.

angel eyes 2012

Masala wrote: »

And the amount of Masses your parents made u go to was huge!!

And masses very very very lonnnnnnnnng

Thankfully my parents had zero interest in attending mass in the 80s and we didn't have to either. Instead, I have happy memories of Sunday trips to the beach or drives around the countryside.

Dakota Dan

sunbeam wrote: »

Probably down to poorer nutrition, limited healthcare, and for many a combination of hard outdoor labour and lack of sunscreen. First time I remember seeing sunscreen in the chemist was in 1988. Many considered me mad for using the highest factor available then-factor 15

Definitely not poor nutrition, women let themselves go after getting married and wore sh1te clothes and no makeup.

Dakota Dan

Back in the 70’s most rural shops had a counter and you asked the shop assistant for what you wanted or gave them a list and they got what you wanted while you waited. No impulse shopping back then or buying sh1te that’s shoved in your face today.

JupiterKid

Wibbs wrote: »

That was my impression too, even at the time. There was a gulf between middle class Dubs and working class, but the gulf between Dublin/Cork/Galway and "The Country" was much larger. For one thing they were much more isolated from media. A captive audience. RTE was your lot as far as TV went(though radio gave you more)and if people think RTE today has a bias, bejesus it was more obvious then. A few years back I found an RTE Guide from the mid 70's and the references to the Church and input from priests in articles was eye opening. If you lived in Dublin or along the East coast, many people had either a dirty great aerial on their house, or had "the pipe" so you got the British TV channels which opened up your mental and cultural world. This tended to take away more of the Church and official state influence. There were fewer god botherers for a start. In the 80s when the satellite stuff was added to the mix again at the time I noticed a change in the cultural vibe.

Indeed - very true. The divide between urban and rural Ireland was much sharper back in the 70s and 80s.

Channel 4 coming along to our TVs in Dublin in 1982 really put the cat among the pigeons - uncensored French and other foreign films with sex scenes, programmes on gay and lesbian life that were daring for 1980s Britain let alone Ireland. The church must have been in convulsions at Channel 4 corrupting inpressionable young Irish minds (whilst all the time they were sexually abusing countless Irish children).

And then in 1991 Utopia, the first sex shop in Ireland, opened. The Legion of Mary protested outside it for the first year it was in operation!

road_high

Dakota Dan wrote: »

When women hot their late 30’s early 40’s they were like old women compared to the women today who still look young in their 50’s. Or maybe it’s me just getting older.

No it’s very true. I can compare my own mother to my grandmothers who always seemed like old women to me- my mother is probably older than them now. Hair color wasn’t such a big thing !

road_high

JupiterKid wrote: »

Ineed - very true. The divide between urban and rural Ireland was much sharper back on the 70s and 80s.

Channel 4 coming along to our TVs in Dublin in 1982 really put the cat among the pigeons - uncensored French and other foreign films with sex scenes, programmes on gay and lesbain life that were daring for 1980s Britain let alone Ireland. The church must have been in convulsions at Channel 4 corrupti g inpressionable young Urish minds (whilst all the time they were sexualky abusing countless Irish children).

And then in 1991 Utopia, the first sex shop in Ireland, opened. The Legion of Mary protested outside it for the first year it was in operation!

The early 90s was when it all come to a head. All the church scandals we now know were exposed or about to be exposed and the sale of contraception deregulated.

archer22

Dakota Dan wrote: »

Back in the 70’s most rural shops had a counter and you asked the shop assistant for what you wanted or gave them a list and they got what you wanted while you waited. No impulse shopping back then or buying sh1te that’s shoved in your face today.

In my area there used to be a mobile shop with all the basics that used to traverse and call to all the isolated houses in the back roads and boreens a couple of times a week...even people with cars used to avail of it as it saved them a trip to the local town.

NasserShammaz

harry Bailey esq wrote: »

We used to rent our telly from a little shop in finglas off Dessie Ellis. He's now a TD and sinn féin spokesperson on housing. Still lives in the house in finglas where he grew up. I'm no shinner but he's a nice genuine fella.

Free Dessie Ellis graffiti and Smash H Block. black flags on telegraph poles/telegraph poles

archer22

And the Posties on their bicycles in the rural areas...remember the bell ringing at the gate.
In my area there is miles of massive hills so the poor buggers had a really brutal job.

Still they used to make it 5 days a week in all weathers.
But that was before online shopping...Don't how they would fare if it was today

Masala

Don't remember anyone 'young' having cancer. It didn't seem to exist back then

Ursus Horribilis

whisky_galore wrote: »

Nope. You're welcome to it. Hours of my life I'll never get back.

I never said I wanted those times back either. Sigh.

Dakota Dan

Big Nasty wrote: »

Still the norm at classic car shows!

And the ploughing.

Edgware

zapitastas wrote: »

Were an awful lot less tubby feckers about in the 80s

Saying that once someone hit 70 they looked about 100. Most pensioners back then resembled Eamon dunphy.

True. Now they are tanned after the winter in the Canaries. The poor oul pensioners

Edgware

Purple Mountain wrote: »

Someone will have to explain this for me..

Regular on U.T.V. and B.B.C. Northern Ireland. The freedom fighters would have rang in a few bomb warning to the police

StereoSound

Coillte_Bhoy wrote: »

Bringing rakes of hang sandwiches and flasks of tea to big matches, and standing around at the boot of the car eating them. None of this running into a garage to pick up a bite to eat.

I remember this well, big 80's thing making your own lunches and bringing tea flasks.. Today people pee themselves if there is no take out coffee place or somewhere to charge their phone.

Edgware

harry Bailey esq wrote: »

We used to rent our telly from a little shop in finglas off Dessie Ellis. He's now a TD and sinn féin spokesperson on housing. Still lives in the house in finglas where he grew up. I'm no shinner but he's a nice genuine fella.

Oh yeah. Very useful with his hands.

iguana

StereoSound wrote: »

I remember this well, big 80's thing making your own lunches and bringing tea flasks.. Today people pee themselves if there is no take out coffee place or somewhere to charge their phone.

I have managed a great blend of pre-90s financial fastidiousness with modern day fanciness. Lunch on a day out can be a latte made with my favourite coffee with a delicious slice of quiche eaten on a comfy couch all for supermarket prices. Thanks to my little campervan.:)

Fizzlesque

I was in primary school in the seventies and our teacher used (a) smoke in the classroom & (b) send two of us pupils to the shop during class time to buy cigarettes for her. We'd buy sweets while we were there and eat them on the way back to class. I still remember that wonderful feeling of freedom and escape you'd get when it was your turn to be one of teacher's cigarette shoppers.

Smoking in the classroom with the kids sitting watching....haha, definitely a different world

Sycamore Tree

A few random thoughts on the 70s & 80s...

There wasn't much money around and unemployment/emigration was very hard on families and friends. There was no car or house envy because most people seemed to have roughly the same wealth.

Begrudgery and Tall Poppy syndrome was rampant. You dare not lift your head higher.

The church were at the height of their power and they knew it. They acted more like colonists than anything else.

The music was fantastic.

I think people were much more unique. People just seem very robotic and boring these days in comparison. Consumerism seems to dominate people's lives now. There were a lot more "characters" around then. Not so politically correct either.

Whole families would sit around and watch great scheduled TV shows every weekend (Dallas, Hill Street Blues, Glenroe etc etc).

Food was generally boring but you also knew what hunger was and it's a great sauce!

People were naturally fitter. Much fitter and in a more general sense.

People had a better general knowledge. The internet has made it too easy.

The big one for me is Time. We seemed to have much more time and everyone seemed much less rushed than today. Even the children today always seem to be in a rush or stressed about time. I guess there were no crèches, no traffic jams. Most mothers were always at home too. I am not saying that is a good thing but it certainly made family life less stressful/rushed.

Masala

Sycamore Tree wrote: »

A few random thoughts on the 70s & 80s...

There wasn't much money around and unemployment/emigration was very hard on families and friends. There was no car or house envy because most people seemed to have roughly the same wealth.

Begrudgery and Tall Poppy syndrome was rampant. You dare not lift your head higher.

The church were at the height of their power and they knew it. They acted more like colonists than anything else.

The music was fantastic.

I think people were much more unique. People just seem very robotic and boring these days in comparison. Consumerism seems to dominate people's lives now. There were a lot more "characters" around then. Not so politically correct either.

Whole families would sit around and watch great scheduled TV shows every weekend (Dallas, Hill Street Blues, Glenroe etc etc).

Food was generally boring but you also knew what hunger was and it's a great sauce!

People were naturally fitter. Much fitter and in a more general sense.

People had a better general knowledge. The internet has made it too easy.

The big one for me is Time. We seemed to have much more time and everyone seemed much less rushed than today. Even the children today always seem to be in a rush or stressed about time. I guess there were no crèches, no traffic jams. Most mothers were always at home too. I am not saying that is a good thing but it certainly made family life less stressful/rushed.

Still wouldn't swap my life now for a chance to go back.

dilallio

Sally O'Brien and the way she might look at you ...


Always having a tape recorder next to the transistor radio hoping to be able to record the latest hit, while at the same time cursing the radio dj who would always ruin it by talking over the song.


An Aer Lingus flight hijacked with Albert Reynolds on board. The hijacker's demand??? He wanted the "Third secret of Fatima" to be released.


All rural telephone calls had to be manually routed through the local post-office/exchange, and the local post-mistress frequently listened in on calls and knew more about what was going on than the KGB.

whisky_galore

archer22 wrote: »

And the Posties on their bicycles in the rural areas...remember the bell ringing at the gate.
In my area there is miles of massive hills so the poor buggers had a really brutal job.

Still they used to make it 5 days a week in all weathers.
But that was before online shopping...Don't how they would fare if it was today

https://www.google.ie/amp/s/amp.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/postmans-refusal-to-deliver-406mm-long-packet-on-his-bike-leads-to-three-days-of-state-agency-hearings-868836.html


Postman's refusal to deliver 406mm-long packet on his bike leads to three days of State agency hearings

fatknacker

As I was an introverted wee nipper, I spent a lot of time looking down at the pavements. They were usually cracked and littered with chewing gum and white turds.
That's what I remembered the most.
And you'd feel like a millionaire with a pound.

3rdDegree

Masala wrote: »

Don't remember anyone 'young' having cancer. It didn't seem to exist back then

I recall lots of cases of cancer, mainly middle aged people (old to me at the time). Most of them died. I seem to recall back then that a cancer diagnosis was almost always a death sentence.

kencoo

"Dublins Great in 88"

begbysback

Stolen cars - where I grew up there was no facilities to keep older lads occupied so they usually stole cars, they even stole back out of the Garda station when they took them.

Strangely enough one of my foremost memories is of being able to leave the key in the hall door permanently.

The men you don't see any more, the insurance man, the video man, the toffee apple man.

Break dancing and roller skating, football matches with jumpers as goalposts.

Trips to frawleys and the denim shop a couple of doors away (can't remember it's name) on Thomas street for the latest fashion!!

Ear phones with a player as big as a book

Mongfinder General

2011 wrote: »

Just look at this 1985 RTE new report:

I remember it so vividly.

Government approved airfares. £69 was an absolute fortune back then. And then the scheme for couples separating. The level of state interference in people’s lives was heavy.

fleet_admiral

Jimmy. wrote: »

The pull out method was all the rage.

Vatican roulette. Pull out and pray

Dakota Dan

3rdDegree wrote: »

I recall lots of cases of cancer, mainly middle aged people (old to me at the time). Most of them died. I seem to recall back then that a cancer diagnosis was almost always a death sentence.

I remember a few people looking down on people that got cancer as if they brought it on themselves and should be ashamed, some mentality that.

Sycamore Tree

Masala wrote: »

Still wouldn't swap my life now for a chance to go back.

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.

branie2

The Ann and Barry school books

road_high

Mongfinder General wrote: »

Government approved airfares. £69 was an absolute fortune back then. And then the scheme for couples separating. The level of state interference in people’s lives was heavy.

Bizarre alright- the government intervening in airfares! Talk about not “serving the people”

Billy86

road_high wrote: »

Bizarre alright- the government intervening in airfares! Talk about not “serving the people”

Makes me curious about some of the "modern nanny state" type complaints you hear today in some circles.

Dakota Dan

You could go out for a night with £20 get drunk have a ball and still have enough left over for the next night.

mikemac2

Ireland had a massive network of creameries. Hundreds of them! Many were tiny and no full time staff.The farmers bring their milk there and later the creamery will do the rounds and bring it all to the main creamery in town.

These days the milk lorry comes to you, you don’t go to the creamery. Operations are much bigger and a drive for efficiency, rush rush rush

These sites were sold off long ago. There may well be a house in your area known as the old creamery. I know one anyway

branie2

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory on telly every Christmas

jimmytwotimes 2013

Refills of your glass milk bottles at the local shop.

Had illegal BBC, UTV etc

Best shows A-Team, MacGyver, Family Ties, Alf, CHiPs, Matlock, Murder She Wrote. If you ever saw Jessica Fletcher checking into your hotel it was probably best to leave, as sh1t was about to go down.

Used to listen to midweek soccer matches on BBC radio but reception was chronic.

Getting flaked at school even though it had been outlawed.

Car parked in the house garage which is now a front room in a lot of houses.

Fruit and veg didn't stay fresh for as long as it does now but they weren't pumped full of crap then.

Madonna, Wham!, Queen, Michael Jackson on MT USA

Born in '76

branie2

The ads which consisted of a still and a voiceover.

Garda Patrol

oceanman

branie2 wrote: »

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory on telly every Christmas

still is...

branie2

The Angelus on tv, when it had religious pictures, mainly Mary and the baby Jesus.