The 70's and 80's in Ireland

gormdubhgorm

Heroditas wrote: »

Im surprised at those figures. I thought the figures in the 70s and 80s would have been much lower and the newer figures would have been much higher!

So was I.
Roughly the 80's seems to be about a third of the more modern figures for each year.

But of course it does not seem to distinguish between paramilitary stuff and the like.

Still though, I would have thought there were even less homicides at that time in Ireland - If I was to have had a guess at it.

freshpopcorn

cgcsb wrote: »

Have the really changed their views though? or have they changed the language they use to:

'genuine concern' and 'conscientious objection'

Well in my experience a lot have changed there views on the matter over the years.
They were a lot of young people 20's/30's.Who went a long with the traditional view on things.
They now have no issue with their kids being gay, getting divorced,etc.
We can't dig on their social media account tough to see what they were like.

cgcsb

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

In the early 80s (Dublin) an older cousin of mine moved in with her boyfriend

Her mother went to the parish priest and asked if there was anything he could do! (He said no)

She was nearly 30 ffs

He could have offered the mother a lobotomy, live the life she's always wanted, dribbling out the side of her mouth.

cgcsb

Heroditas wrote: »

Im surprised at those figures. I thought the figures in the 70s and 80s would have been much lower and the newer figures would have been much higher!

The tabloid media now like to pedal fear. I think the difference would largely be accounted for by the drug warfare. What's weird in the 2000s-2010s is the correlation between economic output and murders. :eek: perhaps an indication of people spending disposable income on drugs, this increasing the trade and number of killings.

AndrewJRenko

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

In the early 80s (Dublin) an older cousin of mine moved in with her boyfriend

Her mother went to the parish priest and asked if there was anything he could do! (He said no)

She was nearly 30 ffs

When my brother moved in with GF, similar age and a similar era, we used to have to let the phone right three times and then ring again so they'd know that it wasn't her mother phoning who would get a heart attack if a man answered.

Mena Mitty

I don't know if anybody mentioned it on the thread so far. I was thinking of my brothers collecting English football cards.

Most of the young lads and a few girls used to collect them. They'd have hundreds of them and be swapping them in school.

ArnoldJRimmer

Mena Mitty wrote: »

I don't know if anybody mentioned it on the thread so far. I was thinking of my brothers collecting English football cards.

Most of the young lads and a few girls used to collect them. They'd have hundreds of them and be swapping them in school.

Yep, I had the 1986 sticker album. All the First Division teams along with the big teams in Scotland, so there was Kenny Dalglish, Bryan Robson, and eh, Roy Aitken. Think it might still be in the attic of my parents house

Mena Mitty

ArnoldJRimmer wrote: »

Yep, I had the 1986 sticker album. All the First Division teams along with the big teams in Scotland, so there was Kenny Dalglish, Bryan Robson, and eh, Roy Aitken. Think it might still be in the attic of my parents house

That's a nice thing to have. If you do come across it in your parents attic it'll bring back a lot of memories of your time collecting them all.

Steve Highway was a player when my brother's used to collect the cards, so I think the late 70's maybe.

JupiterKid

4ensic15 wrote: »

The small corner shops were very expensive. After shopping in them people had no money for anything else. If you shopped in a corner shop with the owner living upstairs you were paying for the product and supporting his family. Two car families were virtually unknown. Foreign holidays were beyond the reach of the vast majority of families. Holidays in ireland were beyond the reach of the majority. Central heating was a luxury, colour television was a luxury. Clothing was very expensive, so people had to wear items for years.
The real problem with rural towns is that the planners haven't adapted to make them to make it feasible for people to live in them.

In the 1980s?

This is a bit of an exaggeration. Yes, regular foreign holidays were limited to the upper middle class but many families holidayed in England or Scotland, often staying with relatives or took the ferry to France (much cheaper back then than flying). Holidays in Ireland were the norm for most except the very deprived and/or those badly affected by alcoholism.

Colour television was widespread but many households did not have a telephone.

Independent corner shops were and are still more expensive than chain stores because the latter exploit economies of scale and stock buying power. I am proud to support my local corner shop.

freshpopcorn

JupiterKid wrote: »

In the 1980s?

This is a bit of an exaggeration. Yes, regular foreign holidays were limited to the upper middle class but many families holidayed in England or Scotland, often staying with relatives or took the ferry to France (much cheaper back then than flying). Holidays in Ireland were the norm for most except the very deprived and/or those badly affected by alcoholism.

Most people I knew were lucky to get a day at the seaside in the 1980's!

Wildsurfer

Ferry to France in the 80s... my kids will be lucky to get that in the next 10 years nevermind my parents bringing us! Only for our teacher bringing us to Mosney, I would never been on a holiday till I was 18!

cgcsb

Wildsurfer wrote: »

Ferry to France in the 80s... my kids will be lucky to get that in the next 10 years nevermind my parents bringing us!

You can fly to the Canaries for less than €200 return off season these days :pac:
cheaper than ferry to France.

mariaalice

cgcsb wrote: »

You can fly to the Canaries for less than €200 return off season these days :pac:
cheaper than ferry to France.

Flight to Rodze in the mid south of France return for less that 70euro and with two bags on board 83euro returne end of June.

conorhal

freshpopcorn wrote: »

Most people I knew were lucky to get a day at the seaside in the 1980's!

My mum's from Pearse St. and as working class as it gets, but by the 60's package holidays were all the rage and even with a low paid job, she and a friend could afford a cheap holiday in the Costas at that time, so foreign holidays weren't that exceptional. People just had different spending priorities in their 20's and 30's at that time, which involved mortgages and kids and schooling rather then instagram pics from Machu Pichu.

gormdubhgorm

freshpopcorn wrote: »

Most people I knew were lucky to get a day at the seaside in the 1980's!

Butlins in the UK and Haven holidays was where we were shipped over to.

The strange accents, the trip on the boat, red coats, blue coats.
Kids were allowed to wander around, it seemed very safe for kids.
Kids shows with songs made up, wrestling shows in the holiday camp.

Then of course there were celebrities invited in for the kids shows like Rolf Harris, doing shows.
All good wholesome stuff!

More exotic than Mosney!

But apparently it was the package holidays to Spain and Portugal that started, the real decline of Mosney in 1989.

road_high

BoatMad wrote: »

I drove a lot around the country in the 80s , and the one thing that was very obvious as the recession continued was the terrible drab state of the country , leaving aside the shocking state of the roads.

I remember driving through Tubbercurry in 86 and seeing a town still in the 50s , difficult to get lunch or a cup of coffee , no development

Then I happened back there in 2006, and more recently last year , much more vibrant, houses painted and fresh looking , building going on around the town , much more food and drink available. looks far more prosperous then the 80s

I remember going to a swimming gala thing in Thurles co Tipp on a Sunday with my family and after we tried (in vain) to get a bite to eat!!! This was early 90s in a town of 7000 people! There was literally nowhere open to eat out. The country was grim back then and small country towns were miserable. No wonder people emigrated in droves

road_high

conorhal wrote: »

My mum's from Pearse St. and as working class as it gets, but by the 60's package holidays were all the rage and even with a low paid job, she and a friend could afford a cheap holiday in the Costas at that time, so foreign holidays weren't that exceptional. People just had different spending priorities in their 20's and 30's at that time, which involved mortgages and kids and schooling rather then instagram pics from Machu Pichu.

Foreign hols were defo the exception and the traffic figures from Dublin airport bare this out. It’s a tiny fraction of today and most of that was to England and the near continent

iamwhoiam

conorhal wrote: »

My mum's from Pearse St. and as working class as it gets, but by the 60's package holidays were all the rage and even with a low paid job, she and a friend could afford a cheap holiday in the Costas at that time, so foreign holidays weren't that exceptional. People just had different spending priorities in their 20's and 30's at that time, which involved mortgages and kids and schooling rather then instagram pics from Machu Pichu.

She was definitely the exception . I was a kid in the 60's and it was not the norm at all to go abroad then .

yaboya1

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

Butlins in the UK and Haven holidays was where were were shipped over to.

The strange accents, the trip on the boat, red coats, blue coats.
Kids were allowed to wander around, it seemed very safe for kids.
Kids shows with songs made up, wrestling shows in the holiday camp.

Then of course there were celebrities invited in for the kids shows like Rolf Harris, doing shows.
All good wholesome stuff!

Some selective memory there.
Very safe for kids? Far from it.
Shows with Rolf Harris and invited celebrities like his mate Jimmy Savile
Those decades were most definitely not very safe for kids. Bad stuff was covered up so we only heard about it recently. Maybe that's why you have your romantic nostalgic view. It's wrong though. Plenty of that bad stuff was happening then, regardless of when it became public.

JupiterKid

Package holidays abroad and in the sun were really taking off in the 1970s and 80s. Jet aircraft made that possible. Many Irish families went abroad on holiday...it just wasn't anywhere near as often or as widespread as today.

Trips over to England on the ferry to see and stay with relatives were also very popular.

Sardonicat

JupiterKid wrote: »

Trips over to England on the ferry to see and stay with relatives were also very popular.

They weren't really holidays, though and the journey was an ordeal if you lived and we're going to a long way from the ferry ports . We did it by coach a few times. Almost 24 hrs of an extremely uncomfortable journey then more coaching round England to see various relatives. As a teenager I hated it! The idea of travelling to a destination with no purpose other than enjoy yourselves as a family unit was a pure indulgence. Trips over to family were often combined with family obligations for the adults

gormdubhgorm

yaboya1 wrote: »

Some selective memory there.
Very safe for kids? Far from it.
Shows with Rolf Harris and invited celebrities like his mate Jimmy Savile
Those decades were most definitely not very safe for kids. Bad stuff was covered up so we only heard about it recently. Maybe that's why you have your romantic nostalgic view. It's wrong though. Plenty of that bad stuff was happening then, regardless of when it became public.

You didn't get my sarcasm obviously!

Greentopia

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

LOLed at this, I'm the sole earner in our household and by no means wealthy.

Fair enough and I'm glad for you, but it's far from the norm. Most couples are working full time now because they have no other choice if they want to be able to get a mortgage.
My point was when I was a child this wasn't the case and a single earner could get one. Interest rates were much higher, true, but at least home ownership wasn't out of the reach of so many as it is now. Houses weren't seen as commodities to be traded, rented out and flipped. You bought a home then.

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

An illusion. There was plenty of bad stuff happening, it was just covered up and not just the priests either.

Of course there was, I know that. There are many things I didn't like or agree with then-the Catholic church's dominance and abuse being a main one, but I do remember a time when murder was rarely on the news except in Northern Ireland, when assault, robbery and break-in's weren't something my parents ever had to worry about, nor was my safety if I wanted to go out and play and meet my friends. That's not an illusion, that's how it was. Perhaps it was different in cities I don't know, but that was life for me growing up in small town Ireland.

Yes we know now bad things were happening, but there were some things I think were better then and as a child none of the bad stuff affected me personally I have to say and I have many happy memories of my childhood-loving parents, home home, school friends, long happy summers on the beach with Mum...
I know for others it wasn't so, I'm just relating my experience.

Hotblack Desiato

Muggings, break-ins and car theft were so common in Dublin in the late 70s/early 80s much of it wasn't even reported to the guards. My mother was mugged within 50 yards of our home. On our road it was quite unusual if your home had never been broken into. Car locks were useless and often any key of a particular model would open any other, most people got Krooklocks etc. or those poles at the end of your driveway, neither was much use.

Hotblack Desiato

Greentopia wrote: »

Fair enough and I'm glad for you, but it's far from the norm. Most couples are working full time now because they have no other choice if they want to be able to get a mortgage.

It's been many years since most people could get a mortgage on one income, there's a difference between getting it and paying it and we wouldn't have got it on one income

But once 2 or more kids come along, given the cost of childcare etc. there comes a point where one spouse is working for free or paying to work.

JupiterKid

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

Muggings, break-ins and car theft were so common in Dublin in the late 70s/early 80s much of it wasn't even reported to the guards. My mother was mugged within 50 yards of our home. On our road it was quite unusual if your home had never been broken into. Car locks were useless and often any key of a particular model would open any other, most people got Krooklocks etc. or those poles at the end of your driveway, neither was much use.

Agreed. Car and property theft were endemic in the 1980s. There appears to be a very strong correlation between economic underdevelopment (the case in Ireland at that time), and disparity between the poorest and richest sections of a society and crime levels. Our car got stolen and burned out and many of the neighbours’ cars were knicked too. Joyriding was very commonplace. Litter was everywhere as was dog sh*t.

People often look back at their childhood years with rose tinted specs...

yaboya1

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

You didn't get my sarcasm obviously!

I didn't.
Apologies if that was the case. It just appears that many have rose tinted specs when it comes to looking back at the past.

Hotblack Desiato

JupiterKid wrote: »

Agreed. Car and property theft were endemic in the 1980s. There appears to be a very strong correlation between economic underdevelopment (the case in Ireland at that time), and disparity between the poorest and richest sections of a society and crime levels.

More to do I think with the then-new heroin epidemic, and a lot of people still had a very lackadaisical attitude towards locking doors/windows or even cars. A lot of locks were useless anyway, even on front doors - break the glass next to the Yale lock and in you go. Lots of easy pickings around in those days and consumer goods like a colour TV or (much rarer) VCR were worth relatively a lot more money then.

There's an interesting theory too correlating the 90s drop in crime in the US with the 70s banning of leaded petrol, lead levels have a direct effect on children's IQ and attention spans. In the 70s and 80s we had the highest lead levels in Europe and we were among the last countries in Europe to phase it out in 2000. Scrappage schemes in the mid-90s got most lead-requiring cars off the road by then.

gormdubhgorm

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

There's an interesting theory too correlating the 90s drop in crime in the US with the 70s banning of leaded petrol, lead levels have a direct effect on children's IQ and attention spans. In the 70s and 80s we had the highest lead levels in Europe and we were among the last countries in Europe to phase it out in 2000. Scrappage schemes in the mid-90s got most lead-requiring cars off the road by then.

I read that there was a link between legalised abortion and fall in the crime rates in the USA.
Roe v Wade in 70's by the 90's there were less criminals as a result.
As the working class areas (where most crime was committed) could now afford abortions and have access to them.
It will be interesting to see will the crime rate fall in Ireland at a similar level in about 20 years time.

Anyway. Back in the 1980's in Ireland things were a lot easier to steal no CCTV in streets, or alarms on cars.
I can't remember many houses having alarms.
I remember neighbourhood watch stickers in the area which were plastered everywhere.

gormdubhgorm

First ATM machine in Ireland in 1980

It was the start of the dehumanising of banks.


https://www.rte.ie/archives/2015/0213/679861-irelands-first-atm/