The 70's and 80's in Ireland

BarryD2

Pints with a mate in the late 70s - two pints Smithwicks and two packet crisps for £1.

The 80s were great but sure at that age, any decade would be great. Going north was always a bit dodgy, apart from the almost daily carnage & mayhem led by our Republican friends, you could get stopped on any byroad by an army patrol and we know where that led in some cases.

And yes, long queues at public phone boxes in bedsit land.

hot buttered scones

andekwarhola wrote:

I wouldn't buy a lot of the nostalgia about those times. In many ways, Ireland is a far better place. One thing worth missing though is how relatively easier it was for young people to afford to be independent back then.

People will always feel nostalgic about their youth. And as kids we knew no better. I moved out of home into a bedsit when I was 18 and supported myself with a job in a fast food place.

Ursus Horribilis

Oh I'd forgotten about the phone thing. We got in a phone when I was a kid and remember it being a big deal at the time. I've no idea how long it took for us to actually get the phone but it seemed to be a long wait. One of my relatives got a phone in a few years after us and they were connected up to an older exchange. The phone had a crank handle on it(?) and if we wanted to phone them up, we had to ring the operator. We also found out that there was a number you could dial on the phone and then hang up. Then the phone would ring.

And if anyone thinks ghosting or not having someone call you is tough these days, try living in a home that had no phone. I remember seeing teenage girls waiting for ages in phone boxes, hoping that the fella they'd given the phone box's number to would ring. Talk about rejection in plain sight

Big Nasty

dellas1979 wrote: »

Funny to stumble on this thread.

I watched Reeling in the Years - 1984 this evening.

Tunes included U2s Pride (in the name of love), Cndy Lauper (time after time), and Shout shout let it all out (cant think of who that's by). Showed apartheid in South Africa, and how a lady who worked in Dunnes refuse to handle SA products. And then there was a strike. And "Do they know its Christmas time" came out. IRA bombed a hotel in London trying to kill Maggie and her cabinet.

For me, was actually very powerful rewatching this.

One thing that struck me was the excitement of the 1984 Olympics (and the next Olympics). Was transmitted on TV of course. Only two channels we had.

Daley Thompson and Lewis were like unobtainable Gods in a far far far away land, part of another world that Id never probably see.

Was amazing (for me) anyways to relive that memory.

The world has gotton smaller.

Tears For Fears

harry Bailey esq

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.

07Lapierre

The 80's...random memories...

Leather "pencil" ties.
Grandad shirts
Cowboy boots
Denim jackets
Stonewashed jeans
CB radio
Making arrangements to meet mates weeks/days in advance and simply turning up.
Paying to get into pubs
Driving without seat belts
Ads on the TV for "Roundup" fertiliser and stuff to protect cattle from "cycoptic mangemites"!

skylight1987

my dad paid £1,000 for our first phillips vcr
i remember recording tv shows and pressing stop when the adds were on so I wouldn't have to watch adds in playback
i learned the 24 hr clock from that vcr
ringing the train station for info i didn't need when we got our first house phone

rn

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

No - it didn't work like that. That particular myth has been doing the rounds on Boards for years now because it suits those who complain about the current system.

I will bow to your knowledge on it. I was not one of those driving "experts" myself. However my dad had all the letters on his license until he was 70 and local GP effectively took them off him and rightly so! His story to me was he got them in the amnesty.

To add

Local council workers calling to the door and getting their kettle filled and boiled.

Building "battlements" on top of the hay in the hay barn as an u10 year old... Regularly exposed to hay dust and up about 15ft off ground

Bonfires from old hay bales, tyres acquired strategically from the silage pit, old newspapers and burned engine oil for holloween and 22nd of July.

Changing your own engine oil every 3000 miles.

Moving cattle and sheep over long distances by running them on public road with neighbours help.

branie2

The "Moving Statues" of 1985.

NewbridgeIR

Newsflashes on the radio that went along the lines of

"Would John Smith who is believed to be holidaying in the south east of Ireland please telephone home for an urgent message"

Presumably wasn't going to be good news.

branie2

Back to the Future

4 Star Trek movies

The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi

These were great Sci-Fi movies in the 80s

Baron Kurtz

Didn't read the whole thread, but brown cars were the real deal back in the day.

freshpopcorn

NewbridgeIR wrote: »

Newsflashes on the radio that went along the lines of

"Would John Smith who is believed to be holidaying in the south east of Ireland please telephone home for an urgent message"

Presumably wasn't going to be good news.

Nearly sounds like a rural radio station Today!

Ursus Horribilis

NewbridgeIR wrote: »

Newsflashes on the radio that went along the lines of

"Would John Smith who is believed to be holidaying in the south-east of Ireland please telephone home for an urgent message"

Presumably wasn't going to be good news.

We very nearly had to issue one of those back in the day when my grandmother died suddenly. Thankfully somebody remembered where my aunt and uncle were going on holidays and the guards found them.

decky1

Late 70's +all 80's were great in our town , not a care in the world,live music in all pubs every night at weekend seem to have loads of money,pint was about 25 pence when i started drinking 1978, always great crack to be had, they say times are better now , walk down our town now it's gone backwards, shops closed everywhere, no cinema, maybe 2 pubs in town now have live music at weekends . when my father was young there were 2 cinema's 3 dance halls, no way are things better now.

Wibbs

rn wrote: »

I will bow to your knowledge on it. I was not one of those driving "experts" myself. However my dad had all the letters on his license until he was 70 and local GP effectively took them off him and rightly so! His story to me was he got them in the amnesty.

My oul lad had all the letters too, but then again he was born when the GPO was still smouldering after the Rising, so... He told me he was marched at 16 to some local office of whatever by his uncle who needed him to drive a truck for a week and they rocked up and just got a licence for him, all boxes ticked. That would have been the 1930's mind you. All his subsequent Irish(and other licences) just kept the allowances(except for HGV of course) until he pegged it in his 80's. Dunno about your Da Rn, but if his GP had tried to pull that when he was only 70, there would have been hell to pay. To be fair he was in good nick until the end. Didn't need reading glasses until he was 70*.






*the GP did send him to an optician to renew his licence and the guy didn't believe it, but tested him and was shocked to find that while his eyes had degraded a bit from 20/20, he had the eyes of an average 40 year old in his late 60's. I had the eyes of a 60 year old at 20.

Purple Mountain

07Lapierre wrote: »

Ads on the TV for "Roundup" fertiliser and stuff to protect cattle from "cycoptic mangemites"!

Who remembers the AIDS or HIV TV ad from the 80s?

NewbridgeIR

Purple Mountain wrote: »

Who remembers the AIDS or HIV TV ad from the 80s?

AIDS in the '80s was spread by cats.

lulu1

Deleted User wrote: »

70’s brought discotheques to Ireland. It was also a time of frustration because heavy petting was as far as we could safely go. Bell bottoms. Matheus Rose. The Indians.
It was a fun time. I was transitioning from a teenager to adulthood. An exciting time of love, music, leaving home, arctic roll, battered sausages, cheesecloth shirts and gypsy skirts.

All the boring stuff like marriage and kids and mortgage came in the 80’s.

Ah the bell bottoms gypsy skirts and cheesecloth blouses had them all

Loved the Indians

Purple Mountain

NasserShammaz wrote: »

keyholders in the area please come to your premises

Someone will have to explain this for me..

Wibbs

decky1 wrote: »

no way are things better now.

Like every generation and time there is good and bad. And nostalgia - which TBH tends to make my teeth itch at the best of times. Phrases that kick off with "things were better in our day because..." renders me near murderous - nostalgia makes people's memories highly selective.

However, things today are better across the board and better for more people with it. Much better overall. We live better lives in general, more informed lives, with far more access to information and people and support and better healthcare. The car you drive today is likely faster with more features than a Rolls Royce of your youth. And wont shite itself expensively before 100,000 miles, and beyond. You have the world at your fingertips in ways we can only hope to scratch the surface of. Yes there are stresses, but there always were. And there always will be. Just that when you're a kid you generally don't realise how bad it can be and don't feel it.

On top of that if you do need to plug into that gra for nostalgia you can enjoy, even wallow in it far more than your parents and grandparents could. Flick on youtube and work away reeling in your years.

The past can be OK, because we filter the shite. And our childhoods and adolescence were hopefully happy times for the most part, but give me today and the future every bloody time.

Put it another way: kids right now are busy building their own nostalgia and "better in our day" narratives about a time you think lesser of and don't quite get anymore. It is what is.

Wibbs

Purple Mountain wrote: »

Someone will have to explain this for me..

From what I remember PM, it was because of bomb threats and areas being evacuated and when the all clear was sounded folks were asked to come back. Or there was an active threat and the police in the North needed access to business premises to check them out. Something like that anyway.

Purple Mountain

smokingman wrote: »

Giving out to my brothers and parents about not rewinding the vhs tapes...

If the tape went to the end, it used to rewind automatically
Sometimes if I'm having a brain fog, I'll tell my son to go watch a video. He thinks I'm a dinosaur.

Ilovethe bonesofyou

Triple A golden maverick.

Charles Babbage

I did use the Internet in the 1980s, it wasn't great.
My car then went just as fast as the one I have now, it didn't have a DAB radio for RTE Gold but then they played 80s music on all the stations. Parking was easier to find.

Ursus Horribilis

The TV ad breaks which started off with regular ads, then finished off with the cheaper(?) ones that were just a photo and a voiceover artist telling you that their sale was now on

Purple Mountain

[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.

And you probably had a more active sex life than now!

Purple Mountain

Ilovethe bonesofyou wrote: »

Triple A golden maverick.

Help me out here..

A for acidified.
A for antiscour..???

Ursus Horribilis

A for Anti Scour
A for Acifidied
A for Accelerated Growth

jluv

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

No - it didn't work like that. That particular myth has been doing the rounds on Boards for years now because it suits those who complain about the current system.

My mother who had her third provisional filled in the form and got her full licence! Didn't start driving till years later!