Rose-tinted views of the past in Ireland

JupiterKid

I’m member of a couple of FB groups that put up old photos of Dublin and other places in Ireland and they are interesting to see.

One thing I note from many of the comments from some of the members posting up is stuff like “how times were so much better back then”, “no crime”, “respect for authority” and how Dublin and Ireland have gone “to hell” in the past 20 years.

Why the selective nostalgia of a much poorer country where there was real hardship, the religious reigned supreme and abused countless vulnerable women and children?

Some posters on these sites even come out with casual racism and homophobia. Would these posters (mostly older people I note) prefer a return to those times?

Thoughts?

whisky_galore

If there was only a way to stuff all those fűckers into a time machine and send them back to 1935 and they could stay there. Preferably in a tenement, or an industrial school, Magdalene laundry or other charming facility.

beauf

How are you different.

You like them are focused on the past.

What about all the hardship today?

freshpopcorn

People drive me mad when it comes to this.
Take discipline in schools.
I'd see the same person saying there's no respect anymore and they need to go back to an old style discipline.
The same people make a big deal if they hear about somebody being canned in school/etc in the past.
Same with people who'd have conditions such as dyslexia or ADHD. They'd say they don't believe because they weren't there before and then give out mad that people didn't get the help needed in the past.
Same with the respect for the Gardai, Shops being open late, TV, etc.

Some people are never happy!

Kermit.de.frog

10 to a room.

What's not to like?

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

"no crime" and "respect for authority" I usual counter with the words "Christian" and "Brothers".

The simple problem with the 70s and 80s is that ignorance was bliss.

hill16bhoy

Vote Generation Identity for a return to polio, TB and famine.

"Hardship will bond us", or something.

ardinn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHJhu15f-hg

Atoms for Peace

you too will get old, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young
prices were reasonable
politicians were noble
and children respected their elders

lalababa

They were the best of times, they were the worst of times.
Things have changed alot though. Agricultural and industrial manufacture work have evaporated. It's easy and very comfortable to live on social welfare.
Communication via smart phone. Living by smartphone. Almost everybody goes to college. The old way of socializing (phisically talking )is
Slowly going.
While people on social welfare can live the same as the middle class of the 60's/70's, actually paying for services (plumber/builder/professionals etc.) has skyrocketed, squeezing the middle class. I'm going to breakfast now and will have some marmalade on my toast.....

TheValeyard

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

you too will get old, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young
prices were reasonable
politicians were noble
and children respected their elders

Respect your elders

razorblunt

Nostalgia! It ain't what it used to be.

murpho999

If there was no crime back then, then why was there a police force?

EdgeCase

As Jasper Carrot once said: there were no burglaries in the area where he grew up because there was nothing to steal in most houses. What were you going to do? Break in and steal a clothes mangle ?!

mariaalice

murpho999 wrote: »

If there was no crime back then, then why was there a police force?

There was different crime, also a lot of people were locked up unofficially, In the mid-twentieth century, Grangegorman Mental Hospital had patient population of approximately 2,000 people, staff also live in. Even in 1965 it had 1,628 patients.

There was an asylum/mental hospital in Galway with even more inmates/patients and when it was to be closed down there was protests locally about loosing the jobs because it was a big employer. imagine protesting to keep a mental hospital open because it was a big employer.

Irish Guitarist

I often see people younger than me reminiscing about things that are completely false. For instance lads in their twenties or thirties harking back to the good old days when they played outside instead of playing video games. If you're under the age of forty home computers and video game consoles have existed all your life.

Feisar

No crime because people had nothing to rob!

Peatys

JupiterKid wrote: »

I’m member of a couple of FB groups....
Thoughts?

Delete Facebook. Problem magically goes away.

xi5yvm0owc1s2b

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

10 to a room.

We'll get there again soon...

KungPao

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

I often see people younger than me reminiscing about things that are completely false. For instance lads in their twenties or thirties harking back to the good old days when they played outside instead of playing video games. If you're under the age of forty home computers and video game consoles have existed all your life.

Ah but in my day, you’d have a fifa95 session with the lads, then head out and play actual football afterwards, even when it was getting dark and you could barely see the ball - “next goal the winner”, we’d say. Games back then weren’t as immersive really, not the ones I played anyway.

You wouldn’t really play Micro Machines on the Megadrive all day, for weeks.

GTA etc is bloody addictive, and some kids prefer living in Los Santos than the real world.

Mint Sauce

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

I often see people younger than me reminiscing about things that are completely false. For instance lads in their twenties or thirties harking back to the good old days when they played outside instead of playing video games. If you're under the age of forty home computers and video game consoles have existed all your life.

I'm 40, had an Atari, a Commodore Amiga, younger relatives had Segas and Nintendos. Still played outside though.

wakka12

beauf wrote: »

How are you different.

You like them are focused on the past.

What about all the hardship today?

Huh? You can like historical photos out of interest and not want today to be like it was then

I too find it weird though whenever I see any old photos of grafton street or wherever pop up on facebook I know therell be somebody in the comments saying it was so much better back then and giving no reasons why, yet it looks nearly the exact same and its nice today so I dont see where it all apparently went wrong. I think some people just say it nearly as a reflex action, about anywhere in the past, completely rose tinted glasses

BrokenArrows

Every generation looks on the previous generation with "rose tinted" views.

I watched an old american movie from 1958 called "12 angry men". In it a guy says "back in my parents day kids had respect, etc etc etc "

Ever generation is the same.

mariaalice

Memphis Scarce Sweet-talk wrote: »

We'll get there again soon...

That's an interesting current theme as well i.e we are reversing in the western world, as a society and in wealth etc.

EdgeCase

Mint Sauce wrote: »

I'm 40, had an Atari, a Commodore Amiga, younger relatives had Segas and Nintendos. Still played outside though.

We used to play our Nintendo Gameboys outside!

FelaniaMump

lalababa wrote: »

While people on social welfare can live the same as the middle class of the 60's/70's

You don't actually believe that bollocks do you?

FelaniaMump

KungPao wrote: »

Ah but in my day, you’d have a fifa95 session with the lads, then head out and play actual football afterwards.

So exactly the same as my kids and their friends now then?

riffmongous

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

I often see people younger than me reminiscing about things that are completely false. For instance lads in their twenties or thirties harking back to the good old days when they played outside instead of playing video games. If you're under the age of forty home computers and video game consoles have existed all your life.

They existed but we couldn't afford them!

mariaalice

riffmongous wrote: »

They existed but we couldn't afford them!

That a good point, just because they had it everyone had it, its living in a bubble.

FelaniaMump

mariaalice wrote: »

That a good point, just because they had it everyone had it, its living in a bubble.

The poster made no comment about everyone having them at all. But plenty of people did. I was too poor, but my cousins had the lot.
The point being, not everyone was outside being sweet little healthy urchins.....

It's fake nostalgia. Harking back to times that never actually existed.

EdgeCase

There are people who reminisce about the great old days of Telecom Éireann when everything was all high tech and wonderful.

I read the history of it and they were diabolically bad in the 1970s and early 80s to the point that the telephone service in a lot of parts of the country was like something that belonged in a museum of 1920s technology.

It then installed a bunch of digital exchanges in the 80s and briefly was cutting edge until it didn't invest and got passed out by the world again and was a relatively laggard by the mid 90s.

If you wanted to make a call from Cork to Dublin, you'd nearly need to consider taking out a mortgage and there was basically no internet.

It was bog standard and grossly overpriced.

Likewise people going on about the old Irish Rail being nice. It was rough, really inconsistent, the trains were often clapped out bone shakers and it usually smelled like an old pub.