Stories from the Celtic Tiger Years *Mod Warning in OP PLEASE READ*

PommieBast

Zebra3 wrote: »

Went through a phase of ordering a double vodka in a pint glass with a bottle of Smirnoff Ice as the mixer.

I used Orange VKs instead. £3.50 including the doubles.. :eek:

beertons

Montage of Feck wrote: »

and baileys with the brandy.

A Belfast Bomber.

madmaggie

I took voluntary redundancy in 2007. I went into Nationwide building society, said I wanted to put 10k on deposit. Two snotty young wans told me they didn't do small deposits. The manager at Halifax was all smiles.

questionmark?

afatbollix wrote: »

Does anyone remember how much a fat frog was?

1 bottle orange Bacardi Breezer
1 bottle WKD blue
1 bottle Smirnoff Ice

It must of cost over e20 for one of them and as it was so full of sugar they were drinking tons of them.

Worked in a bar during the boom financing the student life. Still remember the fat frogs were €16.50. Madness.
Two ports and a WKD was another one but only one glass at €15 a pop or the fellas who would order a bottle of champagne for €60 with two pint glasses of ice FFS!

Sebastian Dangerfield

questionmark? wrote: »

Worked in a bar during the boom financing the student life. Still remember the fat frogs were €16.50. Madness.
Two ports and a WKD was another one but only one glass at €15 a pop or the fellas who would order a bottle of champagne for €60 with two pint glasses of ice FFS!

I remember working in a bar when the builders knocked off for Christmas, and being asked for pints of Baileys.

In another hotel in the same town, at weddings we'd sell a good drop of Remy Martin Louis XIII at 80 quid a go. The manager had the empty bottle which he used to fill with Hennessy, and he used to say that if anyone from around here (he was from Cork) asked for it, he was certain they didnt know what it tasted like. No one ever noticed.

double jobbing

double jobbing wrote: »

If anything people seem to be more freely spending now than they were then. You didn't see 17 year olds going around in 2006 in 600 euro jackets like you do now with Canada Goose now (albeit plenty of these are knock offs). It was pretty unheard of for working class people to wear the likes of Ralph Lauren, Lacoste, Hugo Boss etc on a night out like they do now (myself included).

For all the free credit the vast majority of people didn't even have a credit card back then. The few people who did spent half their lives booking Ryanair flights for their friends who didn't have them.

I'd say the biggest difference is people went out drinking more. Town on a Thursday or a Sunday night would be quite busy, it's dead these days.

Old cars disappeared off the streets almost overnight when the scrappage bonus came around 2000. Up to 2009 you essentially never saw a car older than 2000 yet today half the cars on the road seem to be 15 years plus old.

Aside from that I think pre Covid most people seem to have more disposable income than they did back in the mid 2000's. A pint in town has went up by what, 1.20, but the minimum wage must have climbed about 3 quid per hour in that time, so younger people are definitely better off.

But looking back to my school days I can only recall one family that seemed to go from average to ridiculously well off over night (few holidays a year, new car every 18 months etc).

Plenty of brickies made a fortune but sure plenty of them were too fond of the sniff and a gamble for it to matter.

I was in college in Dublin at the time and worked in Best Menswear on O'Connell Street part-time. We literally could not keep Lacoste gear on the shelves as every scrote in Dublin was buying them, often 2-3 tracksuits and t-shirts at a time.

Randy Archer

chops018 wrote: »

Does anyone have any good (or bad) stories from the Celtic Tiger years?

You always hear phrases about how people partied etc., was there just a constant flow of credit available to people and people actually taking the money e.g. was there actually teachers on circa €30k a year buying a house and car and an apartment somewhere.

I was in school and college during these years, graduated into the recession, so I didn't really see what was fully going on at the time bar the fact everyone was working and had money. My dad was working on the buildings on great money and my mam was working away also, we were never stuck really money-wise, also rent seemed to be a lot cheaper back then and fuel and also my college fees were only around €800 a year along with wages being fairly similar to what they are now (from what I can remember anyway, will stand corrected if I am wrong).

Cheap credit . Even the maintenance grants for Students was pretty good as things were cheap enough outside Dublin (good, booze, rent )

J1 visas were easy to get via bank loans

Remember the famous bank of Ireland student loan ad ? The height of the Tiger Years

Farmers driving Mercs with their trailers ... was gangsta

Some things that happened during the Galway races was unreal . People lost the run of themselves

Gardai were also speculating on the property bubble ffs

Randy Archer

Sky King wrote: »

I did my leaving in early naughties - a load of my friends were working on the buildings from the late 90s all the way through the 'tiger'.

My abiding memory is them earning huge money and spending thousands of euro a month on drinking and boy racer cars.

Can I have 6 double vodka red bulls barman. Here's a hundred quid. Keep the change.

And telling you that school and college was a waste of time and how rent was “dead money”

Many of them haven’t a pot to piss in now . Ha ha ha . Still it was good hanging onto their coat tails, some of them would have been dangerous if they had brains

In 2007, I was working for a company and they organised a mystery Christmas party. We were told to pack an overnight bag and present at Connolly Station at 4pm. They had booked a private train to Kilkenny and had filled it with free booze and paid musicians and magicians to entertain us on the way down.

When we got to Kilkenny, they had booked up a full hotel and each of us had a room. Free food, booze and and they had brought in an outside casino that we got vouchers for.

The company was in receivership by the following August.

Randy Archer

Deleted User wrote: »

In 2007, I was working for a company and they organised a mystery Christmas party. We were told to pack an overnight bag and present at Connolly Station at 4pm. They had booked a private train to Kilkenny and had filled it with free booze and paid musicians and magicians to entertain us on the way down.

When we got to Kilkenny, they had booked up a full hotel and each of us had a room. Free food, booze and and they had brought in an outside casino that we got vouchers for.

The company was in receivership by the following August.

Any strippers? They use to be all the rage back in the day but sadly, unlike London etc ,the quality was rubbish .How ghastly

Randy Archer

Deleted User wrote: »

I was in college in Dublin at the time and worked in Best Menswear on O'Connell Street part-time. We literally could not keep Lacoste gear on the shelves as every scrote in Dublin was buying them, often 2-3 tracksuits and t-shirts at a time.

And robbing them

Not sure where the other chap was going about the alleged lack of big names labels back in the day .This was at the time of football hooligan movies like Green Street so Clobber like that was getting big or least knock off stuff

Sure women were going to New York for weekend shopping trips and online buying was starting up

Randy Archer

Sebastian Dangerfield wrote: »

I remember working in a bar when the builders knocked off for Christmas, and being asked for pints of Baileys.

In another hotel in the same town, at weddings we'd sell a good drop of Remy Martin Louis XIII at 80 quid a go. The manager had the empty bottle which he used to fill with Hennessy, and he used to say that if anyone from around here (he was from Cork) asked for it, he was certain they didnt know what it tasted like. No one ever noticed.

Genius. Nothing more funnier than the “new money” people with notions . Serves those plebs right to be duped

thunderdog

Out of a class of 25 doing the Junior Cert in 2000, 12 lads packed in school to work on building sites. I distinctly remember one of the lads, in the lead up to the JC exams, telling a teacher that he doesn’t need bother with school and the exams as he will be earning twice the teachers wage in a couple of months!

Randy Archer

Randy Archer wrote: »

Any strippers? They use to be all the rage back in the day but sadly, unlike London etc ,the quality was rubbish .How ghastly

No, but there were a couple of hired celebrities. It was cringe.

Pinch Flat

thunderdog wrote: »

Out of a class of 25 doing the Junior Cert in 2000, 12 lads packed in school to work on building sites. I distinctly remember one of the lads, in the lead up to the JC exams, telling a teacher that he doesn’t need bother with school and the exams as he will be earning twice the teachers wage in a couple of months!

Wonder what he's doing now?

Sky King

Pinch Flat wrote: »

Wonder what he's doing now?

He's probably still wasting away as a teacher. Man I would hate that job.

Be grand to get paid to do fck all though I suppose.

Sky King

Randy Archer wrote: »

Genius. Nothing more funnier than the “new money” people with notions . Serves those plebs right to be duped

Oh that reminds me of another one - jerks down from Dublin in a pub ordering shots of Middleton at 16 quid a glass.... and mixing it with coke.

Mickiemcfist

Sky King wrote: »

Oh that reminds me of another one - jerks down from Dublin in a pub ordering shots of Middleton at 16 quid a glass.... and mixing it with coke.

16 quid a glass, that's a bargain for Middleton! Celtic tiger wasn't all bad I guess!

Pinch Flat

thunderdog wrote: »

Out of a class of 25 doing the Junior Cert in 2000, 12 lads packed in school to work on building sites. I distinctly remember one of the lads, in the lead up to the JC exams, telling a teacher that he doesn’t need bother with school and the exams as he will be earning twice the teachers wage in a couple of months!

Wonder what he's doing now?

Randy Archer

Lia_lia wrote: »

I was in school for all of it (did the leaving in 2007) so didn’t even really realise what was going on. My family never had much money and held low paid jobs through the boom and recession. Good thing meant the recession didn’t have a negative impact on us either. And was a great time to be in college!

Was it ?

Students in 2002-2006 never had to worry about money as loans were easy to get, and there were always loads of a
Handy supermarket or pub jobs to finance college and social life. Those on grants would get about 2 grand every two months or so , which was loads if you went to college outside Dublin as rent was often cheaper . Naturally social life consisted of at least 3-4 nights out during the week and Saturday night (County vec days )

I know people who went to college between 2006-2010 at times were tougher . Part time jobs were hard to come by And one year there were serious delays in grants coming through, and some college tuition fees weren’t covered and colleges were like “pay up or **** off”

Then again, deep in the really bad times, post college , some of my posse managed regular drinking during the week after work and the odd Saturday night on crappy pay and rent in Dublin wasn’t horrendous compared to post 2014 . Odd

Randy Archer

Deleted User wrote: »

No, but there were a couple of hired celebrities. It was cringe.

Lol, some of them models probably moon lighted as prossies , if you asked nicely

5555555555

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/this-is-anglo-so-there-is-only-one-thing-to-do-party-1.589487

CrankyHaus

Randy Archer wrote: »

Farmers driving Mercs with their trailers ... was gangsta

Actually that reminds me of one time I saw a Porsche towing a 1720 racing yacht on its trailer during the Tiger.

Not a Porsche SUV either. It was a roadster like a 911 or a Boxster. The gearbox must have been banjaxxed. I had no idea you could even put a tow-bar on a Porsche like that. If they ever get wind of it in Stuttgart we'll have to send Aonghus Von Bismarck over to apologise on behalf of the whole country.

JimmyVik

https://www.independent.ie/woman/celeb-news/lords-and-ladies-of-the-realm-gathered-for-geralds-deliciously-decadent-50th-26327902.html

coffee_cake

JimmyVik wrote: »

https://www.independent.ie/woman/celeb-news/lords-and-ladies-of-the-realm-gathered-for-geralds-deliciously-decadent-50th-26327902.html

Oh lord the cringe of it all

Muscles Schultz

JimmyVik wrote: »

https://www.independent.ie/woman/celeb-news/lords-and-ladies-of-the-realm-gathered-for-geralds-deliciously-decadent-50th-26327902.html

Let me guess.....Barry Egan?

Kevhog1988

I was in college from 2005 to 2008. I remember it was fierce easy to earn money in the summers of 2005 & 2006 on the buildings which bank rolled my year in college but in 2008 it was a real struggle to get through the year. Some mad stories:

I know lads who payed almost 40k an acre for agricultural land.
A fellow gave me a 50 euro tip for washing his car.
i bought a car, taxed and insured it after 1 month working on a building site at 17.
plasterers on the site i worked on worked 3.5 days per week.

dennyire

Muscles Schultz wrote: »

Let me guess.....Barry Egan?

who else

JimmyVik

Muscles Schultz wrote: »

Let me guess.....Barry Egan?

"
"Lords and Ladies, Nobility of the Realm," it began with fitting grandiosity, "the honour of thy presence is hereby requested at the 50th Birthday Party of Dr Gerald Ronan Kean to be enjoyed at the Ritz Carlton Powerscourt, Enniskerry, County Wicklow."
Nor was this to be a common or garden black tie affair. The dress code for the evening -- which would be strictly enforced -- was full costume from the aristocratic courts of 18th Century France.
And, needless to say, when the regal proceedings began at 7pm last night in the Ritz Carlton, the birthday boy himself, Mr Kean, stepped into the waiting assembly dressed in black and gold brocade as King Louis XVI.
To his right, Gerald's girlfriend -- and Michael Flatley's former fiancee -- Lisa Murphy came as Marie Antoinette, complete with diamond jewels of the era. She was serenely self-possessed in the midst of the hurly-burly of 300 well wishers milling about in full 18th century regalia. Smiling coquettishly, Lisa didn't look like a lady who was going to get her head cut off.
"I am wearing a dress that was specially made by Sands in London," Lisa told me. "They actually made the costumes for the movie Marie Antoinette. I am going to change into another dress, that I bought in America, halfway through the evening. It is blue and gold."
I remark that the vertigo-inducing shoes she is wearing are hardly reminiscent of the 18th century.
"I know!" she said with a laugh. "I don't like the shoes of that period. They weren't high enough. I'm in Roberto Cavilli gold shoes -- to match the dress."
TV3's Lorraine Keane wore a purple and gold dress designed and made by her friend Synan O'Mahony in Italian lace and brocade. She cooed that Peter Mark's Gary Kavanagh created a coiffure masterpiece.
All the guests were announced officially upon arrival, as in, "Lord and Lady Ahern" or "Lord and Lady Keating". Also "Lord and Lady Moya Brennan" (of Clannad, with her husband Tim Jarvis) were expected, as was "Lord and Lady Martin King" and "Lord and Lady Fiachna O'Braonain"."


I got sick after getting that far.

gmisk

JimmyVik wrote: »

"
"Lords and Ladies, Nobility of the Realm," it began with fitting grandiosity, "the honour of thy presence is hereby requested at the 50th Birthday Party of Dr Gerald Ronan Kean to be enjoyed at the Ritz Carlton Powerscourt, Enniskerry, County Wicklow."
Nor was this to be a common or garden black tie affair. The dress code for the evening -- which would be strictly enforced -- was full costume from the aristocratic courts of 18th Century France.
And, needless to say, when the regal proceedings began at 7pm last night in the Ritz Carlton, the birthday boy himself, Mr Kean, stepped into the waiting assembly dressed in black and gold brocade as King Louis XVI.
To his right, Gerald's girlfriend -- and Michael Flatley's former fiancee -- Lisa Murphy came as Marie Antoinette, complete with diamond jewels of the era. She was serenely self-possessed in the midst of the hurly-burly of 300 well wishers milling about in full 18th century regalia. Smiling coquettishly, Lisa didn't look like a lady who was going to get her head cut off.
"I am wearing a dress that was specially made by Sands in London," Lisa told me. "They actually made the costumes for the movie Marie Antoinette. I am going to change into another dress, that I bought in America, halfway through the evening. It is blue and gold."
I remark that the vertigo-inducing shoes she is wearing are hardly reminiscent of the 18th century.
"I know!" she said with a laugh. "I don't like the shoes of that period. They weren't high enough. I'm in Roberto Cavilli gold shoes -- to match the dress."
TV3's Lorraine Keane wore a purple and gold dress designed and made by her friend Synan O'Mahony in Italian lace and brocade. She cooed that Peter Mark's Gary Kavanagh created a coiffure masterpiece.
All the guests were announced officially upon arrival, as in, "Lord and Lady Ahern" or "Lord and Lady Keating". Also "Lord and Lady Moya Brennan" (of Clannad, with her husband Tim Jarvis) were expected, as was "Lord and Lady Martin King" and "Lord and Lady Fiachna O'Braonain"."


I got sick after getting that far.

Ah Gerald Kean...wasn't he kicked out of his offices recently? Owing a tonne of dough...