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

Sheep Shagger

mikemac2 wrote: »

Disagree

Even the Lux residents find it boring.

Now Cologne, best city in Europe!

Absolutely - tumble weed after 6pm.

Das Reich

Arrived in Ireland at the end of it and worked as kitchen porter of a restaurant, you wouldn't believe the waste of food. People eating half of a pizza (+17€), actually even beers were going back to kicthen with the pint half full. Very disguted to throw food on the bin specially meat.

Kermit.de.frog

Back in the day a fella told me he ordered Chinese 3 out of every 4 nights a week.

'Labour or food?' I said.

ILoveYourVibes

All your stories are 'normal people' stories.

We were NEVER part of the celtic tiger.

That was another planet for some people.

Bad people ...really really bad people.


https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/daughter-of-celtic-tiger-couple-appeals-access-to-family-mansion-26850069.html

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/couple-who-epitomised-the-celtic-tiger-mingled-with-rich-and-famous-31035373.html

Couple who epitomised the Celtic Tiger mingled with rich and famous

AT HOME in Ireland their neighbour was Bono, while on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, it was the President of the United States who lived next door.

Solicitor Brian O'Donnell and his psychologist wife, Mary Pat, together with their four adult children - Blaise, Blake, Bruce and Alexandra - had what is often called "a lifestyle".

They are now an unlikely cause célèbre, doggedly supported by the self-styled Land League - despite being, perhaps, the most unlikely victims ever to be served with an eviction notice.

And they are garnering little sympathy from the public at large, despite the new Land League's protestations that an eviction from lofty Vico Road equates to the same as an eviction in Finglas.

The O'Donnells' master bedroom in Gorse Hill at 600 square feet, is the size of an entire shoebox city apartment - though with sweeping views across Killiney Bay.

They have an outdoor pool, a tennis court, a sauna, snooker room and pool room - all the trappings of wealth.

When they first moved in, in the early Noughties, they threw a house-warming party that one impressed guest described as "extravagant beyond imagination", with gold-embossed invitations, caviar, and champagne for 150 guests.

By 2005, they had well and truly made the house a home, decorating it with a well-

chosen collection of art and antiques valued by Deloitte at €7.5m.


All these glittering possessions, along with the house, were merely the rightful gongs for a solicitor whose career seemed to strike not one false note. In 2007, he ranked 91 on the Rich List of Ireland's wealthiest, worth a reported €144m.

Brian O'Donnell was one of only a handful of Irish lawyers included in the International Who's Who of mergers and acquisitions. He was once lauded for his pro bono work on the Blaise Gallagher case, where a quadriplegic boy received what was then the largest damages ever achieved in Ireland.

After graduating from NUI Galway in 1976 with an LLB, he went on to work with one of Ireland's most prestigious law firms, William Fry, serving as managing partner until 1999. He then set up his own practice.

At NUI Galway he met Mary Patricia O'Beirne, a fellow student from a wealthy Galway family, and they married.

She was glamorous and notoriously private - until recently no known picture had ever been taken of her.

Blake O'Donnell is a solicitor, representing the family in court. At a hearing in 2012, he was described as a student, along with sister Alexandra, while Blaise was described as a jobseeker, and Bruce as a non-practising solicitor. They told the court then that they did not have the resources to fight a case in the big business division of the High Court.

In 2012, the High Court in London heard Alexandra "had the misfortune to experience serious illness" in earlier years.

Their glamorous forays to the Four Courts, in stylish black ensembles, have done little to secure recognition they were the beneficial owners of Gorse Hill.

During the crash it was discovered they were €71m in debt.

afatbollix

Was doing my leaving around then.

First thing that came up was the lad who went around school mostly making tractor noises and pretending he was drifting around the corners while walking around.

He left at 16 to drive his beloved tractors then all of a sudden he had bought a JCB fast track and was delivering blocks to sites. He had to wait 6 months to buy a van as he wasn't legally allowed to drive a car.

Most of those lads left school and went onto the sites, boosting about getting e2 a block and being able to do 500 a day then throwing 50s at the barmen ordering Bulmers and vodka and red bulls and a WKD which was drank while they waited for the change.

At the time felt a right tool by staying in school and going to uni.

pawdee

Motivator wrote: »

I worked in a Mercedes dealership Friday’s and Saturday’s when I was in second year in college. I took the first two weeks of January off college because the dealership was so busy, all I was doing was registering the new cars and sorting the warranty’s all day every day. January 2005 if I remember correctly the main salesman in the dealership made €100,000+ in commission alone that month. It was unbelievable, I remember factory workers and Hairdressers coming in to buy his and hers Mercs.

That summer, 4 of the mechanics rented a helicopter to go to the Derby at the Curragh. €2,000 each!

That's gas. How many of those Mercs were Paddy spec manual C180s with cloth seats though? You'd swear we were living in Monte Carlo the way the media reported on car sales back in those days! Always made me laugh. Don't get me wrong, yours is a good story and I don't doubt one word of it. The helicopter bit is absolutely bonkers!

Atlantic Dawn

CrankyHaus wrote: »

There was an Episode of MTV's Super Sweet 16, a celebration of retarded excess like that, set in Ireland during the period.


Most Episodes were in places like Bel-Air or Malibu. This one was in Dundalk :pac:.


I knew a girl who was at it. She said the production company had Myrmidons going around instructing the girls to act like complete airheads on camera, and getting arsey when they said its not the sort of thing they do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWOvWXkc7ZI

completedit

Hahahahahaha I remember in the episode, the lad was from Blackrock, Co. Louth and I think I recall the teenagers in the episode making a deal how it wasn't the ''real Blackrock'' as if Blackrock in Dublin was ****ing Beverly Hills. Sean Kingston performed at the bash, right in the middle of his fame.

ILoveYourVibes

Only Kosher money lasts.

Ubbquittious

completedit wrote: »

Hahahahahaha I remember in the episode, the lad was from Blackrock, Co. Louth and I think I recall the teenagers in the episode making a deal how it wasn't the ''real Blackrock'' as if Blackrock in Dublin was ****ing Beverly Hills.

The one in Cork is the real Blackrock of course

pgj2015

I wonder how that guy from Dundalk turned out. state of his hair.

Atlantic Dawn

pgj2015 wrote: »

I wonder how that guy from Dundalk turned out. state of his hair.

You wouldn't need the resources of a CIA team to find him online

pgj2015

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

You wouldn't need the resources of a CIA team to find him online

At least he sorted the hair out.

ILoveYourVibes

Everyone was buying houses in spain etc ...like five families together owning a place in spain.

John_Rambo

I was working in advertising agencies throughout the Celtic Tiger. It was crazy. I was on good enough money, but not mad money. It was the credit that was the temptation. I had a house in the city and got lots of letters telling me I was pre-approved for big loans. Loans that could buy foreign property or a serious head turning car. The xmas parties were abroad in places like Barcelona, one of the agencies had a bar which was pretty unusual pre-google and twitter office time.

I was a bit cautious and didn't get stuck in, but I saw lots of cocaine, prostitution, sports cars, Rolex's and overpriced Champaign. I 100% remember lock in nightclubs where anything went. Two people I worked with ended up in prison for cocaine charges, loads of them ended up being reluctant landlords and loads more bought houses for a fortune in areas they wouldn't step foot in five years previously, they're all still stuck with the properties, they all had regular jobs (not in construction). Others remortgaged their houses for amazing holidays, his & hers Audis and a wedding. My boss was on good money and had five or six houses. Affairs were rife amongst senior staff with company credit cards and expensive hotels. "Business" trips abroad were arranged at the drop of a hat.

One memory was locking my (expensive) mountain bike outside work on a Monday morning when a limo pulled up and a colleague hopped out after an all nighter. There were two topless girls in the car. I'm not kidding.

Company credit cards were a joke. I was out with a group for dinner after a sports event and a senior Bank worker paid for everyone on the card. There was about fifteen of us, none of us banked with him or were clients.

Smaller things I noticed were people throwing €1 or €2 coins in to toll bridge baskets and not bothering to get change. Giving bouncers a sly 50 to get in. Executives giving 20's to juniors for a €12 lunch and not asking for change. Little things like not shopping around for car insurance etc...

I remember dating a girl that was giving me hints for her birthday present. She wanted a MG TF! Way out of my budget, but her friends were dating estate agents and property professionals.

I sold my house and the first estate agent arrived in a beautiful Lotus Elise. He told me not to bother putting it on the market and said he'd a cash buyer that would pay within the week. The house sold for 80k more than what he offered.

I indulged in a new hot hatch. First and probably last new car.

John_Rambo

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

Everyone was buying houses in spain etc ...like five families together owning a place in spain.

One guy I know played a blinder. There were companies offering to take you to Spain to view properties, he had enough money to buy and acted interested. So he basically went on two or three free holidays.

KevRossi

A family near us in Roscommon we’re going to the Galway Races, tried to book a helicopter to fly them there to show off. Whatever way the booking went, they drove to Weston Aerodrome and flew from there to Galway. It would have been much quicker to drive to Galway even with the traffic, than to drive to Dublin.

Flying back they paid some guy extra to drop them off at their house and the father took a taxi to Dublin the next day to pick his car up.

They did it to be noticed. To be fair to them we still talk about it today, usually referring to how mad/stupid they were.

dotsman

mikemac2 wrote: »

Disagree

Even the Lux residents find it boring.

Now Cologne, best city in Europe!

Sheep Shagger wrote: »

Absolutely - tumble weed after 6pm.

Not meaning to drag the thread off topic, but if you couldn't find great nightlife, you were doing something wrong! Are you sure you weren't out in some suburb/industrial estate?

Just did a lads' weekend there recently and it was perfect. Hotel right bang in the centre (next to the Duke's gaff) and there were far more pubs/clubs within walking distance than you could possibly hope to do in a weekend. Hell, on the Friday night, we did 7 places, all of which were happening, ending up clubbing until 6 in the morning, and we were never more than a 5 minute walk from the hotel. On the Saturday, having spent all afternoon and evening going from place to place drinking (in a different direction from the hotel), found a strip with about a dozen late-night venues all together (think of smaller version of the Munich kuntspark back in the day) which were absolutely jammed with people.

Have also done Cologne recently, and would say Luxembourg surpassed it for nightlife, but agree Cologne is also a great destination. in terms of "quantity and concentration of great (and late opening) drinking venues within a short walk", very few cities would surpass it.

Muahahaha

BrianD3 wrote: »

Love the posts about helicopters, a property developer neighbour of mine had one that would regularly takeoff and land in his garden. Not sure if he flew it himself or had a pilot. Anyhow it was "only" a Robinson Just as with cars, there is a hierarchy.

As well as that during the Tiger there was a boom with lads training to become helicopter pilots. Knew one chap who got a bank loan of 100k and paid it over to a flying school in Florida where he said half the class was Irish. Bit of a hard landing for them all when the crash came, puns intended

irishgeo

AHH yes the memories. I remember looking over the balcony in the pub over the bar and remarking at red bull and vodkas stretching from one end of the bar to the other. Most of them left behind too when the crowd moved on.

Fellas in construction out Thursday Friday Saturday and Sunday and not worried about getting up for work.

I got talking to a men's clothes owner after the Celtic tiger boom died. He claimed the same fellas would be in every Thursday. They lived at home worked in construction. Come in on a Thursday buy a new shirt for the weekend. The following Thursday back in again after destroying the shirt the previous weekend.

Most of the lads emigrated after laughing at me having to go work on a Monday.

Dr. Bre

I heard stories of knickers being found in offices after parties etc.. Not sure how true tho

Akabusi

I know a guy who set up a pluming business and thought he was billy big balls, had the nice cars and bought several properties, that was all grand but he relished in telling people how rich he was and what he was spending his money on. One of his last big projects was to buy land in the local area and build a mansion on it. The crash came and it never got finished, he owed a lot to local suppliers and they got stung badly, Anyone who could came and stripped the house to get back their items windows, gutters etc. were taken back. It was eventually sold by the bank and got bulldozed. He works in a phone shop now.

John_Rambo

Akabusi wrote: »

I know a guy who set up a pluming business and thought he was billy big balls, had the nice cars and bought several properties, that was all grand but he relished in telling people how rich he was and what he was spending his money on. One of his last big projects was to buy land in the local area and build a mansion on it. The crash came and it never got finished, he owed a lot to local suppliers and they got stung badly, Anyone who could came and stripped the house to get back their items windows, gutters etc. were taken back. It was eventually sold by the bank and got bulldozed. He works in a phone shop now.

Yeah, there was a lot of talk about how much people were worth. I remember one guy I met through a friend telling me he was a "paper millionaire". Weirdly he was including his parents property (of whom both were still alive and healthy) in his "portfolio".

Ubbquittious

John_Rambo wrote: »

Yeah, there was a lot of talk about how much people were worth. I remember one guy I met through a friend telling me he was a "paper millionaire". Weirdly he was including his parents property (of whom both were still alive and healthy) in his "portfolio".

What an absolute sack of sh1te that fella

Motivator

pawdee wrote: »

That's gas. How many of those Mercs were Paddy spec manual C180s with cloth seats though? You'd swear we were living in Monte Carlo the way the media reported on car sales back in those days! Always made me laugh. Don't get me wrong, yours is a good story and I don't doubt one word of it. The helicopter bit is absolutely bonkers!

You know your stuff, bog standard C180s with upgraded alloys and the chrome pack for an extra €1,500. It was all an allusion to reflect The apparent wealth. There’s one unbelievable story and although I never saw it with my own eyes I did see the paperwork to prove it. A well known “hotshot” put an order in for an E Class and he waited about 3 months to get it. The day he picked it up he left the show room at say 10 am. He was back at 2 o clock to trade it in for something better. He picked out an S Class, sold back the E Class (lost about €6,000) after having it for literally a matter of hours and paid an extra €40,000 to get the S Class. Why the change of heart? He met a friend for lunch who saw the E Class and passed some comment along the lines of “the best should drive the best” and it turned him off his top of the range E Class.

To give him his credit, he’s never been shy about looking after his staff and what not but he’s an absolute fanny. Has sunglasses on his head 365 days of the year, even wears them on his head in the pub on a Saturday night.

anewme

Was one of those who did ok during Celtic Tiger years. I will always be grateful to the Celtic Tiger Era as I moved from working class to middle class. I went from not being able to pay bin charges to buying a Breitling watch and having a 3 month paid trip to Australia with 1 job change and the SSIA.

No flash spending, but lucky enough to carve out a nice lifestyle. Anyone who did not drop income or lose their job during the subsequent recession has to be almost home and dry now. Sometimes slow and steady can get you there.

The turning point for the Celtic Tiger was definitely Italia 90. It went uphill from there. It showed Irish people that they could take on the world. Such a fantastic time to be young in Ireland.

JJJJNR

Remember seeing a hummer going through Bray with a plumber sticker on the side of it, those were the days.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

Hangdogroad wrote: »

The Sunday Indo hyping z listers like Gavin Lamb Murphy.
The O2 Girls.
Brendan O Connor and his infamous "all the smart ballsy guys are buying property now" column. Great advice Brendan only this was 2007.

Jesus, I almost forgot about that. Here's a link, if anyone is interested;

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/the-smart-ballsy-guys-are-buying-up-property-right-now-26307728.html

"Before you make up your mind, open it"

Nigel Fairservice

dirkmeister wrote: »

There was a certain bank giving out €800 loans to students interest free back in 2005/6.

Crazy stuff, lads used it to get through RAG week.

I remember the banks giving out J1 loans in college. Lads would head over to America and drink all summer and come back broke....and a J1 loan hanging over them.

Tigerpants

I was mostly in college during the Tiger. I was itching to leave and go work in construction. All I wanted was money and the boy racer car!

Stuck it out with college in the end thinking I can have any job I want once I get finished. Graduated into the recession. Had periods of unemployment and underemployment. Terribly depressing. Held back in life because of it. Felt completely disillusioned with everything.

Things have been on the up for me since 2016 with decent wages and job security but it looks like the fallout from Covid has stalled my life again.