The 1990s is a long time ago

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118760439#Comment_118760439

How old are you? Did you actually live through those times as an adult or were you protected from by your parents? I can’t say I know anyone that would be willing to relive it. Yes we had some good fun, as having people growing up today. But there was nothing funny or romantic about working in one of Ireland’s shoe factories or being a sheep farmer in north Donegal.

And yes many jobs will be replaced by robots going forward and it won’t be the end of the world or life as you know it either. You’ll have universal income by then, some way or other business will have to put money into your hands if they want to get you to buy their products. And as we have seen from pandemic payments in high value added economies such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Ireland we’re not far away from it being able to achieve it.

Temptamperu

jaysus lads the yokes in the 90s! you took 2 and were up all night. these days i take ten and am in bed by 6

spookwoman

Was in secondary school in the 1990's. It seemed to bright, flashy and progressive compared to the 1980's but it was still very backward and very corrupt.

Hard to believe it in 1990 you could only get condoms with a prescription, seems like yesterday. It was the year IFPA got convicted for selling condoms in the Virgin Megastore Dublin. They got fined £400 and when appealed the judge increased it to £500 and warned them the next time would involve imprisonment. Fair play to U2 for paying the fine. It was 1993 that condoms were available without prescription.

1999 was the year RTE aired States of Fear which lead to the setting up of the Commission to Inquire into Child abuse.

Pinch Flat

This time 30 years ago I was on my Erasmus year in Germany and I'd spent the previous two sunmers working there. The very best year of my life by far. When i graduated in the mid 90s i headed to the Uk to work - literally broke with my last dole payment in my pocket, travelled on the boat. I spent 5 years in London, loving every minute and was lucky - ended up in a house share with some good friends who I still am in contact with and also met my now wife. It is such a long time ago, but I still think of the 90s with such fondness

Curse These Metal Hands

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118760595#Comment_118760595

Everything started to lose a distinct atmosphere around the mid 00s alright. It could partially be down to the Internet. Growing up you got your ideas/interests from what friends and classmates were doing and shows on TV, shows that everyone watched like Friends etc. Trends tended to be bigger with more people following them. Now everyone is heading in different directions and finding their own communities/interests online.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118758216#Comment_118758216

Well if you think about it - my grandmother went from being born around the dawn of early radio broadcasting, the very early automation of telephones, electrical appliances becoming common place, the dawn of television, the space age, the mobile phone, the internet, the credit card, online shopping....from horses to Ryanair flights to Malaga for a few quid.

I went from big huge mobile phones to tiny ones to smartphones and computers got a lot faster and smaller.. TVs got a lot skinnier and have way more channels, video tapes appeared and died out, and the internet went mad and social media may yet destroy us, other than that - not much in comparison.

She experienced a world war, and several pandemics including polio.

We had relative peace and just that one deadly pandemic ...

Friends looks VERY dated now tho. Didn't realise quite how much until I watched it recently..

tommybrees

The above few posts are exactly why the Internet isn't cool anymore

Ray Palmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118760809#Comment_118760809

Very hard to believe because it isn't true. The law changed in 1985 so by the 1990 you could buy condoms anywhere . You got the story correct just that it happened earlier than you think as in a decade earlier. I was buying condoms in 1990 so when I saw your comment I knew straight away you got your facts mixed up. You probably don't remember when AIDS/HIV hit the scene in the 80s.

I did work in a night club in the 90s and there were condom machines in the toilets. There was some nutter going around putting stickers on condom machines saying the AIDS virus could pass through condoms. He may also have been damaging machines much to the annoyance of the guy who owned the machines. One day I actually saw who it was doing it. Rather than stop him I just let the bouncers know who radioed the other bouncers in the area. Then we contacted the owner and let him know where the guy was. It never happened again and all the bouncers knew what they guy looked like. Funnily a while later there was a BBC show on and they had interviewed this guy and he was showing off his stickers.

Ray Palmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118760584#Comment_118760584

Do you actually understand what you are saying? You claimed automated shopping machines are robotic overlords and now saying it is one less job for a person. You do understand they are not the same thing and the closer description is the robot is our slave.

Very muddled understanding of the words and concepts you are talking about. While information is tracked who and how is it being accessed to track an individual? You do understand no one group can pull the information together without a warrant and that is one group who have to abide by other rules?

Basically all the things you are claiming aren't true. You could of course provide proof this is happening in the western world.

Stepping Stone

I was a teenager in the 90s. I remember lots of freedom in a way. Going to a phone box to call home to say that I was staying in a friend’s house. Everyone had a landline and you knew numbers off by heart. Depending on your style, you could go straight from normal clothes to going out clothes by changing your top (or applying a **** load of glitter and butterfly clips). Smoking was normal and everywhere. A night out meant two hair washes to get the smell out. Bacardi Breezer and WKD were in fashion for teenage girls. Getting served underage was easy.

Oasis vs Blur, Nirvana, Take That, Boyzone…music was hit or miss but mainly hit.

I remember a girl in 6th year getting pregnant. She left school to get married and there was a big collection to buy her a pram and a few other bits. Really bizarre in my eyes now but a lovely and progressive gesture back then.

Watch the Snapper and it’s a different world. Finally, the smells of my teenage years were lynx and impulse body spray with added CK One for the richer teenagers

downburst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118761064#Comment_118761064

1993 a condom dispenser in. Students union was taken down as it was unlawful. I thought it was about 94 that you could get outside a chemist. At that time if I recall you could get in a chemist without prescription. Anyway the details aren’t important, it was the general Change happening at the time. For me it was leaving cert 1990, college after that and full time work ever since. I still think of myself as an 80s or 90s person. Great times and nearly everyone I met had a shared experience. Certainly very few airs and graces or pomposity about material goods etc. seemed more social cohesion in my opinion, maybe because other worlds were seen through tv and radio only. Anyway great times the 1990s. Mid to late 90’s at annual review, here’s your 15% pay rise and at the same time tax cuts etc.

Ray Palmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118761173#Comment_118761173

There were restrictions on where condom machines were allowed but they weren't illegal. There are still laws prohibiting where they can be placed. Your memory is failing you and you are off by about 10 years. It was/is legal to have a condom machine in a pub/nightclub.

The details are important if you are talking about time frames.

I do remember the tax cuts and pay rises too. The first time we reached full employment was shocking after growing up in the 80s.

spookwoman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118761064#Comment_118761064

https://www.thejournal.ie/open-thread-do-you-remember-when-buying-contraceptives-was-illegal-681590-Nov2012/

https://www.thejournal.ie/open-thread-do-you-remember-when-buying-contraceptives-was-illegal-681590-Nov2012/

The sale of contraceptives were not properly relaxed until 1993 – as business magnate Richard Branson, who faced court proceedings after allowing the Irish Family Planning Association to sell condoms in his Dublin Virgin Megastore in 1990 - recalled in a blog post this week where he discussed his worries over women’s rights in modern Ireland.

Ray Palmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118761312#Comment_118761312

You said you needed a prescription.

downburst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118761254#Comment_118761254

LOL, "your memory is failing you". Good morning to you Ray Palmer. Just checked the amendment to the act. the 1979 "Irish solution to an Irish Problem" act was repealed in 1992. It then allowed sale to 17 years and older rather than 18 in listed places, as allowed from 1985 (another amendment to Charlies 1979 act) over 18 didn't need a prescription. Since Student Unions clubs had before 1992 then allowed 17 years old into the toilets it was not legal to sell them in those places. Remember as we hadn't transition year at the time, many and me included went to university at 17 years old. So that act was amended 1992.

I remember the girls is secondary school in the 90's who didn't fit in for whatever reason turned to Grunge - clothes, hairstyle etc, grunge was the hideout for the girls who didn't feel pretty enough to compete. Now in this decade they go non binary

Snickers Man

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118757051#Comment_118757051

Evidence to support that outlandish statement?

All true music lovers know that popular music, with a very few notable exceptions, died around about 1980. Back when Adam and the Ants became the year's popular sensation!!!! With a very few honourable exceptions, it's all been pretty crap since then.

Seriously. Adam and the Ants were huge. But how many of you STILL listen to Ant Music or watch the Prince Charming video? (And if you haven't; DON'T!)

You want the best year for popular music, you've got to go back a further 20 years. 1971 was when it peaked.

That's not an opinion. IT'S FACT!!!!!

Pussyhands

The world changes so fast.

Ganghnam Style was 10 years ago.

Remember it was a big thing about the first youtube video to hit 1bn views and now Babyshare has over 10bn views.

mrslancaster

Hard to believe that divorce wasn't available until 1995 and being gay was illegal until 1993..

It took Ireland a long time to catch up to other, more tolerant societies. It was still a rigid, judgemental society in many respects in the 90's.

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118760677#Comment_118760677

How do you know sheep farmers in Donegal are unhappy?

downburst

It was still pretty rigid in the early 90's. Most people went to mass still and I had college friends who were as wild as hell at a party etc. who went to mass on the first Friday and each Sunday, couldn't believe this as I never heard of the first Friday of the month before that time. Stayed in a few friends houses over those years from down the country and with a hang over on the Sunday morning, up and off to mass the lot of us to keep his Mammy happy. As recently as 1989 I remember a religious education class where a visiting De La Salle brother was explaining the rhythm method to us and only if we ever got married, this was because God loved us apparently. I remember some Bishop had a baby and it was shocking for the majority of the country, so they still held sway for the older population. In saying all this your average 20 year old in the 1990 period wasn't thinking about this, just out enjoying themselves. New cars were rare for anyone under 30 for sure, no easy access to credit at all for that. A young professional might buy a VW Polo on terrible interest terms, the odd Starlet etc. But many changes were happening fast. I remember standing in Temple bar once dropping in CV to a recruitment firm and all about me was cranes. Before then you had Crown Alley, seemed I was in a foreign country, by 1996 I was with my boss surveying some buildings in Dame St. where he was to convert into Pub hotel, unthinkable a few years earlier. Most folks with businesses in Dublin who had the Merc were borrowed up to their eyes since the 80's as matter of course, so looked like they had money but a quick check and they had nothing.

I think 1990 was more to 1980 than 2000 was to 1990 if you follow. The internet, liberalization, the 20 and 30 somethings (who stayed behind) of the 80's setting up pubs and nightclubs and businesses etc. The sense when you collected your bothers and sisters at the Airport at Christmas was possibly failing, in the 80's it was off the boat, 90's off the plane, 00's it was collecting them for the third time that year from Holidays.

thefallingman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118762109#Comment_118762109

the sheep don't put out up there

EmmetSpiceland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118761968#Comment_118761968

And sexually abusing children didn't become socially unacceptable until 1994. Crazy, and shameful, stuff.

mrslancaster

One of my aunts worked in a tech multinational from the 80's, and the female staff couldn't wear trousers until sometime in the 90's. Now thats hard to imagine, but she says it wasn't unusual.

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118762109#Comment_118762109

Do you think their sheep are happy?

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118762222#Comment_118762222

If asked to guess I'd say ecstatically

The divorce one is particularly shocking. I had relatives who effectively left the country and lived in exile because their marriages broke up in the 1970s.

In one case an extremely abusive partner whose family threatened to sign her into a mental hospital when she tried to leave!

That woman lived abroad under an assumed name until she was able to normalise her life in the mid 1990s and there was still a mess getting the divorce finalised here.

On many issues Ireland was a bit like the US Deep South is today. I remember french people asking me was it safe to mention religious topics negatively and all sorts of stuff.

We had a few mad setbacks in the 2000s though too like when Fianna Fáil introduced a blasphemy law (recently repealed following that referendum to delete the concept from the constitution)

That got very embarrassing international coverage and even had people asking about whether it was safe to host data here!

We came a long way very quickly in a couple of decades really. Moving from conservative backwater to being pretty much in line with Northwestern Europe.

The late 90s and into the 00s were way more optimistic times though in many respects.

I think the late 2010s and 2020s have been grim so far. COVID immediately leading into this weird war footing isn’t great. Also Brexit and Trump were absolutely dismal pieces of political history. Real low points in two neighbouring countries, full of toxic bile.

If you contrast politics in the 90s it was all the success of the NI peace process here. The EU was in optimistic mode and welcoming new members. The US wasn’t domestically quite as nuts. You could still take a direction of movement towards a more open, liberal society for granted in the US and all of Europe. That’s not the case anymore.

I’m not saying things were perfect, there were wars and conflicts but there were definitely more positives happening, more so from about 1995-2008 internationally. I think the financial crisis had a profound impact on starting things towards rise of right wing populist movements etc etc. we under estimate the bang that was.

eviltimeban

If you took a 1999 person and brought them back to 1984, they would definitely notice the difference. But if you took a 2022 person and brought them back to 2007, they may not notice that much difference. iPhones, Spotify, Twitter, and Netflix (streaming) were all launched in 2006-2007.

BrianD3

Nevermind stuff like the end of the Cold War and breakup of the USSR - how about the really significant events of the 90s. Oasis on mainstream terrestrial TV playing a B side (would a young person even know what that is) with a destroyed singer who still manages to put in a Biblical performance. The world has changed considerably since these times. At least there is tonnes of stuff on youtube.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vgeWQQYClY4

Marcusm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118757906#Comment_118757906

Was beer substantially cheaper or is it just the cost of a drink in a pub was substantially cheaper? Back in the early 1990s, (92-94), I can remeber feeling lucky if I could find a bottle of Miller or a can of Heineken for IR£1 (i.e. EUR1.29). Prior to minimum unit pricing, the price was not dramatically different. The cost increases are more due to property and wage costs within pubs!