20 years since 2003

I always thought 2003 was the year that defined the 00s/Celtic tiger era.

Roger Mellie Man on the Telly

Our dog ate a bag of wild rice and needed a veterinary enema. Cost us a fortune.

Thelonious Monk

I was living in Edinburgh and when I moved back home Greece won the Euros. Oh to be 23 again.

Leukemia diagnosis April 2003....tough time but still here.

JKerova1

Did my Leaving in 2003. Had to do it again in 2005. Bad year for me.

AyeGer

I had a great year that year, partied it in and out.

AMKC

I hated 2003 the same way I hated 1993 and 2013. The only year I have not hated with a 3 is 1983 because I was so little but maybe that's the year I banged my head off the fireplace so maybe that's why I hate all years with a 3 lol. Maybe this year will be the first year I do not hate with a 3.

Otherwise I can not think of one redeeming thing to 2003 oh wait tgere was the 3rd LOTRS film out. At least in 2001 there was The Lord Of The Rings and 9/11

99 was the last year of the last century and my last year in school as such.

2000 was a great first year to the new Century.

silliussoddius

I think the septic tiger peaked in 2004 - 2005.

FintanMcluskey

I sometimes use sporting events to remember years

Johnny **** Wilkinson 🙄

orourkeda1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120307866#Comment_120307866

What happened to 2004?

freshpopcorn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120307932#Comment_120307932

We sort of won a Gold Medal in the Olympics in 2004 and the Luas got it's first passengers.

In 2003 Mickey Joe Harte represented us at Eurovision and we also hosted the Special Olympics.

Strumms

I’d a family member working the event, I remember vividly the buzz and busyness preceding it, and the euphoria in the aftermath of a really good and successful games. Everyone was really vibing on it.

20 years ago though 😳

JKerova1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120307932#Comment_120307932

I realised that my pathetic first attempt at the Leaving was going to leave me working minimum wage jobs for life, so I had to go back to school at 20. Besides the Leaving I remember it being quite a carefree time. The economy was booming, seemed to be loads of opportunity. Little did we know what was to come. By the time I graduated a few years later in 2008 we were facing into an economic apocalypse.

Nigel Fairservice

I started my first year of college in 2003. A good year.

Sgt Hartman

In 2003 I left a hospital job in Portsmouth to return to Limerick and finish my science degree, and also to help out my mother who was diagnosed with breast cancer at the time. I can't believe how fat I was when I look back at pics of myself back then though 😕

brokenbad

Can still vividly remember 2003 - still in the throes of the celtic tiger and cheap credit.........pre-approved credit cards coming in through the letter box on a weekly basis.....banks offering people a second mortgage........ordinary joes investing in expensive playthings like speedboats, helicopters, apartments in Bulgaria and top of the range 4 x 4's. Little did we know that just over 5 years later it would all come crashing down......

The Celtic Tiger was class. Great days.

Sunny Dayz

Did My Leaving Cert in 2003. Now this year my son is doing his Leaving Cert. 😭

Jordan 199

Jordan Grand Prix won their last race in 2003.

Start of a really sunny time in my life, remember going to a well-known pizza place for my birthday they had a few branches around town, had a cool New York name something and something, and it's going to annoy me now until I remember the name.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120308048#Comment_120308048

Same here, started first year in NCAD in 2003. Really was a fantastic time to be in college, Ireland had all that Celtic Tiger hope and optimism in bounds. So much so that the idea of doing a degree in Fine Art Painting seemed like a logical choice for me at the time 😂

Gregor Samsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120308530#Comment_120308530

LOL, I graduated from a Degree in Fine Art Painting from NCAD in 1996 (which I absolutely loved), and I remember the sudden shock of graduating and thinking "what the fúck do I do now?" 😁

It took a while, but fortunately by 2003, after a FÁS course in multimedia production and web design, I had settled well into a career (that didn't involve painting and was Celtic Tiger and subsequent crash proof).

I wouldn't change a thing about doing the fine art degree, though.

magicbastarder

i bought my first house in 2003. sold it nine years later for a €100k loss.

Vicxas

Was in 5th year in Secondary School. More i think about it the more i want to cry in a corner.

BrianD3

I remember at the time thinking that house prices were crazy and that a crash was imminent. They kept rising and I decided that I was wrong about a crash so bought in 2006, great.

2003 seems pretty recent, the internet was well established but youtube was still a couple of years away. Most people in Ireland did not have broadband anyway, Porn was mostly static pics or low quality short videos.

It was the last year when someone with enough money could travel from New York to London in under 3 hours

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7Ko2VoKcZI

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120308758#Comment_120308758

Yep it's definitely a bit of a shock seeing your friends finishing up at the same time and walking into Graphic and Industrial design type jobs, meanwhile you're debating whether cutting off your ear might get your artwork some publicity. 😁

Sunny Dayz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120308530#Comment_120308530

Started college in that year too - UCD. Agreed it really was a great time to be in college with your whole future ahead, felt like the world was our oyster back then and even still when I graduated in 2006.

griffin100

Got married and bought my first house in 2003. Seems so long ago but yet only yesterday.

Nigel Fairservice

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120308530#Comment_120308530

Similar thoughts here on a politics degree in UCC 😅 People in my class went on to do a diverse range of things after though.

JohnnyFortune

Was sessioning like there was no tomorrow in 2003. Money was no object. Every weekend started on a Thursday and ended on a Monday. Pills, powders, potions and gallons of alcohol were the order of the day. Was some few years.

Mister Vain

I was working in a factory. Most people only worked 4 days a week because they were too hungover on Mondays. It was the last year of smoking indoors. The smell off your clothes after been in a pub or club was horrendous.

JupiterKid

I was 28 and moving to my second career job in late 2003 which paid much better than the one I was in.

Was renting a house on the Southside with my partner who is still my OH after 22 years. I don't know how's he's managed to put up with me for so long!

I think 2003 was also the year Ireland passed out the UK in terms of GNP per capita. The Celtic Tiger era had moved to the property bubble stage, house prices were crazy and I was warning friends at social gatherings that it could and would not last but my warnings fell on deaf ears for the most part...

Also, I got a letter in the post from my bank offering me a no questions asked pre-approved loan for €45K. WTF would I want with that? 🤔🙄

It was also the year before I discovered internet message boards and joined Gaire and later, boards.ie!

JKerova1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120309321#Comment_120309321

I did a degree in Humanities! And afterwards another degree in Modern Irish History. Needless to say I joined the dole queue as soon as I graduated. I've since heard that the numbers doing Humanities in my old college has dropped way off. Not surprising really.

Potential-Monke

Not to blow your mind, but 1983 was 40 years go... I'm joining middle age men this year apparantly.

2003.... 2003..... finished "college"... worked as a waiter... got a job in customer care... nope, not an interesting year. I think maybe I moved out of home for the first time. Tbh, I struggle to remember last week.

GSBellew

The amazing thing is it is always twenty years since twenty years ago. mad that isn't it.

I'd understand if the thread was referring to a major event, but a whole damn year, that's pretty obvious.

HalloweenJack

I turned fifteen and the only thing I really remember is that I started drinking cans in fields and spent hours listening to Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.

standardg60

Moved into my first home and set up my own company (needed to be employed to get a mortgage and then took the plunge), both still going so a good year for me.

A '20 years ago' thread would be a great sticky going forward!

Galwayguy35

I remember 1993 well but nothing from 2003

standardg60

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120314609#Comment_120314609

There's a certain term for drinking in fields that i always knew it as but not sure if it's allowed now

completedit

Mental tbh, a good time, I was just 13, I'd like to go back and change some things though. I know regrets are normal and I wouldn't be who I am had I done things a certain way at 13 but I think I ostracised myself a little too much. I would have liked a more normal conventional teenage years but I guess I wouldn't be who I am. It wasn't possible for me to have a conventional teenage years because I just wasn't conventional(even though i look very basic)

I remember being so excited about gaming around this time and watching some show on Sky all summer where they'd preview and review different games. I think GTA Vice City came out this year which consumed a lot of my time and I remember 50 Cent released some Reebok shoes(although that might have been the year after) which I always wore.

seanrambo87

2003, ah what a year, 16 years old, got a moped, junior cert then into 5th year, first girlfriend, watched myself on the silver screen for the first time, smoking hash like it was going out of fashion. Such a promising time and the world was my oyster. Then life happens.🤣

Strumms

Was earning ok money, first full time job, at home, no overheads to speak of.

getting more socially active, getting to know more of the social side of my city, going to lots of great gigs, a couple of holidays a year, had money…

Larbre34

2003 eh.

I was 25. Got out of a toxic job and a boring relationship and spent the following two and half years riding all around me and taking 7 flyaway holidays a year, while living with two mates and not stopping laughing from Monday to Sunday.

Perhaps the best of times.

Fuascailteoir

People thinking they were Tony Montana with a mountain of coke on the table ... things were going to last forever ... well for another couple of years and the hangover could start

fluke

Yeesh. I was in my humanities course in 03. Fun times party-wise,but oh did my world change drastically after that course ended.

HalloweenJack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120314744#Comment_120314744

I know the one you mean.

I specifically didn't use it because you wouldn't get away with it these days.

gameoverdude

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120307907#Comment_120307907

Actually a sound guy.

gameoverdude

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120311951#Comment_120311951

Middle age is the new something, something...now where did I put my keys?

fluke

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120307907#Comment_120307907

I'm somewhat the same, but instead of sport, it's music.

Metallica's St Anger 👎

Bell X1's Music in Mouth 👍

Bobblehats

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120314907#Comment_120314907

Was that record Man on MIR?

https://youtu.be/NauQ1Oxh1iM

some groups with genuine tunes kicking around I recall, JJ72 were on the verge of big things as well revered in international press. Band scene was flourishing (pirate) radio was healthy too

fluke

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120315027#Comment_120315027

No Man on Mir was on their first album, Neither Am I, 2000, great underrated song.