nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

The 70's and 80's in Ireland

Kermit.de.frog

What was it like in the 1980's in Ireland?

I have seen pictures, video and my god it looked like a depressing place. :eek:

Grey, delapidated, hopeless.

What was it like? How did you get by without internets, wheelie bins, toilets...?

Would you go back if you could??

*Might as well throw in the 70's too for people of that vintage.

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

Gimme A Pound

Most of my childhood was in the 80s (ending in the 90s) - I thought it was the biz. Such great TV, chart music and toys! Yeah it looks desperately bleak on footage now, but shur as a kid you wouldn't be noticing stuff like that. That said, I grew up in a middle-class household, my dad had a not hugely well paying job but it was permanent and secure. Lots of households didn't have a phone or a car (and they weren't necessarily poor households either) - we had two of each. Not great cars or anything, but still... two cars. We went to England every year too - so many families didn't leave the country. If you went to France or Spain you were considered extremely well heeled all together! :pac:

So just because life was peachy for me, doesn't mean other kids didn't struggle. But I'm glad I was just a kid because no matter what background you were from, it was a tough time for young adults.

Wibbs

Gyalist wrote: »

I started a retail business in 1987 and a pair of Levi's 501s was about £60 - £65. For most young people that would have been almost as much as their weekly take-home pay.

That was my earliest inklings into the power of advertising. Before 501's became a "thing" a relative of mine was high enough up in Levi's Ireland, or the distributor, can't remember which. Anyhoo, I liked jeans, but I was and remain a gangly bastid, narrow of hip, long of leg, and found it hard to find jeans in my size(28/35 at the time, 29/35 now. I've let meself go..). So The Da™ put the talk on said rellie and got me these "American" jeans in my size. Made us pay retail too. Cheap fu..

I didn't know 501's from Adam and got slagged because they had buttons rather than zips. "Grandad" was one. Shrunk like fook in the wash and only came in blue, which also turned everything else in the same wash blue(The Ma™ was not best pleased). This would have been around 81/2. Then the advert comes out with Nick Kamen stripping down to his kacks in a laundrette while listening to the grapevine. The retail price went nuts overnight, and I was suddenly, and most out of character, "cool".

I was buying them, or my folks were TBH at 12 pounds retail, when the ad campaign came out they were 29 to 35 pounds retail. That was around 85? TBH G I don't remember them hitting the over 50 quid mark until the 90's? Though you'd know the reality of the time. A mate of mine, an aficionado of the denim, who knows his selvedge from his thread count told me the other day that 501's are now over a hundred quid. Jaysus... Then again these days they're mostly bought and worn by old farts like me and they have the spare cash.

Wishbone Ash

branie2 wrote: »

....no Kindle, just regular books

Ah here, 95% of us still use 'regular' books. It's not as if they are like Green Shield Stamps.

Fourier

Wibbs wrote: »

Threads.

I'd forgotten that film. Very bleak at the end, with people speaking in pidgin and the new generation with mutations.

branie2

I was born in the tail end of the 1970s, 1979 to be exact.

For Forks Sake

The Crowman wrote: »

Bonzo wants to go out Dear.

Now, there's a flashback.

Gimme A Pound

Fourier wrote: »

I'd forgotten that film. Very bleak at the end, with people speaking in pidgin and the new generation with mutations.

Oh Jesus Threads is terrifying! :eek:

So well put together though. I was too young to be aware of it but older kids must have been traumatised. I became aware of the nuclear fear from about Chernobyl onwards and it was always lurking there, putting the absolute terrors through you.

branie2

For Forks Sake wrote: »

Now, there's a flashback.

And a scary one at that.

bennyineire

Born in '77 in Dublin to a couple of "country" kids from Offaly aged 18 and 19 respectably. My "Irish twin" was born 11 months later.

2 years after that my Mam left my bus conductor Dad (womeniser) and we moved back to the county town of Offaly.

I don't excuse my Dad for his actions but my parents were far too young to be married/move to Dublin and have 2 kids all before 20 but this was certainly not unusual at the time

So I grew up in my early years in 1980's Tullamore, all I remember from that time was been surrounded by loads of family (my mothers side) who loved me and I loved them. Yes I was dirt poor and from a single parent home but I was happy and loved. I love been from Tullamore for that reason I guess.

I've come a long way from the 80's to where I'm at now (Masters degree, work on I.T. and comfortable), I don't regret my childhood but at the same time I've made damn sure my kids never came close to anything close to the abject poverty and an absent father.

The 80's were a world away from Ireland today make no mistake, even with the problems today with homeless families are having. At least they are been put in temporary accommodation and have money for clothes.

My Mam, me and my sister would have been classed as homeless in the 80's for a few years by today's standards, we lived in a mobile home for a few years and I wore the same clothes to school everyday (no school uniform in the 80's) and had holes in my shoes.

Having said I have great pride in my country, that fact that I can come from that poverty and avail of free education right up the college education is a testament to Ireland, if I was born in the U.S. with the same set of circumstances where or what I be doing now ?

Gimme A Pound

Those 501s ads increased Levis sales by 800% or something insane like that.

There was What A Wonderful World (the Sam Cook one not the Louis Armstrong one) with the guy in the bath... then the launderette/Heard It Through The Grapevine one which went stratospheric. Then Be My Baby, The Joker ("Some people call me the space cowboy..."). That was another thing about the 80s - there was a lot of nostalgia for the 60s!

branie2

Lydia Faithful Swordplay wrote: »

Those 501s ads increased Levis sales by 800% or something insane like that.

There was What A Wonderful World (the Sam Cook one not the Louis Armstrong one) with the guy in the bath... then the launderette/Heard It Through The Grapevine one which went stratospheric. Then Be My Baby, The Joker ("Some people call me the space cowboy..."). That was another thing about the 80s - there was a lot of nostalgia for the 60s!

Did the Levis ad with the woman in the yellow bikini taking a man's jeans come out in the 80s?

Gimme A Pound

branie2 wrote: »

Did the Levis ad with the woman in the yellow bikini taking a man's jeans come out in the 80s?

Jeez forgot about that! Looked it up there - 1990.

branie2

My mistake

hot buttered scones

Crea wrote:

I remember being cold cause we wouldn't have enough money for oil.

Ice on the inside of the single glazed windows in the winter! Sure if you were cold you'd just throw another coat on the bed!

BBFAN wrote:

Don't think people realise that coal is only banned in Dublin so far. Still burning it like mad down the country.

Smokey coal has been banned in Cork City for a long time. I can still remember the stink of it.

KK4SAM

Lambs Quarters & Drills & Drills of thinning for 3d a drill.Knots down & Out !

Galwayguy35

Duffle coats with the name sown on because everyone had the same one in school.

Woolly jumpers and dungarees.

Nice warm summers usually spent in the bog or at hay.

High unemployment.

Pacman

Everyone in school wearing Army jackets.

BMX bikes.

Just 2 channels on the box.

Moving statues making the news.

Not getting haircuts too often.

Dry cold frosty winters.

Watching Live Aid.

Getting 20 quid for communion money and thinking it was a fortune.

hot buttered scones

JupiterKid wrote:

You see, in real terms goods and most services were much more expensive in relation to incomes which were much much lower than today. Credit was hard to come by so for holidays and luxuries now taken for granted, you had to save. A dishwasher or video recorder or even a microwave was a luxury item. A cooker or fridge would often cost several months' salary of a middle class 1980s Irish household - a middle class that was much smaller than now.

We had a lock on our phone - 3 teenagers in the house and me dad going through every call on the phone bill saw to that. Electrical appliances being bought from the ESB shop and paid in installments on the bill. Most people I knew rented their TVs.

twowheelsonly

Yester wrote: »

Black shoes. White socks. Oh yeah!

Nah.... Red socks for the win !!!

I loved the 70's and 80's. Leaving cert in '81 and married in '87 but I had a ball in between.. Same memories as most of the rest here but it certainly seemed like a more carefree time.

Looking back, what I really liked was the ability to get pissed, make a complete tit of myself, puke all over myself if I wanted, and only those that were there or a few friends would know about it. I didn't need social media approval to drink a pheckin' latte!!

jim salter

banie01 wrote: »

We all had great laughs avoiding the consumption.
Fitness levels were great in the young.
We all ran like lunatics to avoid being ridden by clergy!
Look at the decline in Irish middle distance running since the veil was lifted on paedo priests!

Renault 4s and Ford escorts were the common.
A Sierra Cosworth was a "Super car"
And only "posh" neighbours had a car and a house phone!
To this day, I know my childhood next door neighbours phone number.
Skinning orchards and drinking in fields!
The huge crush at the labour exchange when your Granda would be out of work.

What's really scary....
I saw the end of the 70's and all of the 80's
Is I'm only 38! :pac:

You absolute lying cúnt

Baybay

Army jackets, mine was grey, had a bullet drawn on the back & someone else’s surname stencilled on the front pocket. Lost it in a house move years ago & still miss it.
Suede pointy toe boots for girls & boys. I had some in blue, grey & black.
Grandfather shirts.
Scarves, some with glittery thread woven through and/or fringes.
Tight, tight denims.
Fingerless gloves though I preferred proper black fabric gloves that fitted really tightly & had laces across the back of each hand.
Masses of curly permed hair.
A love affair with kohl began.
Music that, in the main has stood the test of time.
Slow sets.
Regardless of income & my family wasn’t wealthy, most of us had some things that the others didn’t have so together, we had it all. Or so we thought. Richer friends weren’t too obviously so.
Grew up in a border county so lots of political awareness which wasn’t & isn’t a bad thing.
Going to discos where supper was included in the entry fee & feeling slightly bad not wanting to stop dancing to queue for soggy fish & chips.
Live Aid & for one of the first times feeling very proud to be Irish when it emerged that, as a nation we gave more per capita than other countries or so Bob said.
Having parents that, by & large understood the need for a Sunday morning, missing mass lie in every so often.
We might have had nothing in comparison to today’s teenagers but it was our nothing!

Atlantic Dawn

Life was hard, I learned from my parents that money was for most families back then finite and a budget was there for week to week spending which you couldn't over spend. My younger siblings grew up in better times in the 80's and have nothing like my concern over cash and the need to live within ones means. Hard and all as they were I feel priviliged to have lived during the 70's/80's and appreciate it for lessons learned on the value of respect for money.

[Deleted User]

I only remember the 80's.

Rented televisions them were the days! We were lucky we were on the border and were sophisticated and had SIX! channels BBC 1/2/UTV/C4 and RTE1/2 :pac:

Closed roads and army patrols. Single glazed windows.

I had other kids in my class that (looking back) I reckon certainly had learning difficulties, they got no extra help, nothing nada.

Foreign holiday..... hahahahahahahahaha NO.

kyote00

"bolek and lolek" cartoon on the tele...
fizzle sticks
better music
miami vice
perri crisps, 'triangle' shaped orange juice, small milk bottles at school
No 10 bus went cross city
collecting club milk wrappers to get matchbox cars

[Deleted User]

I was a child of the 80's still remember the video recorder coming home along with a pirate copy of return of the jedi and half of the goonies on the tape.

Recall as a child ring pulls on cans too. I have memories of the 80's being bleak but simpler times. Would i trade being mid to late 30's now and being the same age then?????? Yeah music was better then I was outdoors a lot more.

Gimme A Pound

branie2 wrote: »

My mistake

Well in fairness you weren't far off! 1990 was no different to the 80s in some ways.

Gimme A Pound

Going to a restaurant was something that happened exceptionally rarely - it was only in them TV shows set in New York where people went out for dinner regularly. :pac:

Toys were more expensive too - if you look on YouTube at Maurice Pratt Quinnsworth ads for toys at Christmas... literally crazy prices! A Darth Vader toy was about 40-50 quid.

Sweets and other junkfood were an occasional treat. McDonalds was only for kids' birthday parties. Portions were way smaller. There was some right rubbish though - all those ready meals.

[Deleted User]

Lydia Faithful Swordplay wrote: »

Going to a restaurant was something that happened exceptionally rarely - it was only in them TV shows set in New York where people went out for dinner regularly. :pac:

Toys were more expensive too - if you look on YouTube at Maurice Pratt Quinnsworth ads for toys at Christmas... literally crazy prices! A Darth Vader toy was about 40-50 quid.

Sweets and other junkfood were an occasional treat. McDonalds was only for kids' birthday parties. Portions were way smaller. There was some right rubbish though - all those ready meals.

and you had to go to dublin on your school tour for one. we had a knock off called the 4 lanterns here for that.

archer22

Surprised nobody has mentioned that icon of the 80s...The Honda 50

JupiterKid

Fourier wrote: »

I'd forgotten that film. Very bleak at the end, with people speaking in pidgin and the new generation with mutations.

I loved McDonalds as a kid. It was a real treat. Now some families practically raise their children on fast food and that -
combined with little outdoor play - is a major reason why we have a childhood obesity problem.

I remember some friend of my mam's from when they lived in Belfast in the 60s as young women coming to visit from the States with her son in the mid 80s - she was a very stylish MILF and he was a tall, tanned good looking 16 year old lad with perfect teeth and my big sister had a crush on him (she'd be morto now at that lol:D) - they lived in Cleveland, Ohio. I remember him telling me that his city had 25 McDonalds when Dublin had only about 4 or 5 at the time. I couldn't get my head around that!! 25 MaccyDs in one city alone - it seemed amazing to a 10 year old lad in 1985.

I also remember my Dad going to New York on a business trip in circa 1984 and he came back with walkmans for my two older sisters and myself. They were super cool! Massive chunky Sanyo things but my mates were mad jealous. I still have mine after 34 years and I bet if I put batteries in it - it would still work.

Anyone remember Soda Stream?:o

Atlantic Dawn

archer22 wrote: »

Surprised nobody has mentioned that icon of the 80s...The Honda 50

Loved them, sadly now illegal here under joke emissions regulations that lets diesel cars in to the country with emissions proven to be 4 times plus their official figures.