The 70's and 80's in Ireland

15-09-2018 6:39pm

I know a lot of people find this hard to believe but it was easier to buy a house in the 1980s as long as you had a steady job people with perfectly ordinary jobs purchased houses factory workers, barmen, retail workers.

RonanP77 · 15-09-2018 6:42pm

The 80s were fantastic. Great music and movies, everything was a lot more innocent. There wasn't much money floating about so we appreciated everything a lot more than people do now.

angel eyes 2012 · 15-09-2018 6:43pm

NasserShammaz wrote: »

keyholders in the area please come to your premises

I remember I had an old video recording of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang from the late 80s and this message warning keyholders to attend their premises was played over the film.

I was a kid at the time and I had a vague understanding that it had something to do with Northern Ireland as the BBC1 lady interrupting a scary part of the film - when the child catcher was introduced - had a strong northern accent and sounded very serious.

NasserShammaz · 15-09-2018 6:49pm

angel eyes 2012 wrote: »

I remember I had an old video recording of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang from the late 80s and this message warning keyholders to attend their premises was played over the film.

I was a kid at the time and I had a vague understanding that it had something to do with Northern Ireland as the BBC1 lady interrupting a scary part of the film - when the child catcher was introduced - had a strong northern accent and sounded very serious.

Ruined many a midweek sports special that

Ursus Horribilis · 15-09-2018 6:50pm

mariaalice wrote: »

I know a lot of people find this hard to believe but it was easier to buy a house in the 1980s as long as you had a steady job people with perfectly ordinary jobs purchased houses factory workers, barmen, retail workers.

There were quite a few children in my class who lived in council houses but their dads all had jobs. They might not have been the greatest jobs around but they were still getting up in the morning and going to work. I've no doubt there were plenty of layabouts around then too but there just seems to be more of them now.

dellas1979 · 15-09-2018 6:54pm

Funny to stumble on this thread.

I watched Reeling in the Years - 1984 this evening.

Tunes included U2s Pride (in the name of love), Cndy Lauper (time after time), and Shout shout let it all out (cant think of who that's by). Showed apartheid in South Africa, and how a lady who worked in Dunnes refuse to handle SA products. And then there was a strike. And "Do they know its Christmas time" came out. IRA bombed a hotel in London trying to kill Maggie and her cabinet.

For me, was actually very powerful rewatching this.

One thing that struck me was the excitement of the 1984 Olympics (and the next Olympics). Was transmitted on TV of course. Only two channels we had.

Daley Thompson and Lewis were like unobtainable Gods in a far far far away land, part of another world that Id never probably see.

Was amazing (for me) anyways to relive that memory.

The world has gotton smaller.

NasserShammaz · 15-09-2018 6:57pm

Getting your first ever wages I got £17.50 in a brown envelope for being a van helper aged 15,gave my mum 10 for the house still delighted with myself bought a pair of crêpes (brothel creepers)

15-09-2018 6:58pm

Ursus Horribilis wrote: »

There were quite a few children in my class who lived in council houses but their dads all had jobs. They might not have been the greatest jobs around but they were still getting up in the morning and going to work. I've no doubt there were plenty of layabouts around then too but there just seems to be more of them now.

perception as opposed to reality. The fact that anyone with steady employment could buy a house, it sort of reminds me of reading about the Dublin artisan dwelling society only those with steady employment could afford the rent of house and those with only casual work lived in tenement because it was cheaper.

whisky_galore · 15-09-2018 7:14pm

McCrack wrote: »

The wooden spoon!!

Corporal punishment. Getting flaked by the teacher at school and coming home and getting it at home as well, happily people realise it's no longer acceptable to beat small children.

hot buttered scones · 15-09-2018 7:28pm

Hotblack Desiato wrote:

There were no itemised bills in the 70s or 80s. They came along well enough into the 90s IIRC and for the first few years you had to pay extra! So you just got a bill saying X number of units, it didn't even break down between local calls, trunk calls or international. People would be terrified of getting a big phone bill. On our road there were 300 houses and I'd say less than ten of them had a phone. There always used to be people calling in to use our phone and we had a coinbox beside it they'd put 20p into. The public phones would either be vandalised or have a queue. Many of our neighbours (N.B. this was in Dublin city) were on a waiting list for a phone for ten years by the time they put in more lines in the late 80s and they could finally get a phone. Every few months my aunt used to come over to our house to ring her sister in England, she used to get the call put through through the operator (could have dialled direct) so the operator could tell her at the end how much it cost and she'd give my mother the money. A 30-40 minute call used to cost a few pounds.

Yeah, must have been the early 90s then. I do remember having to go down to the phonebox on the corner because we weren't allowed to use the phone after a big bill.

BarryD2 · 15-09-2018 7:28pm

Pints with a mate in the late 70s - two pints Smithwicks and two packet crisps for £1.

The 80s were great but sure at that age, any decade would be great. Going north was always a bit dodgy, apart from the almost daily carnage & mayhem led by our Republican friends, you could get stopped on any byroad by an army patrol and we know where that led in some cases.

And yes, long queues at public phone boxes in bedsit land.

hot buttered scones · 15-09-2018 7:30pm

andekwarhola wrote:

I wouldn't buy a lot of the nostalgia about those times. In many ways, Ireland is a far better place. One thing worth missing though is how relatively easier it was for young people to afford to be independent back then.

People will always feel nostalgic about their youth. And as kids we knew no better. I moved out of home into a bedsit when I was 18 and supported myself with a job in a fast food place.

Ursus Horribilis · 15-09-2018 7:41pm

Oh I'd forgotten about the phone thing. We got in a phone when I was a kid and remember it being a big deal at the time. I've no idea how long it took for us to actually get the phone but it seemed to be a long wait. One of my relatives got a phone in a few years after us and they were connected up to an older exchange. The phone had a crank handle on it(?) and if we wanted to phone them up, we had to ring the operator. We also found out that there was a number you could dial on the phone and then hang up. Then the phone would ring.

And if anyone thinks ghosting or not having someone call you is tough these days, try living in a home that had no phone. I remember seeing teenage girls waiting for ages in phone boxes, hoping that the fella they'd given the phone box's number to would ring. Talk about rejection in plain sight

Big Nasty · 15-09-2018 7:50pm

dellas1979 wrote: »

Funny to stumble on this thread.

I watched Reeling in the Years - 1984 this evening.

Tunes included U2s Pride (in the name of love), Cndy Lauper (time after time), and Shout shout let it all out (cant think of who that's by). Showed apartheid in South Africa, and how a lady who worked in Dunnes refuse to handle SA products. And then there was a strike. And "Do they know its Christmas time" came out. IRA bombed a hotel in London trying to kill Maggie and her cabinet.

For me, was actually very powerful rewatching this.

One thing that struck me was the excitement of the 1984 Olympics (and the next Olympics). Was transmitted on TV of course. Only two channels we had.

Daley Thompson and Lewis were like unobtainable Gods in a far far far away land, part of another world that Id never probably see.

Was amazing (for me) anyways to relive that memory.

The world has gotton smaller.

Tears For Fears

harry Bailey esq · 15-09-2018 7:59pm

We used to rent our telly from a little shop in finglas off Dessie Ellis. He's now a TD and sinn féin spokesperson on housing. Still lives in the house in finglas where he grew up. I'm no shinner but he's a nice genuine fella.

07Lapierre · 15-09-2018 9:12pm

The 80's...random memories...

Leather "pencil" ties.
Grandad shirts
Cowboy boots
Denim jackets
Stonewashed jeans
CB radio
Making arrangements to meet mates weeks/days in advance and simply turning up.
Paying to get into pubs
Driving without seat belts
Ads on the TV for "Roundup" fertiliser and stuff to protect cattle from "cycoptic mangemites"!

skylight1987 · 15-09-2018 9:41pm

my dad paid £1,000 for our first phillips vcr
i remember recording tv shows and pressing stop when the adds were on so I wouldn't have to watch adds in playback
i learned the 24 hr clock from that vcr
ringing the train station for info i didn't need when we got our first house phone

rn · 15-09-2018 9:49pm

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

No - it didn't work like that. That particular myth has been doing the rounds on Boards for years now because it suits those who complain about the current system.

I will bow to your knowledge on it. I was not one of those driving "experts" myself. However my dad had all the letters on his license until he was 70 and local GP effectively took them off him and rightly so! His story to me was he got them in the amnesty.

To add

Local council workers calling to the door and getting their kettle filled and boiled.

Building "battlements" on top of the hay in the hay barn as an u10 year old... Regularly exposed to hay dust and up about 15ft off ground

Bonfires from old hay bales, tyres acquired strategically from the silage pit, old newspapers and burned engine oil for holloween and 22nd of July.

Changing your own engine oil every 3000 miles.

Moving cattle and sheep over long distances by running them on public road with neighbours help.

branie2 · 15-09-2018 9:52pm

The "Moving Statues" of 1985.

NewbridgeIR · 15-09-2018 9:54pm

Newsflashes on the radio that went along the lines of

"Would John Smith who is believed to be holidaying in the south east of Ireland please telephone home for an urgent message"

Presumably wasn't going to be good news.

branie2 · 15-09-2018 9:56pm

Back to the Future

4 Star Trek movies

The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi

These were great Sci-Fi movies in the 80s

Baron Kurtz · 15-09-2018 10:03pm

Didn't read the whole thread, but brown cars were the real deal back in the day.

freshpopcorn · 15-09-2018 10:05pm

NewbridgeIR wrote: »

Newsflashes on the radio that went along the lines of

"Would John Smith who is believed to be holidaying in the south east of Ireland please telephone home for an urgent message"

Presumably wasn't going to be good news.

Nearly sounds like a rural radio station Today!

Ursus Horribilis · 15-09-2018 10:27pm

NewbridgeIR wrote: »

Newsflashes on the radio that went along the lines of

"Would John Smith who is believed to be holidaying in the south-east of Ireland please telephone home for an urgent message"

Presumably wasn't going to be good news.

We very nearly had to issue one of those back in the day when my grandmother died suddenly. Thankfully somebody remembered where my aunt and uncle were going on holidays and the guards found them.

decky1 · 15-09-2018 10:32pm

Late 70's +all 80's were great in our town , not a care in the world,live music in all pubs every night at weekend seem to have loads of money,pint was about 25 pence when i started drinking 1978, always great crack to be had, they say times are better now , walk down our town now it's gone backwards, shops closed everywhere, no cinema, maybe 2 pubs in town now have live music at weekends . when my father was young there were 2 cinema's 3 dance halls, no way are things better now.

Wibbs · 15-09-2018 10:36pm

rn wrote: »

I will bow to your knowledge on it. I was not one of those driving "experts" myself. However my dad had all the letters on his license until he was 70 and local GP effectively took them off him and rightly so! His story to me was he got them in the amnesty.

My oul lad had all the letters too, but then again he was born when the GPO was still smouldering after the Rising, so... He told me he was marched at 16 to some local office of whatever by his uncle who needed him to drive a truck for a week and they rocked up and just got a licence for him, all boxes ticked. That would have been the 1930's mind you. All his subsequent Irish(and other licences) just kept the allowances(except for HGV of course) until he pegged it in his 80's. Dunno about your Da Rn, but if his GP had tried to pull that when he was only 70, there would have been hell to pay.

To be fair he was in good nick until the end. Didn't need reading glasses until he was 70*.

*the GP did send him to an optician to renew his licence and the guy didn't believe it, but tested him and was shocked to find that while his eyes had degraded a bit from 20/20, he had the eyes of an average 40 year old in his late 60's. I had the eyes of a 60 year old at 20.

Purple Mountain · 15-09-2018 10:39pm

07Lapierre wrote: »

Ads on the TV for "Roundup" fertiliser and stuff to protect cattle from "cycoptic mangemites"!

Who remembers the AIDS or HIV TV ad from the 80s?

NewbridgeIR · 15-09-2018 10:39pm

Purple Mountain wrote: »

Who remembers the AIDS or HIV TV ad from the 80s?

AIDS in the '80s was spread by cats.

lulu1 · 15-09-2018 10:44pm

Deleted User wrote: »

70’s brought discotheques to Ireland. It was also a time of frustration because heavy petting was as far as we could safely go. Bell bottoms. Matheus Rose. The Indians.
It was a fun time. I was transitioning from a teenager to adulthood. An exciting time of love, music, leaving home, arctic roll, battered sausages, cheesecloth shirts and gypsy skirts.

All the boring stuff like marriage and kids and mortgage came in the 80’s.

Ah the bell bottoms gypsy skirts and cheesecloth blouses had them all

Loved the Indians

Purple Mountain · 15-09-2018 10:48pm

NasserShammaz wrote: »

keyholders in the area please come to your premises

Someone will have to explain this for me..

Wibbs · 15-09-2018 10:48pm

decky1 wrote: »

no way are things better now.

Like every generation and time there is good and bad. And nostalgia - which TBH tends to make my teeth itch at the best of times. Phrases that kick off with "things were better in our day because..." renders me near murderous - nostalgia makes people's memories highly selective.

However, things today are better across the board and better for more people with it. Much better overall. We live better lives in general, more informed lives, with far more access to information and people and support and better healthcare. The car you drive today is likely faster with more features than a Rolls Royce of your youth. And wont shite itself expensively before 100,000 miles, and beyond. You have the world at your fingertips in ways we can only hope to scratch the surface of. Yes there are stresses, but there always were. And there always will be. Just that when you're a kid you generally don't realise how bad it can be and don't feel it.

On top of that if you do need to plug into that gra for nostalgia you can enjoy, even wallow in it far more than your parents and grandparents could. Flick on youtube and work away reeling in your years.

The past can be OK, because we filter the shite. And our childhoods and adolescence were hopefully happy times for the most part, but give me today and the future every bloody time.

Put it another way: kids right now are busy building their own nostalgia and "better in our day" narratives about a time you think lesser of and don't quite get anymore. It is what is.

Wibbs · 15-09-2018 10:50pm

Purple Mountain wrote: »

Someone will have to explain this for me..

From what I remember PM, it was because of bomb threats and areas being evacuated and when the all clear was sounded folks were asked to come back. Or there was an active threat and the police in the North needed access to business premises to check them out. Something like that anyway.

Purple Mountain · 15-09-2018 10:52pm

smokingman wrote: »

Giving out to my brothers and parents about not rewinding the vhs tapes...

If the tape went to the end, it used to rewind automatically

Sometimes if I'm having a brain fog, I'll tell my son to go watch a video. He thinks I'm a dinosaur.

Ilovethe bonesofyou · 15-09-2018 10:56pm

Triple A golden maverick.

Charles Babbage · 15-09-2018 10:56pm

I did use the Internet in the 1980s, it wasn't great.
My car then went just as fast as the one I have now, it didn't have a DAB radio for RTE Gold but then they played 80s music on all the stations. Parking was easier to find.

Ursus Horribilis · 15-09-2018 10:58pm

The TV ad breaks which started off with regular ads, then finished off with the cheaper(?) ones that were just a photo and a voiceover artist telling you that their sale was now on

Purple Mountain · 15-09-2018 10:58pm

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I think when most people look back, their late teens/college years are the happiest. It’s a time of blossoming, learning, experimenting, become a person in their own right.

And you probably had a more active sex life than now!

Purple Mountain · 15-09-2018 11:00pm

Ilovethe bonesofyou wrote: »

Triple A golden maverick.

Help me out here..

A for acidified.
A for antiscour..???

Ursus Horribilis · 15-09-2018 11:04pm

A for Anti Scour
A for Acifidied
A for Accelerated Growth

jluv · 15-09-2018 11:08pm

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

No - it didn't work like that. That particular myth has been doing the rounds on Boards for years now because it suits those who complain about the current system.

My mother who had her third provisional filled in the form and got her full licence! Didn't start driving till years later!

road_high · 15-09-2018 11:10pm

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.

I was only a kid in the 80s/early 90s but was conscious of stuff being insanely expensive- Anything “branded” was a real luxury like the example you give.
Globalization and freeing up of trade has really made consumer items way more affordable to the masses.
People’s standard of living is way higher now. Things people do daily like eating out now would only happen a few times a year (if at all). There were far less restaurants in any case!
Coffee was a jar of Maxwell house or Nescafé (there were cheaper own brands too!). Likes of Costa and Starbucks were unknown and it’s really only the last ten or fifteen years that’s become a big thing.

Wibbs · 15-09-2018 11:19pm

Charles Babbage wrote: »

I did use the Internet in the 1980s, it wasn't great

In the 80's? I doubt it. I saw a kinda "internet"(which name escapes) in a B&B in France in the mid 80's. It was like teletext that went two ways. Kinda. Because of a career thing I got what was the Internet foisted upon me in around 94 and it was very basic. Initially had Apple's E-World, which was almost exclusively American, with zero local colour. AOL was better and attempted to have more local stuff(90% UK stuff). It started to rev up in and around 97/98. But in general terms I was a rarity in the mid 90's. My internet provider had a thousand people in Dublin on their books. Maybe you did have the internet(well its precursor) in the 80's, but you would have been a teeny tiny minority.

My car then went just as fast as the one I have now,

Then your car back then must have been out of the ordinary, or your car now is slow. Being a petrolhead from near birth, with a family of petrolheads around me growing up, I can tell you that most old cars, even much vaunted classic old cars were slow as fuck compared to many average boring hatchbacks today(and didn't stop so well, or corner). I remember the hype when the Sierra and Escort Cosworths came out. They were painted as widow makers and baby killers and insurance cost more than the car did because they were so powerful. 200-220 brake horsepower. Eh... And most 70's 80's cars were far less reliable, with much input needed from the owner. They were reliable like a baby's arse. You would tend to them with love but sooner or later they'd shit themselves.

Parking was easier to find.

True dat.

Purple Mountain wrote: »

And you probably had a more active sex life than now!

Not in my "youth" anyway. Had scattered showers of shagging in my 20's, but it was after the millennium turned things really ramped up for me. Clearly you were better looking than me in your teens.

road_high · 15-09-2018 11:22pm

Dakota Dan wrote: »

Nothing wrong with the food as it was a lot closer to organic than the sh1te that’s around today. But having bacon and cabbage 6 days a week and chicken on Sunday wasn’t much fun.

Don’t think that’s entirely true- there wasn’t the same regulations and standards around food production as now. Plenty of fairly potent pesticides that are now illegal were mainstream back then.
Need only look at the BSE crisis which started in the 80s as evidence of lower standards.
Not to mention higher hygiene standards (salmonella in eggs/chicken was another scare)

Masala · 15-09-2018 11:23pm

Back then.... a village 10 miles away was like in another country. We used to thumb everywhere and the problem was the fear of thumbing back from somewhere and not getting a lift. Once had to walk 10 miles home

Now I can cycle it in 25 minutes without breaking a sweat

And going to Dublin from the country was a real treat. Might get to Dublin once a year if u were lucky

Masala · 15-09-2018 11:25pm

And the amount of Masses your parents made u go to was huge!!

And masses very very very lonnnnnnnnng

The Crowman · 15-09-2018 11:28pm

Ilovethe bonesofyou wrote: »

Triple A golden maverick.

Cos this is no time to take a gamble.

road_high · 15-09-2018 11:36pm

Masala wrote: »

And going to Dublin from the country was a real treat. Might get to Dublin once a year if u were lucky

Only lived in Kilkenny but “going up to Dublin” seemed like an ordeal in itself. Now it can be done in an hour and people do it daily. The country became a lot smaller

Ursus Horribilis · 16-09-2018 12:15am

Masala wrote: »

And the amount of Masses your parents made u go to was huge!!

And masses very very very lonnnnnnnnng

There were always decent sized congregations at these masses too. Come early to get a seat near a radiator!

whisky_galore · 16-09-2018 6:54am

branie2 wrote: »

The "Moving Statues" of 1985.

If people think the world is batsh*t crazy now, this was nothing short of mass hallucination. Imagine people thinking a thing made of concrete could move and do a dance and whatever, only the travellers would believe it now.

whisky_galore · 16-09-2018 6:56am

Ursus Horribilis wrote: »

There were always decent sized congregations at these masses too. Come early to get a seat near a radiator!

Nope. You're welcome to it. Hours of my life I'll never get back.

The 70's and 80's in Ireland

Comments