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Stories from the great recession years

  • 18-06-2020 10:47PM
    #1
    antimatterx
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,180 ✭✭✭


    After reading the thread about the Celtic Tiger years, I thought it might be interesting to have one for stories about the great recession (good or bad).

    I was about 12 when the recession hit, and luckily my parent shielded me and my brothers from the worst of it.

    The worst thing to happen was my dad lost his job for a few months as he worked in construction. We got very lucky as his company kept finding new work to keep ticking over for a few years until the worst of it passed.

    My uncle lost millions building in a McMansion estate and lost his entire property portfolio (about 10 houses), and lost a few hundred grand in Anglo shares.

    The best thing to happen was that through watching the news and observing people around me I probably became more aware of the economy and how the world works than I should have.
    Screenshot 2025-07-11 at 14.32.42.png

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«13

Comments

  • #2
    5555555555
    Closed Accounts Posts: 137 ✭✭5555555555


    I remember previously snobby bars were mad to get you in , runners and all .


  • #3
    Ubbquittious
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,371 ✭✭✭Ubbquittious


    I remember petrol at 99c a litre down from about 1.40. I had just passed my driving test so I was delighted. Still in college when it hit. Like I mentioned in the other thread nobody in my family bought any property or did much splurging. Was still going on regular trips abroad and generally had a grand auld time, did a good bit of visiting different parts of the country all on the cheap of course. The one nuisance was of course languishing and trying to finding a job which I found impossible until 2013 and only got that because I had some unusual combination of skills nobody else had.

    It was mad how things went back to normal after the recession hit. The queues outside night clubs in Cork vanished, prices in the shops went down quite quickly, the bouncers who were complete dickheads to me before with finding excuses not to let me into places because I didn't look posh enough suddenly vanished. There was a shop in cork that sold only hot tubs and they had a massive closing down sale. All the hot tubs were sh1te quality plastic ones from China of course.

    Just like now there was an 'inertia period' where people didn't quite believe what was happening especially for people selling houses. High asking prices stayed up as ghost estates were starting to appear.

    You had those lumbering idiots Noonan and Phil Hogan on the tellybox telling us how it was all our fault and we had to pay all these new austerity taxes that are still here today. Fianna Gael getting in on their "not one red cent" manifesto and quickly cosying up to the bondholders and paying them all as soon as they had their mandate.


  • #4
    theguzman
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,089 ✭✭✭theguzman


    We ain't seen nothing yet compared to what is currently unfolding


  • #5
    Your Face
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,275 ✭✭✭Your Face


    I remember the ads on television suddenly changing, with a lot of talk about 'community'.

    It was like it went from Dallas to Glenroe.


  • #6
    Dr. Bre
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,918 ✭✭✭Dr. Bre


    theguzman wrote: »
    We ain't seen nothing yet compared to what is currently unfolding

    Stay at home


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  • #7
    completedit
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,639 ✭✭✭completedit


    I was in school and college until 2015. LC, year, out, repeated LC, college. So the time went by quick and was sort of like a daze. By 2013, the good times seemed to be coming back. Maybe a more sustainable good times. It seemed like a fairly prosperous time looking back.
    Nights out were extremely cheap. But think that was just me.


  • #8
    Aongus Von Bismarck
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,794 ✭✭✭Aongus Von Bismarck


    I had a cousin who went from being a plumber to a 'developer' during the boom period. AIB were throwing so much money at him that he was paying contractors with houses for work. He ended up building an 8 bedroom house for himself on 12 acres of land. It had 9 toilets. And a helicopter pad.

    He ended up working in Boston Scientific.


  • #9
    ILoveYourVibes
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,584 ✭✭✭✭ILoveYourVibes


    My dad was diagnosed with cancer .during this time...he couldn't get a medical card ..so dipping into own money....waiting list for oncology was awful ...he tried beacon clinic but the day before he was supposed to start treatment they said they were not doing that treatment there

    So he had to go down to waterford ...all the way down ..and back up to dublin each time ...feeling awful etc ...

    They were cutting everything.

    Just before he got diagnosed i was seriously ill in hospital ..i could see cuts happening around me.

    I could see the unfairness.

    I could see the people with the least being asked to suffer to save the people with the most.


  • #10
    Church on Tuesday
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,858 ✭✭✭Church on Tuesday


    completedit wrote: »
    I was in school and college until 2015. LC, year, out, repeated LC, college. So the time went by quick and was sort of like a daze. By 2013, the good times seemed to be coming back. Maybe a more sustainable good times. It seemed like a fairly prosperous time looking back.
    Nights out were extremely cheap. But think that was just me.

    Trust me, they were not.


  • #11
    Ipso
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,995 ✭✭✭Ipso


    Went home for a visit in 2009, was out in the main place on a Saturday night. Loads of late teens, early twenties drinking fat frogs.


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  • #12
    Nigel Fairservice
    Moderators, Regional Abroad Moderators Posts: 2,650 Mod ✭✭✭✭Nigel Fairservice


    I was in college during the Celtic Tiger years so those years passed me by. Every penny I had was for college. I finished my masters in 2009 and it was straight to the back of the dole queue for me unfortunately. I did a lot of short term contracts during the recession, was very broke for most of it. Thankfully I didn't have any debt during those years. Went to Canada for a while and lived/worked at a lovely lake in the Rockies. Had a great time. Came home and eventually found something permanent. On days when I bored at work I wish I was back at the lake :pac:


  • #13
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 381 ✭✭ [Deleted User]


    My job wasnt affected so I was lucky, but for me it worked out well in some ways. I moved out of home in 2011 and i remember we were paying 800 a month rent for a 3 bed house in D8. I bought a house in 2013 that I would never be able to afford now despite earning way more now. I also picked up a really nice car for feck all.

    But I lost loads of friends to Australia and Canada and hated the general worry and sense of doom in the air. I used to watch Vincent Browne before bed every night and it was all end of the world stuff


  • #14
    Motivator
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,802 ✭✭✭Motivator


    2008 to 2013 were scary in Ireland, maybe not in Dublin but the rest of the country they were. I was working in Dublin around 2009 and I hadn’t been home in three or four weeks. I remember coming home to see shops and restaurants, ones I had been in the previous time I came back a month or so previous, literally abandoned. Factories and other big employers in the city cut their workforce seemingly overnight. Although my family weren’t nearly as affected as others, the sense of worry I felt looking at my parents panicking is still something I think about from time to time. It was a horrible time and one that I wish never returns. At least back then people could jump on a plane and go to England or further afield to get work, that can’t happen now which adds an extra bit of danger to the current situation we’re in.


  • #15
    FGR
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,468 ✭✭✭FGR


    [Deleted User] wrote: »
    and it was all end of the world stuff

    Ah I miss the arguments between Vincent and Constantine about how much debt ireland would be stuck with.

    Tbf to Constantine he was right about the quarter trillion figure - possibly wrong about Ireland defaulting.

    Where is he these days ?


  • #16
    Richard Hillman
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,033 ✭✭✭✭Richard Hillman


    I quit my job in late August 08 and then about a week later it was announced we went into recession. Jobs were easy to come by one week and then the market totally collapsed in an instance.

    The signs were all there in hindsight but things absolutely kicked off in September 08.

    A similar thing happened this time. My place of work was due to close in April this year for non covid reasons. I was offered a relocation but said the work was too stressful for such little reward and I'm intending to go on holiday for the entire summer. A couple of weeks later it became apparent that Covid was out of control in Italy and it was heading our way.


  • #17
    ILoveYourVibes
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,584 ✭✭✭✭ILoveYourVibes


    FGR wrote: »
    Ah I miss the arguments between Vincent and Constantine about how much debt ireland would be stuck with.

    Tbf to Constantine he was right about the quarter trillion figure - possibly wrong about Ireland defaulting.

    Where is he these days ?
    Constantine was right about a lot of things.


  • #18
    Zaph
    Registered Users, Subscribers, Registered Users 2 Posts: 47,418 ✭✭✭✭Zaph


    I left school in 1984 - now that was a real recession. I was lucky enough to get a reasonably well-paying temporary job with one of the main banks the year after. In the meantime my father closed his business as it just wasn't sustainable, but as he was self-employed he wasn't able to claim the dole. He got some pittance in unemployment assistance, and together with that, the money I was handing up and some nixers he was able to do my parents made sure that the mortgage that only had a few years left to run got paid, bills were paid and we didn't go hungry. They were their main objectives, and they somehow succeeded, mainly due to how good my mother is with managing money. After leaving the bank I ended up on the dole for 4 or 5 months and came very close to emigrating, which many that I went to school with did. However I somehow managed to get a job and stayed in Ireland, but it was still very bleak for a good few years after that. Bad and all as things got after the Celtic Tiger years, I never want to go back to how bad it was in the 80s and early-90s, it really was a soul destroying time.


  • #19
    Church on Tuesday
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,858 ✭✭✭Church on Tuesday


    FGR wrote: »
    Ah I miss the arguments between Vincent and Constantine about how much debt ireland would be stuck with.

    Tbf to Constantine he was right about the quarter trillion figure - possibly wrong about Ireland defaulting.

    Where is he these days ?



  • #20
    chrissb8
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,252 ✭✭✭chrissb8


    I finished school when the recession started. Everything was just so bleak for the next 4-5 years. Constantly being told things will never be the same and we should shape up for an economy with no prospects for us in our lifetime. Even walking down the main street in my town became a sorry affair, business after business closing down, week after week. Once things moved past to 2012 I thought everything started to get a bit better in terms of the general mood and outlook.

    In a way though, it was a great time, a night out in Dublin was cheap with Magaluf-Esque drink deals going on (Diceys being a notorious destination for getting royally drunk on 30eu). Restaurants with previous notions suddenly started doing 2 for 1 or early bird specials. Trips around Ireland being very affordable. Cinema tickets etc.


    Ireland will be fine after this, I'm in Britain currently and the s**t is about to really hit the fan in a next couple of months and I think Ireland stand to gain favourably as an educated workforce who speak English placed in a country that is a port to Europe.


  • #21
    Ipso
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,995 ✭✭✭Ipso


    Zaph wrote: »
    I left school in 1984 - now that was a real recession. I was lucky enough to get a reasonably well-paying temporary job with one of the main banks the year after. In the meantime my father closed his business as it just wasn't sustainable, but as he was self-employed he wasn't able to claim the dole. He got some pittance in unemployment assistance, and together with that, the money I was handing up and some nixers he was able to do my parents made sure that the mortgage that only had a few years left to run got paid, bills were paid and we didn't go hungry. They were their main objectives, and they somehow succeeded, mainly due to how good my mother is with managing money. After leaving the bank I ended up on the dole for 4 or 5 months and came very close to emigrating, which many that I went to school with did. However I somehow managed to get a job and stayed in Ireland, but it was still very bleak for a good few years after that. Bad and all as things got after the Celtic Tiger years, I never want to go back to how bad it was in the 80s and early-90s, it really was a soul destroying time.

    I thought the recent recession would have been worse than the 80s as there wasn’t as much debt back then.


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  • #22
    Zaph
    Registered Users, Subscribers, Registered Users 2 Posts: 47,418 ✭✭✭✭Zaph


    Ipso wrote: »
    I thought the recent recession would have been worse than the 80s as there wasn’t as much debt back then.

    The country was a lot poorer and unemployment a lot higher then, and there were some poor budget decisions made which made things even worse. At one stage some people were paying up to 60% tax, but there was still no money in the country because it was all being used to service our national debt. Much of that was built up due to the government trying to support the Irish pound, which was overvalued. So while the levels of personal debt were much lower, nationally we were up to our eyes in it and we took a lot longer to recover from recession than pretty much everyone else.


  • #23
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 12,694 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Zaph wrote: »
    I left school in 1984 - now that was a real recession. I was lucky enough to get a reasonably well-paying temporary job with one of the main banks the year after. In the meantime my father closed his business as it just wasn't sustainable, but as he was self-employed he wasn't able to claim the dole. He got some pittance in unemployment assistance, and together with that, the money I was handing up and some nixers he was able to do my parents made sure that the mortgage that only had a few years left to run got paid, bills were paid and we didn't go hungry. They were their main objectives, and they somehow succeeded, mainly due to how good my mother is with managing money. After leaving the bank I ended up on the dole for 4 or 5 months and came very close to emigrating, which many that I went to school with did. However I somehow managed to get a job and stayed in Ireland, but it was still very bleak for a good few years after that. Bad and all as things got after the Celtic Tiger years, I never want to go back to how bad it was in the 80s and early-90s, it really was a soul destroying time.

    The thing I neve understood is how right through the 1980s lots of housing estates were built and purchased who was buying them if most were unemployed or only working intermittingly.


  • #24
    rainbowtrout
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,535 ✭✭✭✭rainbowtrout


    FGR wrote: »
    Ah I miss the arguments between Vincent and Constantine about how much debt ireland would be stuck with.

    Tbf to Constantine he was right about the quarter trillion figure - possibly wrong about Ireland defaulting.

    Where is he these days ?


    He's based in Los Angeles. He was on Mario Rosenstock's Sunday show on Today FM a few weeks back talking about the effects of the pandemic, Trump, general state of the economy etc.


  • #25
    McGrath5
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,574 ✭✭✭McGrath5


    Graduated from college in 2008, I went through 18 months of unemployment / underemployed until I found full time work in late 2009.

    Had plenty of customer's in the new job at the time who would tell me stories of the banks chasing them daily / weekly on debt they could hardly afford to pay. One guy I knew had a Aston martin parked up in his drive way, couldn't afford to put petrol into it, never mind the motor tax.

    I never really experienced the Celtic Tiger and all it supposedly had to offer. It was only when I started working full time I have actually had a few quid to spare.

    I miss the recession in some ways, holidays were so cheap at the time. The 2 of us could head off to Spain or Portugal for a week, stay in a nice hotel and hire a car for what now seems like buttons. Appreciate there was a lot of hardship but it was a great time if you had a few quid to spend in your pocket.


  • #26
    BrianD3
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,039 ✭✭✭BrianD3


    if I remember correctly, property prices kept falling until 2012/2013 but other parts of the economy were screwed before that.

    I think it was early 2009 when I was thinking about buying a new car and was offered (without any haggling by me) a 30% discount off a brand new car that a main dealer had in stock. Desperate to make a sale. Went bust shortly afterwards.

    Shortly after that, the gov. scrappage scheme was introduced with distributors/manufacturers also offering big top up discounts. It was possible to buy a new family car for a similar nominal price to what its equivalent would have cost 20 years earlier. Lots of threads in the Motors forum here at the time complaining about this discounting, the cars were rubbish, they'd depreciate heavily and break down etc. The words "gift horse" and "mouth" came to mind


  • #27
    Trigger Happy
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,287 ✭✭✭Trigger Happy


    The 80s were grim but I remember my dad telling me about a kid in his school in the 30s who pissed on his own feet to warm them up.


  • #28
    BPKS
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,963 ✭✭✭✭BPKS


    Trigger Happy wrote: »
    The 80s were grim but I remember my dad telling me about a kid in his school in the 30s who pissed on his own feet to warm them up.

    That old excuse:D


  • #29
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 12,694 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Trigger Happy wrote: »
    The 80s were grim but I remember my dad telling me about a kid in his school in the 30s who pissed on his own feet to warm them up.

    My mother use to tell us stories about growing up in the 1930s that sounded like horrendous poverty and they were reasonably well of, so what way were the really poor who had nothing living.


  • #30
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 3,065 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    I think the last recession was quite a bit worse than the one in the 80s, partly due to coming from a better base and it was particularly widespread also, very few people unaffected.
    The Vincent Browne show was brilliant, maybe I'm giving it too much credit, but I think it went a hell of a long way to dismantling the old FF/FG duoply. People saw that a lot of their representatives were muppets, the two parties now only get a vote around what FF on its own could get 25 years ago. Long standing family loyalty often melted away as people saw that Bertie, Cowen et al had abused it.
    The sense of decline was everywhere, there was a lot of panic throughout the recession, and people who couldn't see an end to the good times a few years earlier also felt the recession would never end. Then it did.
    For a few years it seemed like suicide was becoming rampant, that was the worst thing I think, too many awful funerals.
    There was a real sense that people realised they'd been 'had', that bankers, politicians and developers had created a massive artificial boom due to self interest and the ordinary people were going to have to clean up the mess. The public anger was huge, it was seen in the 2011 general election and the water charges protests, thankfully it very rarely became violent.


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  • #31
    mikemac2
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,018 ✭✭✭mikemac2


    “No recession in their house” was a common sneer

    Once at a bus stop when Dublin Bus broke my heart once again I flagged a taxi as I had somewhere to be

    Some biddies also at the stop said that after me


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