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Stories from the Celtic Tiger Years Mod Warning in OP PLEASE READ

chops018

Does anyone have any good (or bad) stories from the Celtic Tiger years?

You always hear phrases about how people partied etc., was there just a constant flow of credit available to people and people actually taking the money e.g. was there actually teachers on circa €30k a year buying a house and car and an apartment somewhere.

I was in school and college during these years, graduated into the recession, so I didn't really see what was fully going on at the time bar the fact everyone was working and had money. My dad was working on the buildings on great money and my mam was working away also, we were never stuck really money-wise, also rent seemed to be a lot cheaper back then and fuel and also my college fees were only around €800 a year along with wages being fairly similar to what they are now (from what I can remember anyway, will stand corrected if I am wrong)

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CBear1993

Nigel Fairservice wrote: »

I remember the banks giving out J1 loans in college. Lads would head over to America and drink all summer and come back broke....and a J1 loan hanging over them.

Sure that still goes on up north, lads take out the 2-3 grand maintenance loan from student finance for the year and no one ever pays it back. I went to Oz after college and never declared myself back in UK since, I have been living in Dublin right enough.

Mad though, surely they’ll clamp down on it, none of the lads in my year have paid there’s. They write it off eventually and it doesn’t affect credit rating for mortgages etc

[Deleted User]

I remember being 15 and getting a promotional one visit pass to trial Jackie Skelly fitness at the local shopping centre. Went to visit and a fella probably only about 4 or 5 years older than me was trying to convince me to buy their "Schoolchild rate" membership for 650 a year.
All sorts of suggestions- "ask your parents", "if you don't buy lunch youd easily be able to afford it"

Mental money now that I think of it. Considering how badly equipped this particular one was - a couple of dumbbell racks, a few treadmills/bikes and an open space for abs and stretching. You'd pay less in for a lot more these days.

I believe they became Energie and their corporate rate years later was a lot cheaper than what I was quoted as someone fresh off the junior cert. Such a surreal time.

gogo

I left college and joined the Celtic Tiger work force, I worked for a large Irish corporate company in the IT department. I remember we used to leave laptops out on our desks over night, supposed to lock them away but it never happened, and the cleaners would flinch a few now and then... punishment was that you had to buy the team breakfast rolls on a Friday. To think now if a cleaner stole a laptop there would be hell to pay, was considered collateral damage back then and no one really batted an eyelid, only laughed at you for having to buy a couple of breakfast rolls ...
We were often sent down to the basement to ram crow bars into hard drives, used to be hundreds of them, not worth the hassle of wiping and re using. They were crow barred and dumped, I built my first computer from spare parts floating around that office, good times

There was also an office social committee, Thursday night was drinks nights, a regular Thursday night out then would be akin to a Christmas party now, mammoth drinking sessions and paid for by the company. In then and work sick as a pig on a Friday, praying someone had a laptop robbed so you’d get a breakfast roll!

CrankyHaus

I was working in a bookies just before it all come to an end; when "soft landing" and "let's not talk ourselves into a recession" were being bandied around.
The rumour one day was that the Santry shop was down €250,000 in turnover after a single builder who frequented it went bust.

Kaybaykwah

completedit wrote: »

These are brilliant. A fun time with serious consequences it seems. Maybe we needed to get it out of our system. I think we should bring up the celtic tiger more, the idea of people having 'notions' was cringeworthy a few years ago, but I think it was born out of an awareness of what came before.

From my standpoint, having lived in Dublin in the mid eighties, I remember the shoestring circumstances with affection, but I thought Ireland had something up its sleeve. There were all these young people leaving, educated, talented and wanting to experience life abroad. The same cycle of wash rinse repeat that bled Ireland for like ever, suddenly interrupted, and reversed by positive migration. I wasn't there to experience it, but was pleasantly surprised by the new circumstances when the Canadian media heralded the Celtic Tiger years.

Reading the stories on this thread puts another perspective on things, and I wonder how the great Irish writers of the so-called Celtic twilight would qualify this period. There must be someone like a Flann O'Brien to have lampooned a future Ireland where the streets were paved with gold, etc...

Ipso

Kaybaykwah wrote: »

From my standpoint, having lived in Dublin in the mid eighties, I remember the shoestring circumstances with affection, but I thought Ireland had something up its sleeve. There were all these young people leaving, educated, talented and wanting to experience life abroad. The same cycle of wash rinse repeat that bled Ireland for like ever, suddenly interrupted, and reversed by positive migration. I wasn't there to experience it, but was pleasantly surprised by the new circumstances when the Canadian media heralded the Celtic Tiger years.

Reading the stories on this thread puts another perspective on things, and I wonder how the great Irish writers of the so-called Celtic twilight would qualify this period. There must be someone like a Flann O'Brien to have lampooned a future Ireland where the streets were paved with gold, etc...

A few of the Ross O’Carroll Kelly books got the era spot on.

Kaybaykwah

Ipso wrote: »

A few of the Ross O’Carroll Kelly books got the era spot on.

Thank you, I'll be checking them out.

California Dreamer

Muahahaha wrote: »

As well as that during the Tiger there was a boom with lads training to become helicopter pilots. Knew one chap who got a bank loan of 100k and paid it over to a flying school in Florida where he said half the class was Irish. Bit of a hard landing for them all when the crash came, puns intended

50 hours will get you a PPL (H)

There was a number of UK helicopter agencies that were selling the machines and the lessons at the same time and there was regular arguments between the sales team and the training team to get new buyers passed without much hassle.

The Robinson R44 was the Toyota Corolla of helicopters and everyone had one as they are a simple machine to learn how to fly. I was really surprised that there was not more accidents.

Marty Xavier

I was working in the construction industry as a supplier, we literally saw our business quadruple in the space of a few years from the late 90s til 2007, even 2008 was good but we were getting alot of bad debts. I do remember thinking in August 2007 that something shifted after the builders holidays. Some sites didn't re-open and lads were let off suddenly but the same thing happened in 2001 after Sep 11.

Needless to say we lost 80% of our turnover in 09,10 but manage to limp along for a few years and things were good again the last few years. God knows what the next year will bring?

Money wise there was plenty, we had a great foreign holiday every year out to Asia and it was fantastic probably €5k for myself and herself. Luckily being in my 20s I wasn't interested in investing so manage not to go broke but did buy a house in 2006 that I sold last year at a loss.
I went to school with a few lads that ended up having their assets taken over by NAMA, some of them worked for them after and seem to be doing ok again.

weldoninhio

pgj2015 wrote: »

I know of a guy who paid 100 euro for a taxi trip that should have cost around 7. The taxi was booked but not after 100 euro being offered.

A friend of min was at a stag in Galway, from Dublin. Got in a fight with his gf over the phone, and got a taxi home from Galway to Dublin at 3am. Flew back down to Galway the next day.

[Deleted User]

CrankyHaus wrote: »

I was working in a bookies just before it all come to an end; when "soft landing" and "let's not talk ourselves into a recession" were being bandied around.
The rumour one day was that the Santry shop was down €250,000 in turnover after a single builder who frequented it went bust.

Idiots, some of them highly paid politicians and journalists, banging on about talking ourselves into a recession....

[Deleted User]

Tigerpants wrote: »

I was mostly in college during the Tiger. I was itching to leave and go work in construction. All I wanted was money and the boy racer car!

Stuck it out with college in the end thinking I can have any job I want once I get finished. Graduated into the recession. Had periods of unemployment and underemployment. Terribly depressing. Held back in life because of it. Felt completely disillusioned with everything.

Things have been on the up for me since 2016 with decent wages and job security but it looks like the fallout from Covid has stalled my life again.

You're not the only one.

facehugger99

I enjoyed it immensely.

It was the perfect time for me. Graduated in '98, with a Construction Industry degree so was perfectly positioned when the boom hit in the early noughties.

By the mid-00's i was still in my 20's but earning over 6 figures. There was a real work-hard, play-hard ethos. I didn't have kids yet so there was a lot of late nights and corporate events. The Christmas parties became more and more extravagant.
I remember after one, we were leaving the function room and I looked around at all the food and drinks that had barely been touched - the wastefulness really struck me.

I was always too cautious and careful to indulge in any big spending, bought a sensible 3-bed semi and a 5 years old car and concentrated on paying off the mortgage. I did get to travel and holiday in some amazing places which I don't regret at all.

When everything cam crashing down the company I worked for went into liquidation and everyone lost their jobs, some of the lads I been working with were up to their eyes in debt - some still are.

I wouldn't trade that time though.

Better Than Christ

California Dreamer wrote: »

The Robinson R44 was the Toyota Corolla of helicopters and everyone had one as they are a simple machine to learn how to fly. I was really surprised that there was not more accidents.

We had two. I actually left one of them at a bus stop one day. The driver told me I'd have to fold it up, as there was no room for any more helicopters on the bus. So I left it there and got another one for free off the dole the next day.

completedit

facehugger99 wrote: »

I enjoyed it immensely.

It was the perfect time for me. Graduated in '98, with a Construction Industry degree so was perfectly positioned when the boom hit in the early noughties.

By the mid-00's i was still in my 20's but earning over 6 figures. There was a real work-hard, play-hard ethos. I didn't have kids yet so there was a lot of late nights and corporate events. The Christmas parties became more and more extravagant.
I remember after one, we were leaving the function room and I looked around at all the food and drinks that had barely been touched - the wastefulness really struck me.

I was always too cautious and careful to indulge in any big spending, bought a sensible 3-bed semi and a 5 years old car and concentrated on paying off the mortgage. I did get to travel and holiday in some amazing places which I don't regret at all.

When everything cam crashing down the company I worked for went into liquidation and everyone lost their jobs, some of the lads I been working with were up to their eyes in debt - some still are.

I wouldn't trade that time though.

Exactly. The excess was too much and I mentioned how I was a teenager earlier and you could sense we were living in that type of culture, but on an individual level it must have been an unreal time.

blackbox

It amuses me that many people still think that the Celtic Tiger was "normality" and believe that everyone's income should be restored to boom levels.

CrankyHaus

blackbox wrote: »

It amuses me that many people still think that the Celtic Tiger was "normality" and believe that everyone's income should be restored to boom levels.

Everyone, or just the public sector?

Keyzer

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=89385832

This...

Some cabbage bought two apartments in Bulgaria (or somewhere in the neck of the woods) on his credit card because he seen it in a Fair City story line and thought it was no brainer.

Sady for him, he had no brain to begin with - a no brainer for a no brainer... its like crossing the streams in Ghostbusters, you just don't do it...

completedit

I see he wanted to retire to Bulgaria at 40. The problem with where people like him were buying, is that no doubt the places they were buying were holes. If you actually got a decent place on the black sea, it probably was a good time to buy. Bulgaria just joined the EU and you would have had a nice property in a lovely part of the world. But the mugs were buying shacks.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

Sky King wrote: »

So they went to Frankfurt - possibly the most boring city in Europe (after Luxembourg)?

Yeah, I thought that too, there obviously weren't too many other options flying from whatever airport they were at!

[Deleted User]

NIMAN wrote: »

Wonder where Eddie is now.

I used to see him doing Karate in Naas.
I'd love to call him a cnut but I was raised better.
He should ashamed of himself.

Trigger Happy

Keyzer wrote: »

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=89385832

This...

Some cabbage bought two apartments in Bulgaria (or somewhere in the neck of the woods) on his credit card because he seen it in a Fair City story line and thought it was no brainer.

Sady for him, he had no brain to begin with - a no brainer for a no brainer... its like crossing the streams in Ghostbusters, you just don't do it...

I remember that muppet. Complaining that the govenment were doing nothing for the likes of him.
He wanted to retire to bulgaria at 40 and live off his rental income from properties he bought off his credit card (and a bulgarian mortgage). Pure greed and stupidity.

valoren

My cousin married her husband in 2001. He was/is a plumber by trade. They first moved into a 3 bed semi, had two kids and the boom started booming shortly after. He was the kind of guy who was incredibly eager to impress. Picture a balding squat man. A deep tan, a pink shirt, sunglasses resting on his forehead. He pumped the property market anytime we happened to meet at family occasions. He was a nice man but, in Cork terms, was tolerable in "small doses". He started making a fortune with the construction boom and was so busy that he took on my younger brother as an apprentice. He steadily started an expanding property portfolio but from talking to him it was clear he was highly leveraged using the one property as collateral for the next.

A few weeks work on a site and he would have cash deposits for another gaff. At the height, he was a multi-millionaire on paper. He bought apartments in Spain and in the UK. They moved from their first home into a nearby 4 bed detached house, the kind of house where you set down roots for decades and raise a family. They lived there for about 18 months where he bought a nearby cottage on a large site to build his dream home. It was to be akin to a property in Spain. Large, sparse rooms painted white and with large windows and works of art everywhere. Minimalism all the way. The four of them moved into the tiny cottage while the construction took place on the site. It would be like something from Grand Designs. An architectural masterpiece, a property designed for the Spanish climate but in rainy, rural Cork. It was an incredibly stressful time for my cousin but she backed up her husband.

The work went over budget and coincided and overlapped with the property market crashing in early 2007. The tide was going out and he'd been swimming naked. Plumbing Work continued apace but happened in parallel with him working practically full time to sell his litany of properties while continuing to pay the mortgages on properties which were in deep negative equity. The house was completed, the cottage was knocked. The property was gauchely named using a combination of their kids name. With the budget over runs he began chasing his tail in paying for the cost of construction. With the industry as it was, he was back to his day job i.e. plumbing repair instead of the lucrative installations. Workers were let go, he kept my brother on until after the Lehman's collapse. He was flirting with bankruptcy and eventually succumbed to it about six years ago. The property was put up for sale. It was initially asking for a million but over the course of a few years it dropped steadily. He, however, had a plan. They, my cousin and their now teenage kids, were all going to move to the UK. He would be out of bankruptcy faster. It was the last straw for my cousin. After years of stress and upheaval, she was not willing to move and unsettle her kids. It broke their marriage and they separated. The house, which was being sold explicitly to settle his debts, eventually sold for 800k about three years ago. She works part time, takes whatever work she can get to make ends meet. He moved to the UK to follow his plan. He even has a new partner. I haven't seen him for a while but I'm sure he still rests his shades on top of his head.

In contrast, her younger brother was a stone mason and played the boom perfectly. He made his hay while the sun shone. He left school at 15 to become a stone mason in 1992. He was single, lived with his widowed father in the family home which was bought decades earlier and then pretty much paid off. He traded in one car and bought a car on finance and drove it for years thereafter. He was lucky to "get in" early when he bought the house next door to the family home. A 3 bed semi for circa £120,000. This was in 1999 when house prices started their monthly acceleration. He didn't invest in any other property and rented out the house. As a stonemason he was always working and made a mint. When it all came crashing down, he was financially very well off. Losing his work in construction was ok with him. He pretty much retired early and takes odd jobs here and there to keep himself busy. I think he sold the house next door eventually and his return on investment must have been agreeable.

[Deleted User]

Trigger Happy wrote: »

I remember that muppet. Complaining that the govenment were doing nothing for the likes of him.
He wanted to retire to bulgaria at 40 and live off his rental income from properties he bought off his credit card (and a bulgarian mortgage). Pure greed and stupidity.

Total stupidity, but at the time people thought you were intelligent and enterprising if you were doing this kind of thing, and with no financial regulation guys like him were lambs to the slaughter. How much blame can you give him and how much is down to a society and culture that had gone quite mad quite fast?

Signore Fancy Pants

I didnt seem to live it up during the CT years. I just remember everything being expensive as fcuk.

Was living at home with the parents and taking home about €550 a week in the public sector. My friends were absolitely raking it in on building sites and as trades...of course I was a "fcuking eeijit" for not packing in my job and going to work with/for them.

Man they were loaded, on the lash 5 times a week. One lad (a brickie) bought a H2 hummer and used to use it to shift bricks around, cost him a fortune but he had the funds to back it up.

I dont remember being physically offered any credit cards, loans or a 100% mortgage, quite thankful of that.

I think the most extravagant thing I can remember doing was ordering a bottle of some horrid champagne that cost €180 in Cocoon nightclub in Dublin. Didnt really have a choice as that was the "rounds" we were on! Only got 1 bottle and that was me broke.

Then the boom came, the lads sufferred and I was a default pr1ck for having a PS job and being the cause of Irelands financial ruin :pac:

In the next boom...Im going to go hatchet, not missing out again.

topper75

John_Rambo wrote: »

I was working in advertising agencies throughout the Celtic Tiger. It was crazy. I was on good enough money, but not mad money. It was the credit that was the temptation. I had a house in the city and got lots of letters telling me I was pre-approved for big loans. Loans that could buy foreign property or a serious head turning car. The xmas parties were abroad in places like Barcelona, one of the agencies had a bar which was pretty unusual pre-google and twitter office time.

I was a bit cautious and didn't get stuck in, but I saw lots of cocaine, prostitution, sports cars, Rolex's and overpriced Champaign. I 100% remember lock in nightclubs where anything went. Two people I worked with ended up in prison for cocaine charges, loads of them ended up being reluctant landlords and loads more bought houses for a fortune in areas they wouldn't step foot in five years previously, they're all still stuck with the properties, they all had regular jobs (not in construction). Others remortgaged their houses for amazing holidays, his & hers Audis and a wedding. My boss was on good money and had five or six houses. Affairs were rife amongst senior staff with company credit cards and expensive hotels. "Business" trips abroad were arranged at the drop of a hat.

One memory was locking my (expensive) mountain bike outside work on a Monday morning when a limo pulled up and a colleague hopped out after an all nighter. There were two topless girls in the car. I'm not kidding.

Company credit cards were a joke. I was out with a group for dinner after a sports event and a senior Bank worker paid for everyone on the card. There was about fifteen of us, none of us banked with him or were clients.

Smaller things I noticed were people throwing €1 or €2 coins in to toll bridge baskets and not bothering to get change. Giving bouncers a sly 50 to get in. Executives giving 20's to juniors for a €12 lunch and not asking for change. Little things like not shopping around for car insurance etc...

I remember dating a girl that was giving me hints for her birthday present. She wanted a MG TF! Way out of my budget, but her friends were dating estate agents and property professionals.

I sold my house and the first estate agent arrived in a beautiful Lotus Elise. He told me not to bother putting it on the market and said he'd a cash buyer that would pay within the week. The house sold for 80k more than what he offered.

I indulged in a new hot hatch. First and probably last new car.

Put a Tamla Motown soundtrack to this and you have an Irish Goodfellas or Casino.

"For as long as I can remember I always wanted to be working in an ad agency..."

Pauliedragon

I was working in pubs in oz during the boom years and the amount of people coming over on the one year visa who wouldn't work for about 6 months and just get on the piss 7 days a week was mad. When the recession hit I was trying to explain to my owner why the early week trade dropped off and he couldn't understand that Irish people weren't coming over just for fun they were arriving just for work not party.

elefant

I was in primary and secondary school for almost all of the Celtic Tiger years. At that age I didn't have any real frame of reference for noticing things being in any way unusual. My family didn't have any earth shattering change in circumstances during that period, at least in any way that a kid would have noticed.

The first proper realisation I had of there being a major shift in the country's mood and fortunes was when I returned home after my Erasmus year studying abroad 2009-2010. Obviously being away from the country meant I missed the gradual changes across that year, but Galway became a very noticeably less buoyant place in the span of that 10 months.

I've always felt a bit sore about it, not being able to really enjoy those years of excess. But, on the other hand, I may easily have dodged a bullet by being too young to properly make a balls of things. The stories in here sound absolutely wild!

Skid X

I remember being stuck in traffic in Dublin and being handed a flier to buy apartments on the site of Arsenal's old Highbury ground in London, from the man who usually sold the Evening Herald.

Estate agents in London had realised that handing out fliers to random people in Dublin was a good way to shift overpriced property in London, even at the time I thought that was a sign there was trouble ahead.

Muahahaha

California Dreamer wrote: »

50 hours will get you a PPL (H)

There was a number of UK helicopter agencies that were selling the machines and the lessons at the same time and there was regular arguments between the sales team and the training team to get new buyers passed without much hassle.

The Robinson R44 was the Toyota Corolla of helicopters and everyone had one as they are a simple machine to learn how to fly. I was really surprised that there was not more accidents.

Yeah surprised we didnt have a fatal helicopter crash with the amount of them going about. We did have that local hotshot in Athlone who landed his helicopter on the roof of a shopping centre that obviously wasnt designed for the weight of a helicopter. Laughably he landed it there because he needed to get a spare set of keys cut for the helicopter

A BUSINESSMAN who landed his helicopter on the roof of a multi-storey car park next to a busy shopping centre intends to "fully defend" his actions.

Sean O'Brien (49) from The Island, Ballycumber, Co Offaly, took an unorthodox route to collect newly cut keys for his chopper by landing on the roof of the car park in Athlone town centre, Co Westmeath.

The pilot, who was accompanied by his brother in the single-engine Hughes 369HS helicopter, appeared before a sitting of Athlone District Court yesterday. On July 7, 2007, Mr O'Brien landed his helicopter at the Parkrite Texas Centre in St Mary's Place, Athlone, contrary to Irish aviation rules.

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) has summonsed him for operating a helicopter in a "negligent" or "reckless manner so as to endanger life or property in a manner that was hazardous to person and property". The IAA completed an Air Accident Investigation Report which found that the pilot showed "poor airmanship".

It stated that Mr O'Brien had been getting keys cut for the door of his helicopter at the Texas Department Store. "He landed on the roof of the adjacent multi-storey car park. It is unclear to the investigation where the helicopter could have been safely force-landed in the event of an engine failure during landing or take-off."

Air Accident Investigator Paddy Judge said the shopping centre, which was open for business at the time, should have been "completely avoided" for "obvious safety reasons".

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/pilot-to-defend-chopper-shopping-26482907.html

He ended up getting convicted for that, six month suspended sentence and a 5,000 euro fine. In court it came out that he was a prison officer who went into running a security company and investing in property. By the time his case came up in 2009 he was pleading the poor mouth and said he had no means, had sold the helicopter and was claiming disability.