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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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chosen1

JimmyVik wrote: »

I was very young and I worked in IT contracting for a particularly flamboyant company and they brought us all to an eastern european country for the weekend - more than once.
They hired hookers at a lap dancing club and expensed it to the company.
Even the two girls on our team were doing lines off lapdancers arses.
Then on the flight home we were handed our bonus cheques, which were 5 figures.
Even threw in gift vouchers for the wives at home too.

On another similar trip they hired a yought. Huge thing, for 10 of us, plus invited guests and hookers and coke too.

Free drink every Friday night for us all in the local pub too.

Those were the days. Needless to say the company went belly up in the dot com bust.
Never seen the like since. But a lot of my friends worked for companies at that time that did the same kind of stuff.
Some were lucky to get into some that ipo'd and made a fortune. One guy I know was with 3 different companies one after the other that went public that each paid him over 30K bonus when they did.

Did you work for the Wolf of Wall Street?

Limpy

It was easier to get a ride on the weekend. Pubs and clubs weren't the same after all the redundancies.

Jim Root

John_Rambo wrote: »

Amazing how many people claim they knew exactly what was going to happen during the boom and predicted what was going to happen. Particularly on the internet.

I come across them all the time now but never ever came across them during the boom.

They must be worth a fortune now.

I don’t believe half the stories in this thread or the 100+ identical ones on this site

hoodie6029

And another one I just remembered, 05/06- whatever county-21 reg Mini's for the 'darling's' 21st.
Unfortunately there is no puke emoji to end this post on!

Salvadoor

hoodie6029 wrote: »

And another one I just remembered, 05/06- whatever county-21 reg Mini's for the 'darling's' 21st.
Unfortunately there is no puke emoji to end this post on!

Reminds me of a local developers daughter who was given a BMW Z3 at her 21st birthday party from her parents

She was inconsolable for the rest of the night as she wanted a Mercedes clk

antimatterx

Salvadoor wrote: »

Reminds me of a local developers daughter who was given a BMW Z3 at her 21st birthday party from her parents

She was inconsolable for the rest of the night as she wanted a Mercedes clk

Wonder how her life is now?

Wanderer78

hoodie6029 wrote: »

As for the 'I know a fella who saved everything and didn't get burnt' stories, I've yet to meet one in real life. Undoubtedly some people did this but a lot of them were probably rich to start with or the type that wouldn't tell you they'd done well. I know I wouldn't be telling people how smart I was to not get burnt, pride before a fall and all that.

have to say i didnt do too badly out of the boom and bust, worked hard during the boom, got well educated, done a good bit of traveling, went to a ****e load of concerts etc, invested heavily and saved a lot to, got nice redundancy at the beginning of the crash, no debts, tis all good, a lot of luck i guess

[Deleted User]

Recall at the height of the Celtic Tiger that implied inference that "If you did'nt have that much DISPOSABLE INCOME then you must be some kind of dimwit ne'er-do-well and no more.

JimmyVik

chosen1 wrote: »

Did you work for the Wolf of Wall Street?

Name started with T and ended in h.
Anyone else who worked for them will recognize it. Lots of tech companies were like that.

If you think that story is hard to believe look up Baltimore technologies. I knew people working in there. My God, it maid where I worked look like a cafe.

madmaggie

I worked on an assembly line in a factory. My co workers were going shopping in New York and skiing every year. New cars and better clothes than me. I couldn't figure it out.

Wanderer78

madmaggie wrote: »

I worked on an assembly line in a factory. My co workers were going shopping in New York and skiing every year. New cars and better clothes than me. I couldn't figure it out.

free money called credit!

Muahahaha

facehugger99 wrote: »

One time, 'for similar money' you could have bought a chateau in the South of France with its own vineyard for the price of the 2-bed in Dublin.

I remember thinking 'there's definitely something not right about this'.

I had that thought in 2008 when Clare County Council put up for sale at a public auction a tiny public toilet on the Lahinch coastline. The opening bid was 120,000 but several investors got into a bidding war at the auction and drove up the price to 400,000. The media quickly dubbed it 'the Loo with a View' but this was basically a tiny concrete shack, everyone was stunned that someone would pay 400k for a dilapidated toilet, it was a real WTF? moment

padd b1975 wrote: »

I remember flicking through the match programme before the 2004 All Ireland Final.

That shyster Michael Lynn had taken an add out to flog some foreign apartments with the help of two 'celebrities'.

They were none other than Rui Costa (famous Portuguese footballer so fair enough) and..... Eh...... Willie Joe Padden!

Sounds similar to Louise and Jamie Rednapp selling apartments at Belmayne in Clare Hall around that time.

tjhook

I do remember David McWilliams on his morning Newstalk show in 2004ish. He was basically saying that Irish property was way overvalued, and that he had been predicting prices to come down for ages, but it hadn't happened. He said he just didn't understand it, and I could almost see him shrugging.

I was fairly conservative - had a very good deposit, got a mortgage for far less than I could have on the basis that I wanted to be confident I could repay it. In hindsight, we're paying for those who took all they could without thinking, so more fool me. Maybe I should just have done the same. This country penalises the cautious to protect the reckless.

[Deleted User]

^^^This.

There are indeed some patron saints of the reckless in the present day, just as there is a reveered patron saint of drug dealers in Mexico.

Praised for their promotion of high risk wheeling and dealing.

pgj2015

I left school in 2002, went working on the buildings straight away, two builders actually offered me a job on the same day, one rang me the other came to the house to ask me did I want a job. That is how easy it was to get a job at the time.

I worked for 4 years on the sites making decent money for a young guy, more than some of my family members who were in professional jobs, i was just laboring on sites. I left in 2006 to go to college as I had enough of life on the sites, tried two different courses 2006-2008, dropped out of both of them and was on social welfare, had a great time from 2006 to 2008 on 56 euro a week but I had a lot saved from the years working on the sites, I was in Dublin a lot going out and going to gigs, spending a fortune.

Then went to college in 2008, where I rode out the recession from 2008 to 2014.

The lads leaving college to work on sites were right, make the money when the sun shines, you have all your life to go to college.

Blush_01

I was too young for the PIPs or whatever in the late 90s / early 00s, but I was the perfect age to graduate into the recession. That was some craic, can't wait to see what this one is going to be like.

Muahahaha

Does anyone remember Derek Quinlan and Custom House Capital during the boom? They were an investment firm and Quinlan was supposedly a genius when it came to making people money. They specifically targeted the professional classes to invest with them, I know lots of doctors were tapped up as were solicitors and barristers. Their reputation for making unbelievable returns went around these industries and lots of legal and medical professionals were borrowing from the banks and pumping huge sums of money into them in the promise of huge returns. It was said the fund was worth over 1 billion at one point but it was all built on the house of cards that was property. Apparently many Irish judges had invested and got badly burnt in the crash, this was said to be the main reason why judges refused to take a pay cut during the recession- even though they were on 300k+ a year they couldnt afford a pay cut such was their debts from their investments that went belly up.

Anyway four of Custom House Capitals investment managers were up in the District Court last week charged with running a fraudulent investment scheme. These people were filthy rich back in the Tiger but in court two of them produced statements of means showing they are broke and off the back of that the judge granted them both free legal aid.

Canyon86

I worked in a hardware store as a student, during the tiger,

The amount of stock given out on 'tick' was unreal, and the volumes of stock we were shifting was nuts,

L1011

Muahahaha wrote: »

Sounds similar to Louise and Jamie Rednapp selling apartments at Belmayne in Clare Hall around that time.

The Belmayne print ads were basically HD versions of the setups of the softcore they used to show on Bravo in the early 00s. People (mostly women but some men) draping themselves over kitchen equipment.

Muahahaha

Oh yeah it was a crazy time, Premier League footballers and their WAGs using sex to sell apartments in Darndale.

From the Indo 2007

FIRST it was frolicking beside the fridge. Now a celebrity couple are being used by Dublin developers to shift a few houses and apartments.Stanley Holdings flew in English pop star Louise Redknapp and former Liverpool footballer Jamie Redknapp in an effort to convince homebuyers that they can enjoy a glamorous lifestyle near Donaghmede on Dublin's northside.

The couple, who charge an appearance fee of around 20,000, are the latest weapon in the company's marketing arsenal to promote its 1.2bn development. Their efforts are being interpreted as another sign that developers are struggling to sell units as the property market cools.

The developer recently caused a stir with steamy advertisements that seemed to suggest you could improve your sex life by buying a property in the Belmayne estate. They also suggested that it might be best to go for a home that was not overlooked. Ads included a couple entwined on top of a kitchen cupboard. The strapline read: 'Something's cooking @ Belmayne'.
Another ad showed scantily-clad women lounging on a bed as a man looked on, with the catchline 'After hours @ Belmayne'.

In the developer's latest publicity stunt, the Redknapps partied in Dublin last night at the launch of phase two of the 2,300-home estate. Prices range from 275,000 for a one-bedroom apartment to 365,000 for a three-bedroom apartment.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/louise-joins-steamy-house-ads-to-liven-up-a-flat-market-26267167.html

And nowadays many of those same apartments in Belmayne are now social housing managed by Cluid, its a long way away from what was advertised.

ChikiChiki

Sky King wrote: »

IM GOING TO BUY A HOUSE AND RENT IT OUT AND USE THE RENT TO BUY ANOTHER HOUSE AND RENT THAT OUT AND USE THAT RENT TO BUY ANOTHER HOUSE AND RENT IT OUT

I lolled out hard at this. There are a few villages across Leitrim and Roscommon with mini housing estates in them lying empty. It's usually a case of a local fella who worked hard and made a few quid, coming back and ultimately showing off.

No thought put into the actually viability of such vanity projects.

Atlantic Dawn

tjhook wrote: »

This country penalises the cautious to protect the reckless.

We don't have a competitive mortgage market in this country because the entire system of repossession is geared in favour of the person taking the piss with payments. Sit on your hole for a year plus without paying with no threat at all of eviction. The many pay for the few, joke of a country. Banks here are fine with current regime as it means no foreign banks will touch the place.

Musefan

My memory is of older siblings being able to purchase property at age 23/34 with one income.

Took me a good 8 years more than that when it was my turn.

Lockheed

hoodie6029 wrote: »

And another one I just remembered, 05/06- whatever county-21 reg Mini's for the 'darling's' 21st.
Unfortunately there is no puke emoji to end this post on!

https://www.motorcheck.ie/free-car-check/?vrm=05D21
https://www.motorcheck.ie/free-car-check/?vrm=05MH21

This is actually gas.. repeat for different counties and 05/06, it was one hell of a trend

antimatterx

Musefan wrote: »

My memory is of older siblings being able to purchase property at age 23/34 with one income.

Took me a good 8 years more than that when it was my turn.

It's not that hard. I'll be able to do that in about a year and I'll be 25.

cannotlogin

I was in college for most of it but lads all around me who had quit school to go into construction were easily clearing a grand a week despite having little or now experience or being fully qualified.

All building massive 5 bed houses in the country despite being single & no one in the property but them, brand new landrovers in the driveway, breakfast rolls every morning, in pub all weekend.

Most of then left for Australia and haven't come back.

[Deleted User]

ChikiChiki wrote: »

I lolled out hard at this. There are a few villages across Leitrim and Roscommon with mini housing estates in them lying empty. It's usually a case of a local fella who worked hard and made a few quid, coming back and ultimately showing off.

No thought put into the actually viability of such vanity projects.

Come to think of it....a village near me ,had a field zoned for building (like 12 or 16 houses and mini shop centre),it sold for 1.25 million

That village at present has a population of circa 20,and that field was reseeded into grassland a few weeks ago

buried

The most funniest aspect concerning the Celtic Tiger Years is encountering the shooting star wishing snobs that today would LOVE for it all to kick off again, the ones that like to think the days of buying all the ridiculous $hit that you don't really need is all somehow going to come back and manifest itself as some sort of twisted normal, when there is about as much chance of it returning as the Mesozoic

Leg End Reject

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Come to think of it....a village near me ,had a field zoned for building (like 12 or 16 houses and mini shop centre),it sold for 1.25 million

That village at present has a population of circa 20,and that field was reseeded into grassland a few weeks ago

That sums it up!

John_Rambo

Some amazing stories on this thread, some really sad ones and some funny ones too.

I'm really going to have to stop perching my sunglasses on my head.