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

Randy Archer wrote: »

It’s the truth . Anyway, what would the wurkin class and the class warriors know about “classy”

You stay classy , brah

I've more class than to lump monkey and foreigner in together the way you did.

I have seen a few teslas & Toyota hybrid jeeps going around south Dublin even in the times that we live in now when we are still battling Covid. I don't think a good lot of Irish people have really learned their lessons this time round regarding how to have money saved for a rainy day when you really really needed it. I would still think that the large remnants of greed are still alive & well in this country with people being more arrogant for having it on them while not knowing the consequences of losing more of it later on when **** hits the fan once again.

PhilOssophy wrote: »

There is and will always be people who can't manage money.....

The real problem was not people not managing money, it was their behaviour when they had it. They were far too ostentatious, lacking discretion and vulgar.

talla10 wrote: »

No matter how much money people have you can't buy class.

They did buy class. Kids sent walking up and down the housing in the private school uniforms to make sure the neighbours knew where they were going to school.

PhilOssophy wrote: »

Is that your understanding of class? The thing about class and wealth is classy people don't show their wealth.

I didn't say it was my understanding, I am saying that is what I saw during the CT.

Il try and bring the thread back on track.

I tipped around as a laborer on the building sites during the boom. Every summer I would spend a few months sweeping here, tidying there, tending to the brickies. The money was ridiculous. The couple of months that I spent on the sites would pay for the rest of my year in college. The fact that I was hired told you that they were stuck for anyone to work on the sites. I knew lads who would come in with half the day already gone stinking of drink and not get fired because there was no one to replace them. There were a few sad stories too, I knew of one lad who would spend most of his cheque on the horses down in the bookies.

The most ridiculous Celtic Tiger thing was when our company messed up the calculation of our overtime. For about two months, instead of getting paid time-and-a-half for the first few hours of overtime, we were getting paid double-time (2x pay). It was the same for double time. I couldnt get a lift home in the evenings until late, so I used to have a nice quiet time holding a brush walking around the site after everyone else had gone home. Needless to say this all changed when everyone started working overtime and coming in on Saturdays too.

This kept going until this stupid eejit in our group complained that he didnt get paid for an hour of overtime that he had worked. He whined to all of us, but when we wouldnt give him the time of day he decided to bring it up with the boss. He showed him the pay check. The boss asked him why he was getting double time when it was supposed to be time and a half. He said "sure everyone is getting that". :mad:
We were ragin at him after that, nearly as much as the boss was to the wife who did the accounts. He had to leave the site after a week or so from the threats.

The fact that the subcontractor could afford them wages and not even notice showed you how much money was in that industry at that time.

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

I think we should be as wary of outlandish examples of excess privilege as we normally are of the social-welfare-bashing threads.

Right on dude. Right on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

John_Rambo wrote: »

He's been succeeding in failure for a long time now, he wrote a Eurovision song that came last, he was an unsuccessful Independent candidate, he refused to use email when it came out (what a pro), he supported the invasion of Iraq in the belief that there were weapons of mass destruction, opposed gay marriage, claimed there's no such thing as depression, blamed catholic clerical child abuse on gay people and was imprisoned because he didn't pay a parking fine because he felt he'd returned to his car only shortly after the grace period.

And people still employ him.

Thats not quite true. He questioned if some people were saying they were depressed when they were sad.
I listened to a great interview on Eamon Dunphy's The Stand. Very interesting.
And you get to see how he went bananas.
And then a few months after that interview he was on with Eamon again and lost his mind and ran out, gas stuff altogether!

Claw Hammer wrote: »

Why didn't ye all chip in 50c and shut the gob****e up? You were the bigger eejits.

We didn't think he was stupid enough to bring it up with the boss. Saying that, even if we did, the lads (myself included) wouldn't have given him a penny. It would have been easier for everyone involved to threaten him not to go to the boss in the first place. That way he wouldnt have to leave his job afterwards too.

Mate of mine was manager of a large Super Valu in Dublin at the time. Met him in the local one evening and he told me he had quit because he was earning twice as much labouring for a few plasterers.

Don't know if this is a reflection of construction at the time or SuperValu being sh**e payers.

I used to work as a bar manager in a golf club/hotel back around 2002 - 2004. We used to have several ahem.....big shots..... in staying the night.

One particularly famous one (now deceased) had a habit of getting drunk in the residents bar and asking everyone out to the putting green (adjacent to the hotel) to join him for champagne and sandwiches/breakfast baps (at about 3am or 4am) and the night porter would have to set up a table with champagne etc. outside on the putting green and then go make sandwiches/breakfast baps. A bottle of champagne was €85 and they could go through between 5 - 30 of them, depending on the size of the group. All added to his bill.

He really was a pain in the hole and the staff didn't like him but he spent a right few bob so management were willing to put up with his sh1te.

One More Toy wrote: »

Thinking back I was a little pr1ck during the celtic tiger, all the clothes my mother bought me had to be designer as I wanted to be seen at school.

I wondered why we only had a 4 year old car.

Then a life threatening event happened after the bust. Now I own next to nothing, clothes all out of penny's.

Couldn't give a toss about anything materialistic anymore. I try to pay my mother 'reperations' almost to make up for the snob I was.

Really embarrassed at how I acted even to this day

That's all normal enough for a teen conforming to peer pressure, it was different for people doing it from 25-50+ when they should have had a better sense of themselves.

Claw Hammer wrote: »

So you read him wrong. Fat lot of good it did chasing him off site after the event.

Anyones head would be melted trying to read this lad. Even though you sound like the exception, its easy to be a Captain Hindsight in a thread about the Celtic Tiger.

BattleCorp wrote: »

When I was a teen (not today or yesterday) I wanted a pair of New Balance football boots because they looked cool. They were £28 and I was told they were too dear. Awful upset I was. Never got them. Need counselling now because of it. :pac:

My missus told me yesterday that her friend bought a pair of Yeezy runners for her young wan at the weekend. Fcukin ugly yokes and €350 for the pair, a bargain apparently. :eek::eek::eek:

Times have certainly changed.

Fruugo.ie has them for €699. I know it's optional to buy them but are they mad?

https://www.fruugo.ie/adidas-yeezy-boost-700-wave-runner-b75571-shoes/p-24554457-53245002?language=en

Leg End Reject wrote: »

That's all normal enough for a teen conforming to peer pressure, it was different for people doing it from 25-50+ when they should have had a better sense of themselves.

Thanks but I still cringe at myself, I once told my mum her salary wasn't good enough. What a d1ckhead I was.

Making up for it now though so alls good