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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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Airyfairy12

Parents bought name brand food, the shopping was done every week, we didnt have to cut mold off bread, got nicer Christmas presents and could buy clothes from real shops not just st vincent de paul, my mother bought me a hoodie and a top from Diesel, I wore them like a uniform for months . My parents built a new kitchen and I remember my mother turning to me and saying this was the first time she'd never had to be worried about money.

I moved out for college towards the end of the Boom, rent was so much cheaper, I moved into a really nice 3 bed apartment that was right in the center of the college town, it cost 350 a month for the whole place so was only paying roughly 100 euro a month on rent for good size room. I recently saw that same apartment on Daft listed for 850 a month. Crazy.
At the time I got a part time job in a cafe working a few evenings a week and Saturdays, think I got about 350 a week which was enough to pay my rent, bills, shopping and have a good amount left each week to go out and pay for college supplies, I was also getting a grant which was great, cant remember exactly how much it was but it was decent. The recession came and the cafe closed down so I lost my part time job and couldn't get anything else, the grant was cut to 300 a month, my sole income and 100 of that went on rent while 50 went to bills.

Seems like everyone who worked during the boom was earning a livable wage, even the social welfare payment was higher and things were cheaper so people could afford to live. It's crazy that we have allowed things to get so bad and the vulnerable and people in precarious employment - which really common nowadays - are the people to really suffer.

Purple Mountain

I was 21 and had maxed out my €2,500 limit credit card.
I had nothing tangible to show for it bar a trip to America that was funded all by credit amongst other little purchases and nights out.

James Bond Junior

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater wrote: »

I remember Jordan opening a nightclub in Ballinasloe circa 2002.

I remember that. She was spitting in peoples drinks and acting like a total scumbag.

El_Duderino 09

talla10 wrote: »

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

The only real surprise in hindsight was that it lasted as long as it did

Claw Hammer wrote: »

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.

There's a bit more to it than that. The real question was whether the peope throwing money around were happy and whether throwing money around made them happy. In most cases I really doubt it did.

There's been loads of philosophy over thousands of years (and more recently psychology) on what constitutes "the good life". It's really unlikely that throwing money around will make ypu happy beyond the thrill of throwing money around (similar to gambling). It's a bit much to ask people to sit and read philosophy, but it's not too much to ask people to think what they actually enjoy doing and why they enjoy doing it.

The saddest thing of all is to see someone who has struggled without money, finally get some money which they could use to make life more comfortable over the long term, and they spaff it away on keeping up with the Jones because they didn't know what else to spend it on. Or someone who thinks that having money means they should be unkind to waiters or other service workers. That can't actually make a normal person happy, it'll just make you feel like a dick because you're behaving like a dick.

There's load of literature on how to figure out what you consider to be a "good life". I think people would be a lot happier if they had a think about it before they become rich.

nthclare

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

There's a bit more to it than that. The real question was whether the peope throwingonwy around were happy and whether throwing money around made them happy. In most cases I really doubt it did.

There's been load sod philosophy, over thousands of years, on what constitutes "the good life". It's really unlikely that throwing money around will make ypu happy beyond the thrill of throwing money around (similar to gambling). It's a bit much to ask people to sit and read philosophy, but it's not too much to ask people to think what they actually enjoy doing and why they enjoy doing it.

The saddest thing of all is to see someone who has struggled without money, finally get some money which they could use to make life more comfortable over the long term, and they spaff it away on keeping up with the Jones because they didn't know what else to spend it on.

There's load of literature on how to figure out what you consider to be a "good life". I think people would be a lot happier if they had a think about it before they become rich.

Absolutely, money is a curse.
Although I'd say its much nicer and easier living in a village or rurally if one's not well off.

I'd prefer to be poor in solitude rather poor in suburbia.

At least in natural surroundings one can enjoy what the so called better off have to pay for.

It goes in roundabouts.

pgj2015

James Bond Junior wrote: »

I remember that. She was spitting in peoples drinks and acting like a total scumbag.

She was probably just trying to fit in.;)

nthclare

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

There's a bit more to it than that. The real question was whether the peope throwingonwy around were happy and whether throwing money around made them happy. In most cases I really doubt it did.

There's been load sod philosophy, over thousands of years, on what constitutes "the good life". It's really unlikely that throwing money around will make ypu happy beyond the thrill of throwing money around (similar to gambling). It's a bit much to ask people to sit and read philosophy, but it's not too much to ask people to think what they actually enjoy doing and why they enjoy doing it.

The saddest thing of all is to see someone who has struggled without money, finally get some money which they could use to make life more comfortable over the long term, and they spaff it away on keeping up with the Jones because they didn't know what else to spend it on.

There's load of literature on how to figure out what you consider to be a "good life". I think people would be a lot happier if they had a think about it before they become rich.

Ush1

nthclare wrote: »

Absolutely, money is a curse.
Although I'd say its much nicer and easier living in a village or rurally if one's not well off.

I'd prefer to be poor in solitude rather poor in suburbia.

At least in natural surroundings one can enjoy what the so called better off have to pay for.

It goes in roundabouts.

A lot of better off pay to be in suburbia/the city.

I'd rather be poor somewhere where there is lots of opportunities close by but of course poverty is more complicated than that.

El_Duderino 09

nthclare wrote: »

Absolutely, money is a curse.
Although I'd say its much nicer and easier living in a village or rurally if one's not well off.

I'd prefer to be poor in solitude rather poor in suburbia.

At least in natural surroundings one can enjoy what the so called better off have to pay for.

It goes in roundabouts.

Money can be a curse but if you know what makes you happy then you can use money to achieve it. And that's where reading and thinking about "the good life" comes in.

I come from a small village so I'd probably agree that it's better to be poor in the countryside but it can be very isolated. If you're OK with that then you're laughing.

w/s/p/c/

seenn00J wrote: »

That Belmayne development is so crowded, it's like they had a competition to see how many apartments/duplexes could be crammed into the smallest space. It's the type of housing that would be perfectly suited for city centre living. How much were they going for at the time of the Dracula ad? Here's a link about the structural defects the owners were hit with a bill for:

www . irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/views/analysis/belmayne-it-will-take-an-actual-fire-to-reveal-the-truth-934852.html

Also just read Jamie Redknapp and his wife attended the launch in 2007. Half a million! It's basically an extension of Darndale lol!

I lived here for 5 years 2013-2018 rented a house with my other half. Never had any issues in relation to anti social behavior etc (that seemed to come from the social housing apartment blocks). Girl who owned our house no doubt probably paid a pretty penny for it when it launched, turned out that the house had a pyrite problem. All the neighbors availed of the grant to get the work done and houses fixed, our landlord never bothered. She is going to have some loss if she sells. I still know people who live there and from their facebook group page there is nothing but anti social behavior going on, its gotten worse over the last couple of years. Teenagers running amok in apartment stairwells causing property damage, seen some pics of take away food being spread over walls in halls. Cars constantly broken into in the underground carpark. Tales of packages of online goods being delivered during lockdown being stolen by people.

Glad we got out of it when we did its turned into an absolute kip.

partyguinness

There was a race to get on the property market- easy money apparently. It was actively encouraged.

I remember a mechanic sitting in front of me in 2006/2007- mid 30s, stay at home wife and young kids, mortgaged residence and earning about €30k pa. He was buying 3 buy to lets. I couldnt understand it. I was on nearly €50k, no kids or mortgage and no properties but yet this guy was on the verge of owning 4. An accountant friend explained it to me but it was a case of "Eff that"- I do not need the stress.

Circa 2005, every Tom Dick and Harry was now a budding 'property developer'- you were a right edjit if you didn't have a few buy to lets in some God foresaken midlands town.

I recall my parents discussing friends of theirs who had jumped on the bandwagon ****ting on back in the pub about their rental properties blah blah blah and being right smug gits. My parents never bought into any of it.

Of course their friends got royally stung and in severe financial difficulty.

partyguinness

Actually during the height of the property boom I remember sitting in front of buy to let buyers and thinking to myself on many occasions:-

"So...what happens when the Poles go home? Who is going to pay the mortgage"

One thing that was glaringly obvious to me mid 2000s was that the Eastern Europeans in general were not putting down roots. In other words, they were not buying property i.e. they had no intention of staying.

Montage of Feck

Receiving MBNA junk mail every other day.

facehugger99

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

There's a bit more to it than that. The real question was whether the peope throwing money around were happy and whether throwing money around made them happy. In most cases I really doubt it did.

You need to figure out what makes you happy.

I love to travel, the boom afford me the opportunity to see a lot of places between 99-07 which I wouldn't have been able to get to (or at least not as many places), if I hadn't been getting a Celtic Tiger salary.

irishgeo

partyguinness wrote: »

Actually during the height of the property boom I remember sitting in front of buy to let buyers and thinking to myself on many occasions:-

"So...what happens when the Poles go home? Who is going to pay the mortgage"

One thing that was glaringly obvious to me mid 2000s was that the Eastern Europeans in general were not putting down roots. In other words, they were not buying property i.e. they had no intention of staying.

Yep they sent all the money home and built fine houses in their own countries.

um7y1h83ge06nx

I graduated in 2005 into the IT industry that was only beginning to recover from the dot-com bubble bursting around 2001.

My father has a great story directly from the person involved. Father was a FAS instructor and at one stage was running basic IT courses for people that were on social welfare, in theory to make them more employable.

Anyway, one guy in a particular course was offered €12M for his farm towards the end of the boom for development. As the details of the deal were being ironed out he went to the bank and borrowed money to start up a business based on the promise that he was getting €12M for his farm. Crash came, land deal fell through, his business failed and he ended up in severe debt instead of a multi-millionaire. I can't believe he didn't just focus on pushing the sale through and have that in the bank before borrowing money.

For those that say a boom is coming back, I can't see it with the Covid-19 situation. There might be a small bounce as people spend money in pubs and restaurants again but the economic outlook worldwide is uncertain, tax takes etc. have been down and the Covid-19 payments are a big cost to the economy. Once the initial buzz around the lifting of restrictions dissipates people will tighten their belts.

My own job in the mythical, supposedly fantastic IT industry has become a bit uncertain in the last few months, my company are looking to cut costs in a big way.

Badger2009

I came out of college in 2008 after finishing an engineering degree. I started a job with a company I had worked summers for.

I took out a 20k loan to buy a brand new car even though I had only just started working and had no credit history. I was crazy taking it and the bank were crazy giving it to me.

I was let go a few months later and started a funded masters which paid the bills while getting an additional qualification.

Moved to London in January 2011 and sold the car to pay off the loan. Moved back in 2015 to a civil service job. Decent pay but could prob do better in private sector at the minute but security is more important to me now.

I’m just glad I didn’t finish college earlier as I would probably have got caught up in the whole thing. The car loan was a lesson learned thankfully.

I feel most sorry for people who didn’t have buy to let’s or fancy cars but had built up a decent pension (not greedy they just paid into a bog standard pension pot) and pretty much lost it all overnight and are now left with a lot of uncertainty in their retirement. It’s those people who really lost out imo.

BattleCorp

Braylee Fat Kicker wrote: »

Anyway, one guy in a particular course was offered €12M for his farm towards the end of the boom for development.

A guy near me was clever enough to sell a large chunk of his farm to a developer for a rather large fortune.

But then the farmer invested it (almost all of it) in Anglo shares.

:(:(

Mickiemcfist

Badger2009 wrote: »

I feel most sorry for people who didn’t have buy to let’s or fancy cars but had built up a decent pension (not greedy they just paid into a bog standard pension pot) and pretty much lost it all overnight and are now left with a lot of uncertainty in their retirement. It’s those people who really lost out imo.

Yea so true, they weren't the 'speculators' in normal terms, they were doing what's pretty much universally stated as the prudent thing financially & got badly burned.

CrankyHaus

Braylee Fat Kicker wrote: »

Anyway, one guy in a particular course was offered €12M for his farm towards the end of the boom for development. As the details of the deal were being ironed out he went to the bank and borrowed money to start up a business based on the promise that he was getting €12M for his farm. Crash came, land deal fell through, his business failed and he ended up in severe debt instead of a multi-millionaire. I can't believe he didn't just focus on pushing the sale through and have that in the bank before borrowing money.

"Accidental millionaires" were some of the funniest cases of the boom. I was told of a couple of middle-class junkie brothers who in middle-age inherited a pile in one of Dublin's nicer suburbs. Inevitably it turned into the place where they and other gearbags would be partying but they let it be known among their circles that they were offered a seven figure sum but wanted to play the long game to maximise value.

More likely they were too busy getting mashed to be bothered with any of the work involved. I don't know eaxactly how it ended but since I was told the stroy as it was ongoing in early 2008 I strongly suspect they never sold before the crash as they were too busy on the sesh. Knowing how junkies take on debt against anticipated windfalls I wouldn't be surprised to find they'd told some tall tales about pots of gold to various dealers around Dublin too.

The J Stands for Jay

Badger2009 wrote: »

they just paid into a bog standard pension pot) and pretty much lost it all overnight and are now left with a lot of uncertainty in their retirement. It’s those people who really lost out imo.

So, nobody?

nthclare

A young farmer from Clare got 10 million from a developer for farmland and bought it back for a million.

Can anyone remember that couple on TV who bought loads of property in the Europe and there was a big hulabalo about it and their wedding and all was shown, only for them to loose everything...
Telpis, the naivety and innocence of them, and RTE were showcasing this couple as the pinicle of what we should all strive to be.
Champers, beautiful dresses and suits, they must have felt a million dollars only to wake up in 2008 one morning with everything pulled from beneath them.

I remember the ghouls here in Clare, bricks and mortar was the shlang.

I'm a landlord now, how many houses do you have???

Now some are paying for this until they're pushing up the daisies or wherever they end up.

I often wonder why someone people are so blinkered and not think about how their emotional state will cope with such a loss.

Or men and women marrying absolute assholes or ugly people because of social status and financial security.

Where's love in all of this and just having a roof over your head should be enough???

Why are people so clueless, theres a lot of people today who will probably take 3 year's to be where they were 4 months ago and the banks are going to be doing the same thing alll over again and taking people's houses off them or renting them back.

Some people are after buying big cars there in January probably pcp of 400 euros a month, living off 350 wss or covid payments, a wife and 3 kids.
How are they going to cope with the lack of fund's to amplify their lives?

[Deleted User]

The dot com bubble was early Celtic Tiger and wasn't as ridiculous as the construction side of things, but was still pretty crazy. People thought that once their business was online they would make fortunes because people anywhere could buy the products. It didn't seem to click with them that everyone else everywhere else would be doing the same thing.

Airyfairy12

Badger2009 wrote: »

I feel most sorry for people who didn’t have buy to let’s or fancy cars but had built up a decent pension (not greedy they just paid into a bog standard pension pot) and pretty much lost it all overnight and are now left with a lot of uncertainty in their retirement. It’s those people who really lost out imo.

I will never understand why there was not a national protest over this. What they did to average working people was criminal and they were voted back in. Anyone who suffered and paid a price after the boom and then voted them back in the last election deserves everything they got.

nthclare

Airyfairy12 wrote: »

I will never understand why there was not a national protest over this. What they did to average working people was criminal and they were voted back in. Anyone who suffered and paid a price after the boom and then voted them back in the last election deserves everything they got.

Like turkeys voting for Christmas

Feisar

Airyfairy12 wrote: »

I will never understand why there was not a national protest over this. What they did to average working people was criminal and they were voted back in. Anyone who suffered and paid a price after the boom and then voted them back in the last election deserves everything they got.

These things always say the value of ones investment may go up or down. People nearing retirement should have their investment in solid stable stocks, not AIB shares. The idea being over the course of a pension one moves from riskier money making shares to more stable items. People thought that growth was going to be exponential.

Feisar

nthclare wrote: »

Some people are after buying big cars there in January probably pcp of 400 euros a month, living off 350 wss or covid payments, a wife and 3 kids.
How are they going to cope with the lack of fund's to amplify their lives?

PCP is some racket.

pgj2015

partyguinness wrote: »

Actually during the height of the property boom I remember sitting in front of buy to let buyers and thinking to myself on many occasions:-

"So...what happens when the Poles go home? Who is going to pay the mortgage"

One thing that was glaringly obvious to me mid 2000s was that the Eastern Europeans in general were not putting down roots. In other words, they were not buying property i.e. they had no intention of staying.

Yet there are 122,515 polish people living in Ireland according to the last census.:rolleyes:

There was 63,300 polish living in Ireland in 2006.

PhilOssophy

Feisar wrote: »

These things always say the value of ones investment may go up or down. People nearing retirement should have their investment in solid stable stocks, not AIB shares. The idea being over the course of a pension one moves from riskier money making shares to more stable items. People thought that growth was going to be exponential.

Yeah, its grand for somebody in their 30s to have their pension in volatile share portfolio's, but not somebody who is about to retire.
I often wonder were they greedy themselves or just really badly advised (I suspect the latter in most cases). I am conscious of the mod's note at this juncture though.

retalivity

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater wrote: »

I remember Jordan opening a nightclub in Ballinasloe circa 2002.

Actually thats something that you dont see much of anymore...maybe because it was a celtic tiger thing, or maybe because i am now older and dont go out as much - z-list celebs/band playing/appearing in random irish pubs/hotels/nightclubs.

The Vengaboys did a mini-tour of Donegal 06-07, They played Letterkenny 3 times in the space of a year, as well as a host of other more rural clubs. I remember Jodie Marsh, Some lad for 5ive, and Dr Carl from Neighbours knocking around as well