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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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nthclare

partyguinness wrote: »

I can think of a few sub contractors (plumbers etc) who turned into right pricks and grade 1 a**holes at the height of it. Big shots in BMW X5s.

Had no sympathy when a few ended up bust and back living with their parents.

I've seen it and their wife then leaving them for the guy from the gym...
He collecting the dog and kid's from the family and herself and her new jockey inside in the house he's paying for doing the 8 legged monster

Living in heartbreak hotel in Ennis with the rest of the lads who were swanning around in their big Dick cars

partyguinness

I misplaced a €1000 in cash in the living room after it fell under the coffee table. Had sold a car for €15k cash.

Didnt notice for a few days and thankfully was still there...

partyguinness

I bought two suits in Louise Copeland at the same time..

NSAman

Some of the crap associated with the "Boom" and scummy "developers".

I know an elderly lady who owned a large track of land beside a town. Trusting, innocent to all intents and purposes. She was absolutely hounded by a so called developer, wife crying at the old ladies house saying they would be ruined unless "X" happened. She eventually put the land up for sale. The same guy couldn't have done enough for this old dear. Visiting every night, advice (cough) etc. She approached me asking me what she should do. I said do nothing until the money is in the bank and paid in full. She trusted the "developer". The land was worth MILLIONS and I mean hundreds of millions. Yer man paid her a downpayment and that was all. Built and then did a lot of other shady underhanded stuff to her, leaving her in financial trouble with the tax man.

Woman was left with nothing but headaches from this asshole. Worst part was, he disappeared after getting his grubby hands on the property. Yet, he is still around, still developing (thanks NAMA)

razorblunt

BattleCorp wrote: »

I know one guy who was paid €100k by a developer not to object to a housing estate being built in the field next to him.

He took the €100k and didn't object during the planning process. Planning permission was granted for the estate. The estate was never built because of the recession but yer man is up €100k for doing absolutely nothing.

Nice when the recession actually goes your way.

Like the farmer in cork who sold his land to Amgen for a reported 9 figure sum.

[Deleted User]

duffysfarm wrote: »

I remember when a co worker went to shop in lidl for the first time ever 12 months into the recession. He came back to work the day after and was amazed at the prices and said to me "and people have been shopping there for years"

As a regular Aldi shopper, I noticed that just after SHTF some of the cars in the carpark suddenly became much more upmarket as people obviously started cutting back on their expenditure. Didn't last long though, so I assumed the cars were returned/repossessed.

[Deleted User]

freshpopcorn wrote: »

Before iphones, etc this and in pink for the ladies.

My father still has one of those, it still works (just).

afatbollix

I got into rallying about 2005. That was amazing for waste and excess.

It just went mental, There was 70+ WRC cars in Ireland at the time they cost 250k each. The guy who took the soil out of the Dublin port tunnel who then turned it into cement and sold it back to them had 3 of them and updated them each year. A lot were collateral with Ulster bank who gave out a lot of loans for them.

The Evo 9 was the car to have for a lad who couldn't drive ****e. One guy was building so many he had to go 24 hours to get them made in time. They cost about 100k and you could have 30 or 40 per rally mostly driven by developers with no stickers on the car.

They had such problems with helicopters that they had to regulate it, You bought a plate that allowed you to land in a field near a stage for e500.

Great partys/prize givings up in Letterkenny or Killarney tho, Went on all night where the ladies wanted to bag a rich rally driver!

John_Rambo

afatbollix wrote: »

I got into rallying about 2005. That was amazing for waste and excess.

It just went mental, There was 70+ WRC cars in Ireland at the time they cost 250k each. The guy who took the soil out of the Dublin port tunnel who then turned it into cement and sold it back to them had 3 of them and updated them each year. A lot were collateral with Ulster bank who gave out a lot of loans for them.

The Evo 9 was the car to have for a lad who couldn't drive ****e. One guy was building so many he had to go 24 hours to get them made in time. They cost about 100k and you could have 30 or 40 per rally mostly driven by developers with no stickers on the car.

They had such problems with helicopters that they had to regulate it, You bought a plate that allowed you to land in a field near a stage for e500.

Great partys/prize givings up in Letterkenny or Killarney tho, Went on all night where the ladies wanted to bag a rich rally driver!

Fair fooks to you, I know even entry level motorsport is astranomically expensive, but you jumped at it when you could afford it. I'd say it was great craic!

StupidLikeAFox

afatbollix wrote: »

... The guy who took the soil out of the Dublin port tunnel who then turned it into cement and sold it back to them....

Id like to hear more about that story!

John_Rambo

afatbollix wrote: »

The guy who took the soil out of the Dublin port tunnel who then turned it into cement and sold it back to them

StupidLikeAFox wrote: »

Id like to hear more about that story!

I heard about another cute hoer that turned water to wine. No evidence.

seenn00J

I remembered another one recently, thought I'd share for the laugh. This was around 2003 - 2004. A lad from my class in secondary school used to drink in the local pub, so I'd bump into him once every few weeks and have a chat. We had both finished our LC in 2001. I was still in college studying for my degree (so pretty much broke all the time) but he went straight from school into a service engineer type job. His job was basically going around supermarkets at all hours of the day and night installing new or repairing broken fridges/freezers. He was probably earning good money (or maybe had a lot of debt, I dunno) but he used to splash the cash like there was no tomorrow. Driving a brand new BMW 3 series, wearing designer jeans/shirts, buying rounds of shots for everyone he knew, holidays to Dubai in summer, NY in winter, etc. Anyway the funny part. Every time I saw him (especially towards the end of the night after a feed of drink) he always told me I was wasting my time in college, and how much money there was in "the refrigeration game", asking me if I wanted a job, stories about how important his job was - how the big shops can lose 6 figure sums if their freezers go down. Nice lad all the same, just strange how money can bring out aspects of some people's personalities that are probably best kept at bay.

BattleCorp

seenn00J wrote: »

I remembered another one recently, thought I'd share for the laugh. This was around 2003 - 2004. A lad from my class in secondary school used to drink in the local pub, so I'd bump into him once every few weeks and have a chat. We had both finished our LC in 2001. I was still in college studying for my degree (so pretty much broke all the time) but he went straight from school into a service engineer type job. His job was basically going around supermarkets at all hours of the day and night installing new or repairing broken fridges/freezers. He was probably earning good money (or maybe had a lot of debt, I dunno) but he used to splash the cash like there was no tomorrow. Driving a brand new BMW 3 series, wearing designer jeans/shirts, buying rounds of shots for everyone he knew, holidays to Dubai in summer, NY in winter, etc. Anyway the funny part. Every time I saw him (especially towards the end of the night after a feed of drink) he always told me I was wasting my time in college, and how much money there was in "the refrigeration game", asking me if I wanted a job, stories about how important his job was - how the big shops can lose 6 figure sums if their freezers go down. Nice lad all the same, just strange how money can bring out aspects of some people's personalities that are probably best kept at bay.

How's he doing now?

partyguinness

afatbollix wrote: »

I got into rallying about 2005. That was amazing for waste and excess.

It just went mental, There was 70+ WRC cars in Ireland at the time they cost 250k each. The guy who took the soil out of the Dublin port tunnel who then turned it into cement and sold it back to them had 3 of them and updated them each year. A lot were collateral with Ulster bank who gave out a lot of loans for them.

The Evo 9 was the car to have for a lad who couldn't drive ****e. One guy was building so many he had to go 24 hours to get them made in time. They cost about 100k and you could have 30 or 40 per rally mostly driven by developers with no stickers on the car.

They had such problems with helicopters that they had to regulate it, You bought a plate that allowed you to land in a field near a stage for e500.

Great partys/prize givings up in Letterkenny or Killarney tho, Went on all night where the ladies wanted to bag a rich rally driver!

Rally driving is full of yahoos in ****ty 1.1 litre Corsas and SEAT Leons who think they are Lorenzo Sanz. They never amount to much if they don't end up dead in a ditch. And no, making your car sound noiser does not make it better- it is still a piece of ****.

My locality is scouraged by such idiots.

Zebra3

seenn00J wrote: »

I remembered another one recently, thought I'd share for the laugh. This was around 2003 - 2004. A lad from my class in secondary school used to drink in the local pub, so I'd bump into him once every few weeks and have a chat. We had both finished our LC in 2001. I was still in college studying for my degree (so pretty much broke all the time) but he went straight from school into a service engineer type job. His job was basically going around supermarkets at all hours of the day and night installing new or repairing broken fridges/freezers. He was probably earning good money (or maybe had a lot of debt, I dunno) but he used to splash the cash like there was no tomorrow. Driving a brand new BMW 3 series, wearing designer jeans/shirts, buying rounds of shots for everyone he knew, holidays to Dubai in summer, NY in winter, etc. Anyway the funny part. Every time I saw him (especially towards the end of the night after a feed of drink) he always told me I was wasting my time in college, and how much money there was in "the refrigeration game", asking me if I wanted a job, stories about how important his job was - how the big shops can lose 6 figure sums if their freezers go down. Nice lad all the same, just strange how money can bring out aspects of some people's personalities that are probably best kept at bay.

Holidaying in Dubai in the summer? :eek:

Lockheed

partyguinness wrote: »

Rally driving is full of yahoos in ****ty 1.1 litre Corsas and SEAT Leons who think they are Lorenzo Sanz. They never amount to much if they don't end up dead in a ditch. And no, making your car sound noiser does not make it better- it is still a piece of ****.

My locality is scouraged by such idiots.

I'd go even further and say beyond Rallying and the entire irish car scene in general. In fairness it is perpetuated by punitive government policy against performance cars. You'd have to be on crazy money to afford to run anything nice here.

I suppose this also fits in to the celtic tiger excess model with the amount of paddy spec range rover sports which are around from 2006-2007. People never had as much to spend on cars so the range rover would have been the easy option for people with limited knowledge on higher end cars. If only people had more taste in their luxury automobiles, there would be plenty more nice cars on the used market today.

BattleCorp

partyguinness wrote: »

Rally driving is full of yahoos in ****ty 1.1 litre Corsas and SEAT Leons who think they are Lorenzo Sanz. They never amount to much if they don't end up dead in a ditch. And no, making your car sound noiser does not make it better- it is still a piece of ****.

My locality is scouraged by such idiots.

I was in work one night years ago when a pile of those yahoos decided to rally around the yard. There was about 100 of them and they were (sort of) doing donuts etc. Mostly micras, corsas etc.

Now where I worked had lorries driving in and out and one guy seemed to forget that there was other traffic and smashed into a truck. He wasn't injured but the car certainly was. It was mangled. I went out to check on the truck and all I could hear was yer man crying saying that his parents were going to kill him. It was his Mammy's micra.

CrankyHaus

BattleCorp wrote: »

How's he doing now?

I heard he hit a cold streak, but that's the refrigeration game for you

Sir Gallagher

branie2 wrote: »

We built our house extension during the period, in 1996

Johnny Ronan over here!

pgj2015

seenn00J wrote: »

I remembered another one recently, thought I'd share for the laugh. This was around 2003 - 2004. A lad from my class in secondary school used to drink in the local pub, so I'd bump into him once every few weeks and have a chat. We had both finished our LC in 2001. I was still in college studying for my degree (so pretty much broke all the time) but he went straight from school into a service engineer type job. His job was basically going around supermarkets at all hours of the day and night installing new or repairing broken fridges/freezers. He was probably earning good money (or maybe had a lot of debt, I dunno) but he used to splash the cash like there was no tomorrow. Driving a brand new BMW 3 series, wearing designer jeans/shirts, buying rounds of shots for everyone he knew, holidays to Dubai in summer, NY in winter, etc. Anyway the funny part. Every time I saw him (especially towards the end of the night after a feed of drink) he always told me I was wasting my time in college, and how much money there was in "the refrigeration game", asking me if I wanted a job, stories about how important his job was - how the big shops can lose 6 figure sums if their freezers go down. Nice lad all the same, just strange how money can bring out aspects of some people's personalities that are probably best kept at bay.

That is like the lads in Australia who come home for Christmas, telling anyone who will listen that they are on 3,000 dollars a week etc I just cringe when I hear them, me) well hows australia going? them) im on 4,000 dollars a week. lol no modesty at all. They forget to mention they are working 12 hour shifts 7 days a week for 3 weeks solid.

nc6000

CrankyHaus wrote: »

I heard he hit a cold streak, but that's the refrigeration game for you

Probably had his accounts frozen.

CrankyHaus

pgj2015 wrote: »

That is like the lads in Australia who come home for Christmas, telling anyone who will listen that they are on 3,000 dollars a week etc I just cringe when I hear them, me) well hows australia going? them) im on 4,000 dollars a week. lol no modesty at all. They forget to mention they are working 12 hour shifts 7 days a week for 3 weeks solid.

Best I ever heard was a lad going on about moving to Dubai and how he'd be hitting a million a year soon.

talla10

I remember when lots of people wouldn't shop in Lidl or Aldi those shops were for the peasants.

My Dad has a great story where he ran out of frozen veg and asked the neighbour if she could lend him a bag. She opened the freezer and he could see two bags of frozen veg both from Aldi.

She closed the freezer and said Sorry i'm all out. My Dad thought she was joking so he laughed but she was serious. He said I can see two bags in there from Aldi.

Don't be ridiculous I don't shop in Aldi!

Feisar

talla10 wrote: »

I remember when lots of people wouldn't shop in Lidl or Aldi those shops were for the peasants.

My Dad has a great story where he ran out of frozen veg and asked the neighbour if she could lend him a bag. She opened the freezer and he could see two bags of frozen veg both from Aldi.

She closed the freezer and said Sorry i'm all out. My Dad thought she was joking so he laughed but she was serious. He said I can see two bags in there from Aldi.

Don't be ridiculous I don't shop in Aldi!

I think it was mentioned already however Lidl/Aldi aren't the same as they used to be, they have shifted for the Irish market.

Ipso

CrankyHaus wrote: »

Best I ever heard was a lad going on about moving to Dubai and how he'd be hitting a million a year soon.

Easy to do in Zimbabwe or Venezuela.

Mickiemcfist

talla10 wrote: »

I remember when lots of people wouldn't shop in Lidl or Aldi those shops were for the peasants.

My Dad has a great story where he ran out of frozen veg and asked the neighbour if she could lend him a bag. She opened the freezer and he could see two bags of frozen veg both from Aldi.

She closed the freezer and said Sorry i'm all out. My Dad thought she was joking so he laughed but she was serious. He said I can see two bags in there from Aldi.

Don't be ridiculous I don't shop in Aldi!

I grew up beside Marlay Park & remember the residents association going absolutely mental about a Lidl being built nearby in the early 2000s I think. It wasn't going to be a visual blight on anything because it was going beside a Pfizer building & wasn't visible from our estate, but some of the neighbours were losing their minds about "the sort of people" that a lidl would bring. Needless to say, that car park is rarely empty & the same people who gave out do their shop in there now. :rolleyes:

Zebra3

Mickiemcfist wrote: »

I grew up beside Marlay Park & remember the residents association going absolutely mental about a Lidl being built nearby in the early 2000s I think. It wasn't going to be a visual blight on anything because it was going beside a Pfizer building & wasn't visible from our estate, but some of the neighbours were losing their minds about "the sort of people" that a lidl would bring. Needless to say, that car park is rarely empty & the same people who gave out do their shop in there now. :rolleyes:

Residents association in my area dropped leaflets in the door years ago saying they were objecting to a pub being built on what was pretty much wasteland.

They never canvassed me for my opinion.

Pub got PP and was built. No issues with the place.

Residents association have been holding their AGMs in the same pub now for years. :rolleyes:

tylercheribini

Zebra3 wrote: »

Residents association in my area dropped leaflets in the door years ago saying they were objecting to a pub being built on what was pretty much wasteland.

They never canvassed me for my opinion.

Pub got PP and was built. No issues with the place.

Residents association have been holding their AGMs in the same pub now for years. :rolleyes:

Residents associations are the most middle-class, bourgeoisie talking shops with delusions of grandeur.

selectamatic

partyguinness wrote: »

Rally driving is full of yahoos in ****ty 1.1 litre Corsas and SEAT Leons who think they are Lorenzo Sanz. They never amount to much if they don't end up dead in a ditch. And no, making your car sound noiser does not make it better- it is still a piece of ****.

My locality is scouraged by such idiots.

The Irish tarmac rally scene is one of the best in europe if not the world and is mainly populated by r5 rally cars, some slightly older wrc cars, a host of competitive mk2 escorts, a few kp60 starlets and ae86 corollas also competitive from time to time. The rest of the pack usually being group N evos and Subarus, r2 cars, the rest of the modified rwd selection and civics.

You might find one corsa in the juniors if you're lucky.

Boomtime rallying was great! culminating in getting the wrc to sligo and the surrounding areas in 2007 for what was a very successful event.

It's a shame that the economic sh1t had just hit the fan when it returned in early 2009 as it took the shine off it and unfortunately it hasn't been back since.

Stock car racing in quarries was where ya found the corsas. Driven by young bucks who had bought them using cash from their summer site jobs or mam/dad had come good on the 15th or 16th birthday present.

padd b1975

tylercheribini wrote: »

Residents associations are the most middle-class, bourgeoisie talking shops with delusions of grandeur.

Always seem to have a primary school teacher in the chair I've found.