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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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Muahahaha

talla10 wrote: »

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

Feisar wrote: »

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.

yeah Aldi/Lidl are a lot different now to how they were back in the Tiger. I remember being in Lidl on Parnell St for the first time around 2007, there was no baskets and everyone was going around with an empty cardboard fruit box to carry their shopping in. But first you had to find an empty box, generally that wasnt a problem because they were just strewn across the store, usually just thrown on the floor. The place was filthy with ground in dirt on the floor and youd be walking on cabbage and lettuce leaves and all sorts of other food that had been knocked off the shelves. The place was a complete mess and I can understand why people didnt shop there in the early days.

Between the two of them they now have the same market share of Dunnes and Supervalue and Lidl still have plans to open a further 100 odd stores with Aldi around a further 60 so their growth is set to continue. Lidls new distribution centre in Newbridge is colossal in size, its got 75 bays for trucks to fill up or drop off, the thing is the length of a few football pitches. Theyve come a long way from their beginnings here in Ireland

CrankyHaus

Muahahaha wrote: »

yeah Aldi/Lidl are a lot different now to how they were back in the Tiger. I remember being in Lidl on Parnell St for the first time around 2007, there was no baskets and everyone was going around with an empty cardboard fruit box to carry their shopping in. But first you had to find an empty box, generally that wasnt a problem because they were just strewn across the store, usually just thrown on the floor. The place was filthy with ground in dirt on the floor and youd be walking on cabbage and lettuce leaves and all sorts of other food that had been knocked off the shelves. The place was a complete mess and I can understand why people didnt shop there in the early days.

Between the two of them they now have the same market share of Dunnes and Supervalue and Lidl still have plans to open a further 100 odd stores with Aldi around a further 60 so their growth is set to continue. Lidls new distribution centre in Newbridge is colossal in size, its got 75 bays for trucks to fill up or drop off, the thing is the length of a few football pitches. Theyve come a long way from their beginnings here in Ireland

I remember the first time seeing one was in Killarney back in the early 2000s. I always assumed they started there because of the amount of Germans around the town.

enricoh

Was junior engineer on a site in Dublin for the tiger. Part of my job was to fold over and seal the pay packets (no cash in them, just the figures n give em to the foremen)
I was astounded at what lads were getting, had a few sheep farmers in building stone walls, they had no interest in the day job , more interest in dosing sheep etc. Zero stress, carvery and 2 pints every day, boss wouldn't say boo to them or they'd walk, e1400 a week clear.
Me running around like a headless chicken getting dogs abuse off foremen, manager, sectional manager, council engineers etc for a fraction of it!! I can look back n laugh now, eventually!!

McCrack

tylercheribini wrote: »

Joanna Lumley opened a shopping centre in Arklow too! See below

https://youtu.be/dYzb5qiXSL0

What an insufferable gowl

Muahahaha

CrankyHaus wrote: »

I remember the first time seeing one was in Killarney back in the early 2000s. I always assumed they started there because of the amount of Germans around the town.

What is it about Killarney and Germans? I know that massive German crane company Liebherr has operations around the town and they own a few hotels there too, Hotel Europe being one of them iirc

McCrack

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:

If it's marley grange they are a whinging bunch

Roger Mellie Man on the Telly

Muahahaha wrote: »

that massive German crane company Liebherr

Liebherr also make expensive fridges. Very Celtic Tiger.

Ubbquittious

Roger Mellie Man on the Telly wrote: »

Liebherr also make expensive fridges. Very Celtic Tiger.

There's a fatal flaw in some of those, that a mouse can come in through the drain hole at the back and steal your food.

KevRossi

Roger Mellie Man on the Telly wrote: »

Liebherr also make expensive fridges. Very Celtic Tiger.

Ubbquittious wrote: »

There's a fatal flaw in some of those, that a mouse can come in through the drain hole at the back and steal your food.

The mouse? You're supposed to just 'lieb her' alone.

CrankyHaus

Muahahaha wrote: »

What is it about Killarney and Germans? I know that massive German crane company Liebherr has operations around the town and they own a few hotels there too, Hotel Europe being one of them iirc

At least in Summer there's a daily Ryanair flight to Farranfore from Frankfurt (Hahn I think). Testament to its popularity with them that you can run a 737 back and forth daily to what is basically a small town.

king_of_mayo

Ah the Celtic Tiger. Do ye remember the 02 (or 03?) girls in the Sindo? Lad that I was, I'd look forward to popping one off to them. Amanda Bunker too, she was always in the papers. I remember once having a deep sense of shame after enjoying myself to pics of the guests at Gearld Keane's birthday.

Sky King

Gig of a lifetime? For some people it was Nirvana at Sir Henry's in Cork, others would say Hendrix at Woodstock, and for more still it was Queen at Live Aid in Wembley....

For me it will always be Amanda Brunker at Oxegen 2011.

Ashbourne hoop

tylercheribini wrote: »

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

I was working in a pub and two women came in. I said "Are you here for the tenants association meeting?" (they were tenants association where I lived...). One of the gowls got highly insulted and replied "It's actually the residents association". The owner of the pub was pissing himself laughing beside me.

For Forks Sake

king_of_mayo wrote: »

Ah the Celtic Tiger. Do ye remember the 02 (or 03?) girls in the Sindo? Lad that I was, I'd look forward to popping one off to them.

One of them (somehow) seems to still be employed by the Sindo, another runs a PR company (the first refuge of the vacuous dope) and one is a councillor on Dun Laoighre-Rathdown council.

FixdePitchmark

Sky King wrote: »

Gig of a lifetime? For some people it was Nirvana at Sir Henry's in Cork, others would say Hendrix at Woodstock, and for more still it was Queen at Live Aid in Wembley....

For me it will always be Amanda Brunker at Oxegen 2011.

Loved that footage of Arklow - summed up the time - all dressed up for a shopping center opening as if it is the Olympic Games coming.

I thought the Amanda Brunker was a joke.

Airyfairy12

FixdePitchmark wrote: »

Loved that footage of Arklow - summed up the time - all dressed up for a shopping center opening as if it is the Olympic Games coming.

I thought the Amanda Brunker was a joke.

This is horrendous!

FixdePitchmark

Airyfairy12 wrote: »

This is horrendous!

:D:D:D

I don't know if it is a joke.

In fairness she is a very honest person - and would give a great, funny account herself. I actually like her.

Sums up the hubris of the time. A few drinks , "you should play Oxygen this year". A few phone calls - and bang. You are on stage at a concert.

For Forks Sake

FixdePitchmark wrote: »

:D:D:D

I don't know if it is a joke.

In fairness she is a very honest person - and would give a great, funny account herself. I actually like her.

Sums up the hubris of the time. A few drinks , "you should play Oxygen this year". A few phone calls - and bang. You are on stage at a concert.

...at on a sunday morning, in front of a crowd of tens.

FixdePitchmark

For Forks Sake wrote: »

...at on a sunday morning, in front of a crowd of tens.

Yes was a great gig - in crash did it get a bit pathetic ?

Big bands were at it at start.....................

Muahahaha

CrankyHaus wrote: »

At least in Summer there's a daily Ryanair flight to Farranfore from Frankfurt (Hahn I think). Testament to its popularity with them that you can run a 737 back and forth daily to what is basically a small town.

yeah Im guessing they might be there for the golf, iirc Killarney has two if not three world championship courses. AFAIK a lot of Germans bought property along the coast in west Cork too back in the 80s when it was dirt cheap

FixdePitchmark wrote: »

Sums up the hubris of the time. A few drinks , "you should play Oxygen this year". A few phone calls - and bang. You are on stage at a concert.

Pretty much, you could just imagine the flirting with some MCD head she had to do to get a place on the stage. She took the place of some other Irish band who were actually serious about being musicians, unlike Bruncker who was just doing it for the laugh. I remember a lot of ticketholders were annoyed at MCD about the announcement of Bruncker, they felt the festival organisers were taking the piss out of them. They werent wrong either, she was just a pair of tits that couldnt sing

Glebee

2006 Ryder Cup in the K Club. Done a bit of work down there for the event.
If there was a problem just fcuk money at it.:eek:

tylercheribini

Ashbourne hoop wrote: »

I was working in a pub and two women came in. I said "Are you hear for the tenants association meeting?" (they were tenants association where I lived...). One of the gowls got highly insulted and replied "It's actually the residents association". The owner of the pub was pissing himself laughing beside me.

Nothing as lethal as a bored housewife in my experience. ðŸ˜„

iamstop

Sky King wrote: »

Gig of a lifetime? For some people it was Nirvana at Sir Henry's in Cork, others would say Hendrix at Woodstock, and for more still it was Queen at Live Aid in Wembley....

For me it will always be Amanda Brunker at Oxegen 2011.

I went to Glasgow for a buddies stag weekend end, 2010. One of the days we went to Retro Fest.
Headlined by Rick Ashley and 2nd headline was Samantha Fox.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEubM3dEc2I

Muahahaha

Glebee wrote: »

2006 Ryder Cup in the K Club. Done a bit of work down there for the event.
If there was a problem just fcuk money at it.:eek:

iirc Burt Bacarach played a concert in the K Club during the Tiger. Which reminded me of Barbara Streisands mud bath concert with the 500 euro tickets for the front seats which ended up getting stolen in the chaos.

CONCERT-GOERS shouted and fought over seats as legendary diva Barbra Streisand sang to the most expensive audience of the year on Saturday. Patrons have described "chaotic scenes" on the night.

Thousands of music fans, stranded in a three-hour traffic jam on the route to the concert venue at Castletown House, Co Kildare, abandoned their cars on the motorway and walked through mud to get to their seats.

But for Erica O'Neill, there was no seat when she got there. The Cabinteely woman had received a €270 ticket as a 40th birthday present from her in-laws. But when she arrived at the concert, she was told her row of seats "did not exist".

"It took us three hours to get there and when we got to the carpark we had to walk through buckets of muck to get to the place. There was only one little road for traffic and pedestrians. It was a pure mud bath.

"But Barbra was just starting, we thought our timing was perfect. We went looking for our seats but couldn't see them. When we eventually found a lady, she told us our seats did not exist, that MCD had made a mistake."

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/mud-lark-barbra-sings-through-scenes-of-disharmony-26304979.html

completedit

What did people do that were severely burnt and 'lost everything'? Why don't we see huge numbers of homeless(Okay, we have a high number of homeless but is this because of the recession?) or like, a huge spike in those in the lower end of the income threshold? It feels like everyone just went back to being a more financially prudent normal middle class.

Atlantic Dawn

completedit wrote: »

What did people do that were severely burnt and 'lost everything'? Why don't we see huge numbers of homeless(Okay, we have a high number of homeless but is this because of the recession?) or like, a huge spike in those in the lower end of the income threshold? It feels like everyone just went back to being a more financially prudent normal middle class.

It's almost impossible to be evicted from your home in this country if you stop paying your mortgage, the many pay the highest mortgage rates in Europe to pay for this few that the banks can't do anything with.

I see sheep

completedit wrote: »

What did people do that were severely burnt and 'lost everything'? Why don't we see huge numbers of homeless(Okay, we have a high number of homeless but is this because of the recession?) or like, a huge spike in those in the lower end of the income threshold? It feels like everyone just went back to being a more financially prudent normal middle class.

The developers etc. who 'lost everything' had greased enough wheels (usually) to be looked after to a certain extent.

juneg

Feisar wrote: »

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.

Ya. Got more expensive

dresden8

completedit wrote: »

What did people do that were severely burnt and 'lost everything'? Why don't we see huge numbers of homeless(Okay, we have a high number of homeless but is this because of the recession?) or like, a huge spike in those in the lower end of the income threshold? It feels like everyone just went back to being a more financially prudent normal middle class.

NAMA paid the developers 200k a year for their "expertise".

[Deleted User]

tylercheribini wrote: »

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

Part 8 housing being built near me and some of the curtain twitchers have revived the residents association to try and block it, convincing everyone that every scumbag in the area will be landing on their doorstep soon.

Turns out they are one and two bedroom units for elderly people occupying bigger council houses that are more suitable for families. And yet they are still out with their pitchforks.