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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)

Mod warning: Any further discussion of Financial institutions in depth will result in a thread ban. Do not derail this thread with that form of discussion.

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[Deleted User]

Deleted User wrote: »

I bought a house in 2000 and cleared the mortgage in 2007. At the same time asI was sorting the mortgage I went into the back for a car loan, but I wanted to borrow the sum, and make one payment to clear the loan in 12 months. Got laughed at. Called for the bank manager. Got the loan and an apology from the loan mannnnger through gritted teeth. Good times.

i'm a bit tired and missing something, why did you want the 12 months' time lump sum repayment

The J Stands for Jay

bluewolf wrote: »

i'm a bit tired and missing something, why did you want the 12 months' time lump sum repayment

You're as bad as the bankers.

The Undecided One

I came here from Poland in 2006 and started working in hotels in Limerick.

Back home I was working for about a weeks wage here for a whole month, and putting in 260 to 280 hours every 4 weeks. Here I was working 37.5 hours per week for quadruple that. The tips I was getting were some weeks amounting to another wage.

When I landed here I was shocked at the amounts of money people were spending daily on food and drink. I had builders staying in the hotel for 4/5 nights per week come in every night without missing a day and eat dinner, rinse it down with at least 5-6 pints before either heading to bed or going out into town. Massive money spent by guys 10 years younger than me, I couldn't believe the amounts they were spending per week, every week.

I mean they were spending easily 50-60 quid a night, every night on dinner and drinks alone, and that was quiet nights.

The nights of the Champions league I'd have paid requests to book certain tables for lads that were in the hotel for weeks at a time.

The bar was very busy midweek but the crazy part was Friday and Saturday nights. That's when the stags and hens would show up...

You would have gangs of 20 to 40 people show up with their bags and start drinking right away. They would have 4-5 drinks each, go up to the bedrooms, get ready, come back for another few rounds and head out into town at 8-9 pm.
The tills were overflowing with cash, I had to do multiple drops into the safe per night.

That all changed though...

When the recession hit it was like someone just turned off the tap.
The builders dissapeared overnight, those that stayed became very slow to spend money, a dinner, one pint and off to bed. You'd see them going to the Centra across the road for cans.
The stags and hens would still come but there would be no more going crazy, they'd come in, have one round, go upstairs with their cans or bottles.
The groups got smaller as well, down to 5-10 want to max.

I don't even want to start on the Munster rugby followers...

Let's just say that a lot of the regulars that were in Limerick for every game were never seen or heard of again.

Great times...

retalivity

Muahahaha wrote: »

Were you ever in it and what was it like? And how did they do it, take all the seats out of the theatre to create a dancefloor or something? I never made it myself as nights out were usually on Harcourt St and if we wanted a few beers after that then the Collusus casino. A mate always ordered tea and a toasted ham and cheese sandwich which was free so long as you were on a table gambling. I remember the first time in the casino being pretty pissed looking for the toilets upstairs and by accident I walked into a boardroom with about 20 Chinese lads all sitting around the table playing cards and thousands of euro sitting in the middle. It was a bit like that time Father Ted went into the pub and it was packed with Chinese.

Spirit was where the academy is now, on Abbey St. I remember the gaiety being open late but dont remember ever being in it.
Collossus...yeah that was a regular haunt for me as well. I remember dropping 400 in there one night when in college, when i did not have 400 to drop. Ate beans for weeks.

Amazed that it is still open, think its for sale as well

dotsman

McGaggs wrote: »

You're as bad as the bankers.

I'm with bluewolf on this. I don't get it

KevRossi

The Undecided One wrote: »

The stags and hens would still come but there would be no more going crazy, they'd come in, have one round, go upstairs with their cans or bottles.
The groups got smaller as well, down to 5-10 want to max.

I don't even want to start on the Munster rugby followers...

Let's just say that a lot of the regulars that were in Limerick for every game were never seen or heard of again.

Great times...

A perfect synopsis of the boom, the people who ran with it, the crash, and the effects of it.

Nice.

tylercheribini

KevRossi wrote: »

A perfect synopsis of the boom, the people who ran with it, the crash, and the effects of it.

Nice.

Yes the over night explosion of rogby fans certainly owed more to perceived upward class mobility than to the teams successes on the field.

cj maxx

I wasn't even living in the country and got a credit card posted to my home address.
No application, nothing

L1011

Muahahaha wrote: »

Were you ever in it and what was it like? And how did they do it, take all the seats out of the theatre to create a dancefloor or something?

A theatre licence required (well, requires - there are one or two places still trading on just a theatre licence) a performance to occur. Drink can be served 30m before and 30m after the performance. Just like a gig in the Olympia etc now

When there were extremely late opening hours available for theatres - before Dermot Ahern / FF ruined the fun - this led to various late bars / clubs getting a theatre licence in addition to their pub licence. Trade as a pub til 1130 and then whip out the dancers (or whatever). The Dragon on Georges Street installed high level tracking for gogo boys; other places had fire breathers. I was in one club that had roaming stage magicians doing card tricks. Once you could justify it was a "performance" you could keep serving.

Pre-Dermo, theatres could justify almost as late as they wanted. 5am was about the latest ever allowed in Dublin

Before the other pubs copped on to it; the Gaiety and other theatres; but particularly the Gaiety, started charging a hefty sum in and had live music in the main room and all sorts in the side rooms.

Dermo's changes put the same closing time everywhere. 2:30 max, local judges can and do refuse to go later than 2 often. Same politician tried to prevent the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1993 which shows you how modern and liberal FF were in 2008 when the rules changed.

The J Stands for Jay

dotsman wrote: »

I'm with bluewolf on this. I don't get it

The bankers didn't understand his requested loan terms either.

CrankyHaus

Muahahaha wrote: »

Were you ever in it and what was it like? And how did they do it, take all the seats out of the theatre to create a dancefloor or something? .

Used to go a bit in secondary school/early college. Long time ago, usually well oiled. From memory it was a large hall on the first floor up, with a long multi-sided bar on one side and the stage and dancing podiums against the opposite wall, a slightly sunken dancefloor in front of the middle of the stage and raised areas with seating around tables running beside the dancefloor. It used to stay open till about 04:00, maybe 04:30. It actually wasn't that mad otherwise but it was a ballsy way to exploit a licensing loophole.

I used to find Casinos pretty grim for late drinks. All the bright lighting and lads putting on serious poker faces would suck the craic out of your pissed buzz fairly quick.

PhilOssophy

CrankyHaus wrote: »

I used to find Casinos pretty grim for late drinks. All the bright lighting and lads putting on serious poker faces would suck the craic out of your pissed buzz fairly quick.

Same as that, I'd rather go home than go in and look at some wannabe Steve McQueen thinking he's a poker shark when in reality he's just drunk.

I remember 1 time we had a casino night for a Christmas Party, it was utterly awful but there was some people who thought it was real - one guy from India said at one stage "I think I'll cash in now" and he was laughed out of the place while 95% of the people had long since given up and were concentrating on the free bar and getting wasted!

Claw Hammer

Deleted User wrote: »

I bought a house in 2000 and cleared the mortgage in 2007. At the same time asI was sorting the mortgage I went into the back for a car loan, but I wanted to borrow the sum, and make one payment to clear the loan in 12 months.

That sounds like a stupid thing to do. Why not continue the mortgage for another 12 months thus borrowing at a lower rate?

Blitzkrieger

I came out of college after the IT crash. Where the year before people had jobs lined up before even graduating, when I graduated jobs were thin on the ground and competition was fierce. When I joined a tech company a lot of the older lads there had been stung by shares. Some were paper millionaires and had borrowed to buy shares that after the crash were almost worthless. We were a lot warier of a 'boom' than most.

A couple of things that pissed me off about the celtic tiger years were the myths of 100% employment and high wages. Myself and most of the lads I worked with were either over qualified for the job we were in, or had professional qualifications for another field altogether. So we weren't on the dole line, but none of us could find jobs in the field/level we were qualified at. And laborers on building sites were getting a better hourly rate than us - we were only making a decent living by working lots of overtime.

Very few people I worked with bought a nice house during the boom. Most who did had help from their parents. Most bought a house in a 'commuter town', badly built and miles from anywhere with no services, or bought a site in the middle of nowhere and built their own.

What struck me as well was how the banks seemed to be mad to loan out money. I took out a couple of car loans myself because rates were low and I was willing to pay the premium to have the car then rather than save up, but a friend took out a loan to buy a used car and had the bank ringing him ten months later to see if he wanted to refinance and upgrade! The same bank wanted him to double his mortgage amount when he applied. They said if he didn't spend it on the house he could buy a new car or have a holiday! Pay for a ****ing holiday over 40 years!

Also heard of a entry level surveyor making less than I did that was given loans for nine houses. Nine!

Not enough bankers were strung up - we're still paying for their mistakes.

Blitzkrieger

The Davestator

In 2007, I fired an oul query into the tax office to see if the wife and I were due any money back. Found out we were owed 7k between us. Before the end of the day, I had flights booked to New York for a few weeks later and mostly blew that 7k on that holiday. It was like 'free money'

That 7k would have been handy in 2010!

PhilOssophy

I heard a rumour that Sean Quinn (Jnr I think) that his party piece was to light cigars with money in his local golf club or pub.
I always wondered was it true or not.

duffysfarm

If thats true then it would be a surd sign of lack of class and i bet you that hys father would never do anything like that

PhilOssophy wrote: »

I heard a rumour that Sean Quinn (Jnr I think) that his party piece was to light cigars with money in his local golf club or pub.
I always wondered was it true or not.

[Deleted User]

Blitzkrieger wrote: »

Myself and most of the lads I worked with were either over qualified for the job we were in, or had professional qualifications for another field altogether. So we weren't on the dole line, but none of us could find jobs in the field/level we were qualified at. And laborers on building sites were getting a better hourly rate than us - we were only making a decent living by working lots of overtime.

Yes, same. But it's interesting that you say even labourers on building sites were earning more than your desk job. I'm not criticising, but why not? Building physical infrastructure is real, difficult and valuable work.

One lesson I think a lot of us failed to learn from the last recession was the importance of valuable work. It's always been interesting to compare the perception of engineering in Ireland or the UK, for example, to more eastern countries where being an Engineer is a highly desirable job, where parents want their kids to be either engineers or doctors. Whereas more than a few of the qualifoed engineers I know work as financial analysts.

Just to reiterate I'm not criticising your statement, it just reminded me of a perception of work that I think is shifting.

PhilOssophy

duffysfarm wrote: »

If thats true then it would be a surd sign of lack of class and i bet you that hys father would never do anything like that

I dunno, they were a family who were the epitome of nouveau riche. The waste on his daughters wedding is another one. I think it was discussed already though!

Glebee

Had to meet a developer in Drogheda one time in relation to a small bit of work at the height of the boom. When he pulled up in an Austin Martin DB9 my jaw dropped.

mfceiling

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Yes, same. But it's interesting that you say even labourers on building sites were earning more than your desk job. I'm not criticising, but why not? Building physical infrastructure is real, difficult and valuable work.

I'm not criticising but a labourer shouldn't be earning colossal money. 99% of the labourers I've met on site haven't the hands to wipe their arse with. I remember one lad showing us his pay slip in 2004. Just short of €1200....for sweeping floors. That's wrong.

okidoki987

Glebee wrote: »

Had to meet a developer in Drogheda one time in relation to a small bit of work at the height of the boom. When he pulled up in an Austin Martin DB9 my jaw dropped.

Pity it wasn't an Aston Martin DB9

mgn

mfceiling wrote: »

I'm not criticising but a labourer shouldn't be earning colossal money. 99% of the labourers I've met on site haven't the hands to wipe their arse with. I remember one lad showing us his pay slip in 2004. Just short of €1200....for sweeping floors. That's wrong.

Whats wrong with earning good money as a labourer, a lot of it is hard physical work and can be dangerous at times.

For a lot of people that's their collage starting at the bottom with a lot going on to pick up some trade along the way, or go to be a site foreman some day.

antimatterx

Randy Archer wrote: »

Define good money though.

Why should they be earning way more than they And the work are worth ?

That then makes everything expensive and we become uncompetitive . Sorry, but a monkey could do some of them jobs. Hell, no wonder employers are installing robots wherever they can

They don’t want to do hard physical work, they ought to have worked harder in school . We can always hire immigrants who will do it for cheaper , or robots (for some trades )

Ah come off it ffs.

mgn

Randy Archer wrote: »

Define good money though.

Why should they be earning way more than they And the work are worth ?

That then makes everything expensive and we become uncompetitive . Sorry, but a monkey could do some of them jobs. Hell, no wonder employers are installing robots wherever they can

They don’t want to do hard physical work, they ought to have worked harder in school . We can always hire immigrants who will do it for cheaper , or robots (for some trades )

Come down off your high horse there for a minute.

Maybe if the likes you learned something at school that you might be good at you might earn more than a labour.

ELM327

partyguinness wrote: »

No idea TBH. Look's like it though from a poster above. I have not darkened the door of Legg's since the summer of 04.

The Viper Room was another regular place...saw Eamon Dunphy holding court there a few times in flying form. Think it is gone now. Often went to Legg's after the Viper Room for the 2am to 4am slot.

Jesus there's a blast from the past.
I fell out of there a few times.
In my younger days I had to work one half day saturday on rotation in a call centre in east point business park. I remember (vaguely) the team I was on went out of a friday night in 2006 or 07, and two of us who were in on the saturday left the viper rooms when it closed and walked to east point to work the saturday half day. Oh to be young and paid too much!

muddle84

Randy Archer wrote: »

Define good money though.

Why should they be earning way more than they And the work are worth ?

That then makes everything expensive and we become uncompetitive . Sorry, but a monkey could do some of them jobs. Hell, no wonder employers are installing robots wherever they can

They don’t want to do hard physical work, they ought to have worked harder in school . We can always hire immigrants who will do it for cheaper , or robots (for some trades )

Out of interest, do you know much about labouring? Labouring is a very broad description. If you do, then which jobs specifically do you think Monkeys would be able to do?

Also what labourer jobs are being replaced by robots? This is the first i've heard of this.

Sebastian Dangerfield

mfceiling wrote: »

I'm not criticising but a labourer shouldn't be earning colossal money. 99% of the labourers I've met on site haven't the hands to wipe their arse with. I remember one lad showing us his pay slip in 2004. Just short of €1200....for sweeping floors. That's wrong.

Jesus I was on about £200 in 2000 for the same thing with Sisk. Wish my timing had been better!

[Deleted User]

Money for construction labourers went up a lot during the good times, it did get to a stage where it was crazy for what they were doing. But it can be hard work, not something to be sniffed at, generally able to make a reasonable living in that line of work.