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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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Marty Xavier

Sunny Disposition wrote: »

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.

I am doing a patio at home and I offered to help out a lad I was giving €150 for the day last Saturday laying out the gravel and sand etc. We had the job done in about 2.5 hours. So shovelling and filling barrows, driving the barrows across the lawn and dumping them by aprox 50 times! (He did the levels and all that after).
I was ****ed for the evening after it. Imagine having to do that all day, total respect for labourers. The fancy dan paver only arrived when everything was ready for him on Monday and gone Wed evening with €1500 in his pocket excluding materials.

The Davestator

READ THE THREAD TITLE PEOPLE.

Ruining a good thread with inane arguing

ELM327

Randy Archer wrote: »

Manufacturing is a start. Even super markets (obviously not a labourer );have dropped the amount of staff needed on the tills with the installation of self service check outs . Imagine paying a till lady over 10 euro an hour ? No chance

Farms hands were pricy during the boom too

Security on building sites and cleaners were taking the piss during the boom

Most are on a fair bit more than that.
Years ago I briefly dated a girl that was working in penneys and she was on 15 quid an hour.

Tesco workers would be on more than 10/h too.

muddle84

Randy Archer wrote: »

Manufacturing is a start. Even super markets (obviously not a labourer );have dropped the amount of staff needed on the tills with the installation of self service check outs . Imagine paying a till lady over 10 euro an hour ? No chance

Farms hands were pricy during the boom too

Security on building sites and cleaners were taking the piss during the boom

Manufacturing makes perfect sense for automation. I don't know of any labourer jobs that have been automated. None of the jobs you mentioned are what would be described as a labourer from my experience and i worked as a labourer for a few years.
I would hope all "till ladies" are getting paid over €10 as the minimum wage is €10.10.

Either way, back to the stories. I worked with a few lads that bought cars and holidays with their mortgages when they bought or built houses. They were delighted with the brand new audi's and the carribean cruises. When i explained to them that they'll be paying for the them for the duration of their mortgages they laughed at me. Sure whats another 40k onto 300k you won't even notice it in the monthly payments.

Another strange one that happened me, i was turned down for a student credit card in 2007 but a few weeks later i was in the bank and they told me i had been approved for a 10,000 car loan if i would like to upgrade my car. I didn't apply for this loan or ever mention a car loan and i was still a student with very little income at the time.

PhilOssophy

Can we get back to the funny stories please

BattleCorp

mgn wrote: »

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

It shouldn't be dangerous if health and safety on site is any good.

Wanderer78

Randy Archer wrote:

They donâ€™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 )

Learning disabilities and other complex disorders would be common enough in the trades

Muahahaha

Sunny Disposition wrote: »

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.

Its definitely hard work and when labourers get into their fifties thats when the body starts creaking with pain and muscle tears

[Deleted User]

Sunny Disposition wrote: »

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.

Yeah, labour priced itself out of building my house, I couldn't pay the asking so I ended up doing it myself.

padd b1975

Sebastian Dangerfield wrote: »

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

I was welding 3 inch gas pipes in 2004.

Think I was getting just under 900!

What a schmuk I was with my skills and responsibilities.

[Deleted User]

Sebastian Dangerfield wrote: »

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

My own young lad was on £130 in 1998 labouring. It was the best thing for him, If he’d been getting a multiple of that seven or eight years later I couldn’t have motivated him to study.

[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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

[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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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?

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!