Was the Tiger really that great?

Everyone is still filling their houses with Chinese tat while at the same time blaming them for climate change, by the way!

I will say this, it was a great time to be young(er), free and single.

It was a fantastic piece of engineering, with speed and armour that outmatched anything it came up against, and the 88mm gun was a magnificent piece of ordnance in its own right, but the whole package was hugely over complicated and was very costly in time and materials to build. It was also difficult to maintain or repair in the field, due to the aforementioned complexity.

Realistically, it could never have overcome the industrial might of the USA and the willingness of the Soviets to throw vast numbers of men into the fray.

absolutely

Bertie was great and the people loved him. FF got 77,81,77 seats out of 165 in his three elections 1997, 2002 and 2007. The people did not love Brian or Micheál as much, Micheál got only 20 in 2011.

I'm glad to say that all through the Great Depressions, The Tiger, and the Snowflake eras, I have maintained a dignified demeanour. I am not represented by those accusations of obnoxiousness, or soft pretentiousness.

The Celtic Tiger was a mad time but it really was the best few years we’ll ever see in this country, at least in my time. It’s mad, the weather seemed to be always good in the summer, plenty of money to go around and everyone was working.

People working in traditionally low skilled, low paid jobs were earning good money. Nothing was out of reach for people and the country as a whole was flying. Everywhere was busy - restaurants, pubs, nightclubs. People got to enjoy nice things and enjoy life in general. I know it all came tumbling down but to be honest if you asked people would they do it all over again I guarantee people would say yes. The things that people got to see or do back then are things they can’t even dream of doing ever again. I don’t mean because of COVID, I mean because the opportunities aren’t there anymore.

I was in the company of a few lads in the pub about 5 or 6 years ago and one guy had made a fortune when he sold his company for about €40m in 2006. He retired and put all his money into shares and property almost straight away. Lost the whole lot over a couple of years. He’s back working now and someone asked would he do things different. He said no because when he sold out he made sure all the lads he had working for him were kept on and he bought a site each for 4 of the lads that were with him from the start and who made the company successful. If the Celtic Tiger hadn’t been around he wouldn’t have been able to do that and set those guys up for life with a house. The Tiger brought out the worst in people but it also brought out the best in people and that’s often forgotten too easily.

Things are now worse, gen z faces climate change, high rents, housing crisis, during the celtic tiger people were optimistic, houses were being built, maybe not in the right places, it was easier to get a mortgage

Now a ordinary house is 400k I don't think the average young person can buy a house unless they have financial help from their parents

Also we have seen the rise of political extremism, Poland, Belarus, trump, I remember young people would actually go to America for work,

Yes some people were greedy and materistic but look at Irelands future now it looks doubtful

The government owes billions and theres alot of bullshit virtue signalling is everyone really going to switch over to electric cars

There'll be no petrol cars 15 years really? it's like self driving cars it's always 5 years away

I don't use Facebook but I hear its full of fake news conspiracy theory's and young people are closing down accounts the Obama years were at least hopeful and optimistic millenials look like the last normal lucky generation

As the cliche go's you don't know what you have got til it's gone

I remember the Tiger well. And we did party - well he did anyway. Came into my house. Ate all the food on the cooker, in the fridge, in the cupboards. Drank all the tea, my dad's beer, all the water in the taps for the bath. Then just headed off. We had to eat out that night, and ended up buying a load of expensive specialist tiger food that was never used.

He was pretty great, though. As was his cousin Tony, who I never met. Tony was more humble by all accounts. Never said he was gr-r-reat! himself, but did often describe other things as such.

It was good for those involved in the property industry or related sectors. There was also benchmarking and pay increase for the public sector over the 2000 - 2007 period. It was not great as a tech worker at the time, actually working a programmer would not have been considered a good job around 2007. Rising house prices rising were breathlessly cheered on by the media, that would be the main difference really. Now it is not considered a good thing at all. It was certainly an interesting time, laughable looking back on it to be honest. It was like what you would expect to happen if children suddenly found a lot of money. The fact that some would consider a couple of holidays a year and trips to see manchester united as some sort of success says it all really.

Donal Caulfield was an interesting character, he built a housing estate in Malahide that had leather bound brochures that cost 750 euros each.

For me at least the best time was the crash. If you managed to stay in good employment and were good with money during the bubble, there were huge opportunities.