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Was the Tiger really that great?

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245

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    #32
    breezy1985
    Registered Users Posts: 24,831 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118264776#Comment_118264776

    Basically most people acted like Homer while a small few were sensible and acted like Grimey and got burned



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    #33
    Still stihl waters 3
    Registered Users Posts: 984 ✭✭✭Still stihl waters 3


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118269559#Comment_118269559

    Seriously bitchy post, 2 holidays a year and a trip to see a soccer game or 2 seems to be your idea of success not 5he poster you had a little dig at, no need to to denigrate someone else's enjoyment became you'd a shìt job at time, hope things improved for you since



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    #34
    HerrKuehn
    Registered Users Posts: 2,066 ✭✭✭HerrKuehn


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118269684#Comment_118269684

    Oh, it definitely isn't my idea of success. That is why I describe it as laughable. My job wasn't bad at the time, it just wasn't great relative to what others were earning. I was however very careful with money and saved a lot, so when 2012 came around I was in a good position.



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    #35
    Still stihl waters 3
    Registered Users Posts: 984 ✭✭✭Still stihl waters 3


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118269710#Comment_118269710

    You described it as such, no one else, do you usually find yourself dreaming up stuff to laugh at



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    #36
    interlocked
    Registered Users Posts: 498 ✭✭interlocked


    The Monday club. Some pubs made more on a Monday than a weekend night. Lads from the sites would be in the horrors after the weekend and wouldn't bother turning up especially if they had worked a Saturday.

    They were making serious money, lads working on a machine were taking out well over a grand a week into their pocket. It was mostly blown where as the Polish lads saved like **** and went home and built a house or started a business.

    The tiger collapse really screwed the trades, a lot of them ended up in Australia, no young fellow would look at an apprenticeship and now, we're when we need them, we're suffering a huge shortage of tradesmen.

    (I'm including girls in the above, nothing wrong with a female plumber!)



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    #37
    HerrKuehn
    Registered Users Posts: 2,066 ✭✭✭HerrKuehn


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118269720#Comment_118269720

    I was commenting on the previous poster. It seems I hit a bit of a nerve with you though.



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    #38
    Mister Vain
    Registered Users Posts: 6,042 ✭✭✭Mister Vain


    It was a better time for meeting the opposite sex. We didn't have the disposable “swipe next” mentality.



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    #39
    Frank Grimes
    Registered Users Posts: 5,238 ✭✭✭Frank Grimes


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118269673#Comment_118269673

    I got electrocuted by it 😡



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    #40
    breezy1985
    Registered Users Posts: 24,831 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118269925#Comment_118269925

    Ya shure nobody was vain back in those days. Don't blame tinder because you can't get laid. Assuming you can remember those days it's probably just that the young ones think you are an old fart now and all the ones your own age are either married or sick of hooking up with losers



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    #41
    Mister Vain
    Registered Users Posts: 6,042 ✭✭✭Mister Vain


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118269986#Comment_118269986

    It's not great for the young wans either.



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    #42
    Jim2007
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 10,065 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jim2007


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058221067/was-the-tiger-really-that-great

    Just because the press has only started to highlight the housing problem in recent times does not mean that we did not have the problem before the tiger, we have always had the problem. In fact the entire Anglo sphere has this problem because people have the belief that a housing policy the require people to take on huge amounts of debt or rely on social services to provide housing is a good idea.

    And just like the rest of the Anglo sphere, Irish society has always had a strong consumerism streak, it is just that there is more tat about these days.

    The only thing the tiger did was pour fuel on existing fires, those things were already well established.

    My wife (Swiss) and I were students in Dublin in the 80s and left for Switzerland in 1989. We did not return for a visit until 2005 and after a few days strolling around Dublin, visiting old haunts etc, my wife made the comment - this country is no longer poor. And she was right, we both saw changes that happened so gradually that you living did it did not notice - you dress better, eat better, live in better housing, drive on better roads with newer cars, holiday better etc… you finally caught up with the rest of Europe. But about all this it gave you a certain confidence and a ‘can do’ attitude that was not there before.

    So yes the tiger was good for the country, very good for the country, although not for some individuals. And dispirited what some would like us to believe, the price was not high. At the height of the recession Irish national debt per capita was around 128% and going into the pandemic it stood at about 78% in line with the like of Germany and below the UK, France and Italy.



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    #43
    Morris Garren
    Registered Users Posts: 488 ✭✭Morris Garren


    Well I saw the title and immediately I thought that winning 15 majors, becoming the most recognised person on the planet and heralding the new norm in global sports marketing, sure did make the Tiger great.

    But then there was also that very odd time in Ireland when Paddy the Plasterer and Mick the Plumber hired a helicopter together of a Thursday to play a four ball on their day off and pay 40 euro for a mouldy steak sandwich so that they could boast about their growing property portfolio of superior semi-detached unbuilt homes in Leitrim...

    I hope we never ever have to suffer such delusional gobshitery again



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    #44
    Sunny Disposition
    Registered Users Posts: 2,726 ✭✭✭Sunny Disposition


    The early years, circa 1996 to 01 were the best of it in ways, got a bit excessive later on, by 07 I think people were a bit alienated. But it was definitely a lot better than the six years that followed.

    It all turned really fast, construction was booming at the start of 07 but a lot of tradesmen were on the dole that Christmas.

    08 was really grim as it became apparent that it was all over and all the spin couldn’t change that.

    I think we have developed a boom bust economy, it’s very unstable even now. FDI is great obviously, but it does leave us more vulnerable to swings than other countries.



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    #45
    BurgerFace
    Registered Users Posts: 560 ✭✭✭BurgerFace


    The whole thing was manufactured. Like free crack cocaine. I was living in Amsterdam at the time and would come home to Dublin for Christmas. I own a lovely apartment in Holland and would go to the pub in Dublin and listen to kids 7 years younger than me, neighbours, asking me..."So how's Amsterdam?" ... "Yeah, lovely" I'd say. "I love it there. Still doing the old IT crap" and one of them would say "but sure I have four houses, one in Bulgaria. So how much is that house in Amsterdam worth?" "Dunno mate.....might have gone up in price, maybe down. You don't know until you try to sell, eh?"

    Then they buy a round of drinks and sling a 20 at the barmaid as a tip.

    And I'm thinking to myself "You moron (me), why did you squander 4 years of your life in university when you could have been a high roller like these guys."

    It's not schadenfreude. But those 4 houses are long gone. And the marriage too. I still have my beautiful canal apartment in Amsterdam. Allegedly it's worth 1.2 million now (another bubble). .. but I like living in it.

    I'm pissed off that so many people got suckered in Ireland. Debt isn't wealth.



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    #46
    Strumms
    Registered Users Posts: 24,929 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118269559#Comment_118269559

    Who said it was considered ‘success’ ?

    ’was the Tiger really that great’ is the question posed... I outlined for me, some of the reasons why it was.. but you seemed to have ignored some and focused on a couple that in your view are negative... right :)

    somewhat disingenuous of you .. :)



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    #47
    cj maxx
    Registered Users Posts: 13,588 ✭✭✭✭cj maxx


    The lads I knew that owned construction companies did well. The rest of us bought into Berties, FFs announcement the we as a country were under debited. Then the banks sought to fix that. As a labourer on a decent wage my bank tried to sell me mortgages of 70K.

    I didn't but know alot of lads who did and bought , and eventually lost , homes .

    The ratio I thought for a mortgage was 5/1 . That went out the window in the bubble tiger



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    #48
    barneygumble99
    Registered Users Posts: 4,144 ✭✭✭barneygumble99


    I started learning my trade in 2000 as apprentice so spent 5 years on mediocre wages. Left in 2005 and spent 5 years driving a machine on motorway projects. Best decision I ever made. Driving machines was always my real passion. Worked 5.5 days a week, long hours, fantastic money, enjoyed Saturday nights but saved most of it, had an SSIA. Went back to my original trade in 2010 after road building ended. So yeah for me the tiger was great. It did however, bring out the worst greed in a lot of people I knew.



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    #49
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 1,263 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Missed it all, but on trips back home was struck by the preposterousness of people thinking selling houses to each other at inflated prices was an economy (it wasn't, it was a rip off). The ostentatious money talk was ugly and from the outside looking in, it was OBVIOUS it couldn't last. Glad I missed it, TBH.



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    #50
    Wanderer78
    Registered Users Posts: 28,944 ✭✭✭✭Wanderer78


    it worked perfectly for what and who it was intended for, rapidly inflating asset prices, in particular related to property and land!



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    #51
    nialler1978
    Registered Users Posts: 254 ✭✭nialler1978


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118265101#Comment_118265101

    Glad I wasn’t the only one that came into this expecting a conversation around whether he was all that good a golfer.



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    #52
    Hamachi
    Registered Users Posts: 2,474 ✭✭✭Hamachi


    I was a student in Dublin from 2000-2005. As such, I wasn’t part of the property horse trading frenzy, nor did I have the opportunity to take on excessive debt.

    What I can say that as a 17 year landing in the big smoke from a small town in the west, Dublin was absolutely buzzing. People were out every night of the week. The bars and clubs were hopping and parts of the city that are dead today, were social hubs. Case in point is Mount Street. People used to flock to ‘Howl at the moon’, ‘Oil can harry’s’ etc..

    I had an incredible time from the ages of 17-22 living in Dublin during the ‘tiger’. Great friends, decent social life, financed by easily accessible part time jobs, an overwhelming sense of optimism, and a city bursting with youthful energy. It was a great period of my life that I look back on fondly.



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    #53
    blade1
    Registered Users Posts: 12,209 ✭✭✭✭blade1


    😁


    IMG_20211205_082128.jpg




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    #54
    lawred2
    Registered Users Posts: 24,296 ✭✭✭✭lawred2


    Thought this was about Tiger Woods



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    #55
    whisky_galore
    Registered Users Posts: 15,894 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    Lots of opportunities to improve our country were wasted.

    Many were blinded by greed and the acquisition of stuff, mostly useless stuff. Shopping trips to NY and helicopters.

    There's barely a road I drive that I dont pass at least one faded dream in concrete and PVC being reclaimed by nature



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    #56
    breezy1985
    Registered Users Posts: 24,831 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118271021#Comment_118271021

    Both were all the rage 20 years ago and got taken down by their own excess so could be about either



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    #57
    blackbox
    Registered Users Posts: 4,178 ✭✭✭blackbox


    We need the Polish builders to come back right now!



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    #58
    Blue4u
    Registered Users Posts: 547 ✭✭✭Blue4u


    It was great, you could go out any night of the week and have a great time. I had a good job, good money, didn't have kids and bought a house in the middle of one of the "downturns'. I remember having it bought and sealed and next thing the previous owner came back looking for another 50k because the house prices had increased that much in a couple of weeks.

    With that sorted I could sit back and relax for the rest of the Tiger and watch the craziness while out drinking some nice cold beers at the local



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    #59
    Mister Vain
    Registered Users Posts: 6,042 ✭✭✭Mister Vain


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118271021#Comment_118271021

    What's the difference between Tiger Woods and Santy? Santy stops after 3 ho's.



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    #60
    cj maxx
    Registered Users Posts: 13,588 ✭✭✭✭cj maxx


    A night out in Dublin usually involved throwing good money away on Jaeger bombs and listening to some fella snorting sneacha in the cubicles..



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    #61
    Richard Hillman
    Registered Users Posts: 12,033 ✭✭✭✭Richard Hillman


    They were wonderful times. People had hopes and dreams. Some were living the dream. Jobs were abundant and there were decent entry level jobs for people with little qualifications.

    Lads were leaving school to go and work in trades and on the sites. They were mocked in and around 2009-2013ish but ultimately they were right. If you finished college anytime around 2010 to right now, unless you are in a very highly sought industry, it wasn't worth much to you.

    So what, people lost the run of themselves. It was better to have it and reach the inevitable crash. Than be responsible and see a crash anyway.



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