First signs of the Celtic tiger

Agricola · 19-10-2010 01:44PM

The purchase of new cars is as good a barometer for how an economy is performing as any. There seemed to be a big surge in the number of cars with the current years reg plate in the late 90's. Any pictures I see of the early to mid 90's, all have lots of old 80's bangers in them but from 97 or 98 things changed.

PCros · 19-10-2010 01:44PM

skipz wrote: »

Being asked to put window sills in on a site of a apartment block at the weekends for 35euro a window. We would do up to 10 windows a day sometimes, saturday and sunday.
And then back into the site monday to friday laying blocks for 1.50/2.00euro a block:D.
Ah i miss them days!

Thats mad....how many blocks would you do in a day?

charlemont · 19-10-2010 01:54PM

the increase in traffic on the N24, where once i could be waiting for a while during quiet periods of the day for a lift, by the mid of 97, the traffic was constant during the day..

candy-gal1 · 19-10-2010 01:55PM

What celtic tiger? seriously, am just wondering.

skipz · 19-10-2010 01:58PM

PCros wrote: »

Thats mad....how many blocks would you do in a day?

Depends if they were on the flat or on edge, but give or take 100/200 a day.

Luxie · 19-10-2010 02:01PM

Agricola wrote: »

The purchase of new cars is as good a barometer for how an economy is performing as any. There seemed to be a big surge in the number of cars with the current years reg plate in the late 90's. Any pictures I see of the early to mid 90's, all have lots of old 80's bangers in them but from 97 or 98 things changed.

Yeah, I remember getting a lift in 2000 to Dublin from Castlebar and I remember noticing at the time, in the entire journey I noticed only two or three cars that were over three years old.

laugh · 19-10-2010 02:02PM

People drinking 2 pints for €18 of feckin fat frog.

marrona · 19-10-2010 02:04PM

I rememebr in 6th class in '97, being in a friends house when her older brother decided to tell his parents that he wasn't going to apply for college cos in Dublin you could get £1 for every block layed.

Also I rememebr in primary school, so early nineties, families that had two cars were rich - they were called "two-car families". Just a few years on and two cars became normal without being noticed. At primary stage too, there was always only one kid in the class that went abroad on holiday that year. It could be a different kid but always only one. By 98/99 families were taking at least one sun holiday.

Summer 2000, I heard teenage girls at the back of the bus discuss their favourite shoe/coffee shops in Marbella like it was round the corner and though I was a teenage girl too, I thought: crazy!

Saila · 19-10-2010 02:05PM

when that king chap started going around with no clothes on.

Blazer · 19-10-2010 02:05PM

admiralofthefleet wrote: »

when coffee became americano/mochiatto/mocha/frapachino

when tea became green tea/camomile tea/lapsang tea and other such bollox

when fancy yupiess called using tea instead of tae

Saila · 19-10-2010 02:08PM

candy-gal1 wrote: »

What celtic tiger? seriously, am just wondering.

it think it was thrown onto the dancefloor in a club in dublin the other day

marrona · 19-10-2010 02:09PM

laugh wrote: »

People drinking 2 pints for €18 of feckin fat frog.

yeah! We'll be the first generation to reminisce about when prices were HIGH! When I first started goin out 9 years ago, smirnoff ice was £5. POUNDS! now in dicey's for 2 smirnoff AND two jaeger bombs, you'll get change out of a tenner

flyton5 · 19-10-2010 02:19PM

When people starting putting bottled water in the window washers in their cars.

dvpower · 19-10-2010 02:23PM

Jobs in Intel being advertised on bus shelters.

skipz · 19-10-2010 02:25PM

flyton5 wrote: »

When people starting putting bottled water in the window washers in their cars.

AH HA, where did you see me?
Them fecking water hose's never work:)

Amalgam · 19-10-2010 02:25PM

The appearance and acceptance of cocaine, even among basic wage earners. Being in a warehouse beside someone, sitting in a forklift, fiddling with their nose..

jerry2623 · 19-10-2010 02:33PM

When Mobile phones became the essential present for a child making there confirmation !

Gummy Panda · 19-10-2010 02:42PM

jerry2623 wrote: »

When Mobile phones became the essential present for a child making there confirmation !

When €100 mobile phones became Xmas sock fillers.

mojesius · 19-10-2010 02:47PM

I temped between 1999 and 2003, and I noticed an increase in the number of job placements in companies with the words 'solutions', 'innovation' or 'strategies' in the title. When the recruitment agency would ring me, they were extremely vague about what these companies actually did.

I found that most were pointless consultancy and 'communications' firms full of overpaid tossers who'd spend their week sitting in the boardroom kissing each others arses. Very little solid work seemed to get done. I did bind and file an awful amount of nonsensical crap during those years. Oh and the dresscode was always 'smart skirt ensemble' for these places.

Agricola · 19-10-2010 02:48PM

Has anyone mentioned the rise of car ownership among students? In my time in college I was regularly speaking to people who revelled in the poor student schtick, beans on toast, living on a fiver a day, yadda yadda yadda, yet they arrived into college each morning in a newer car than my own parents owned!

mojesius · 19-10-2010 02:52PM

Agricola wrote: »

Has anyone mentioned the rise of car ownership among students? In my time in college I was regularly speaking to people who revelled in the poor student schtick, beans on toast, living on a fiver a day, yadda yadda yadda, yet they arrived into college each morning in a newer car than my own parents owned!

Yup, and I couldn't get over the amount of students in my class who didn't work a day in the three years, went out 5 nights a week then went off on a j1 piss up every summer.

topper75 · 19-10-2010 03:02PM

^^^^ LOL!
And yet how often do we see the question asked in the threads of economic woe "Just where did the money all go?":rolleyes:
People blew it. Simple as.

Tiger appeared to me first when Scottish workers came to Dell in Limerick. Immigration - people thought in the 80's that it was just 'emigration' misspelled! But now it was really happening in Ireland.

FlutterinBantam · 19-10-2010 03:20PM

When classless gimps,celebrated 30th 40th 50th......et cetera ,birthdays,Communions,Confirmations and such with huge 'bashes' usually with tasteless rubbish and a feature event , and a major pissup involving hotels and weekends away.

When stupid gimps got involved in Big brother, X Factor, and whatever populist crap is the current norm and spending big bucks to fatten the bank balances of jerks like Simon Cowell, Louis walsh et al who ride of the 'we're in this together' attitude of the working classes, but who just line the pockets of the fat cats whilst all the time thinking 'we are supporting one of our own'.

When every fcuker at a DEBS had to fcuking had tohire a limo stretched of course so as not to seem left out.

Total manipulation by the marketeers, total acceptance by the consumers, rode into the chasm blindfolded, and now the fcukers are wondering what the fcuk happened:eek:

You stupid cunts , you were led on, trolled, and you swallowed the hook in one fcuking gulp:D

Johnny_Trotter · 19-10-2010 03:26PM

When the price of penny sweets went up...

fontanalis · 19-10-2010 03:27PM

When people who hadn't a clue about how to run a business became known as property developers, and possibly when snobby cnuts started living their lives through their children.

gbee · 19-10-2010 03:31PM

KungPao wrote: »

£1.20 for a coffee? Get outta here.

€7 for a Cappuccino!!!! :eek:

jackiebaron · 19-10-2010 03:35PM

When REAL cafes disappeared. You know the type..formica table tops, sponge-plastic booth seats, ketchup in a squeezy plastic tomato and they served such fare as fry-ups, mixed-grills, sausage-egg-beans-chips, shepherd's pie, burger n' chips, steak and kidney pie, etc. And if you wanted bread you got a stack of slices of Brennan's Batch ALREADY BUTTERED ffs on a plate served by a barrel-chested lady who called you "love" or "pet" or "honey-boy" in a Moore Street manner. Everything cost 3 or 4 quid and you could enjoy the nosh for the rest of the day by simply belching now and again. These greasy-spoon eateries were the business and my fave was the Mayfair Grill on O'Connell St.
Then all of a sudden they were gone only to be replaced by "brasseries" and "patisseries". I guess people no longer wanted to spend 4 quid on a gut busting slap-up meal and much preferred to drop 20 Euros on a **** mozarella and pesto pannini and a Latte Macchiato.

coreb_KK · 19-10-2010 03:36PM

When broadband became good in Ireland ! .... wait, sorry just dreaming here

Jawgap · 19-10-2010 03:39PM

I was away for pretty much all of the nineties and some of the 00s, but here's what I noticed:-

the inexorable rise of Ryanair - as the 90s progressed the airports from which they flew got closer to where I lived in the UK and the prices came down to double then single digits;
cranes across the Dublin skyline - dozens of them;
bits of land that were vacant when I was home at Christmas having apartments on them by the time I came back in the summer;
arriving at Dublin airport at Christmas and getting 7 offers for job interviews (seriously!!);
Big Issue sellers with mobile phones, when I had just got my first one;
my sister sitting in her house phoning her boyfriend on her mobile when he was upstairs;
more and more people coming up to me in work looking for me to compile a pub crawl for them because they were off to Dublin for a stag / hen;
snotty pretentious gits commenting on my 7 year old car (a lovely special edition Alfa - I still miss it!)
nobody at home in June because they were all away somewhere sunny for 3 weeks and nobody around at Christmas because they were all off skiing

Jawgap · 19-10-2010 03:41PM

coreb_KK wrote: »

When broadband became good in Ireland ! .... wait, sorry just dreaming here

when I eventually moved back one of the first things I did was get in touch with Eircom to get a broadband connection and they were quite dismissive because I only wanted it for the house!! I think they thought you needed to be a sub-office of NASA to get that kind of connection......:)

First signs of the Celtic tiger

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