The 70's and 80's in Ireland

We all had great laughs avoiding the consumption.
Fitness levels were great in the young.
We all ran like lunatics to avoid being ridden by clergy!
Look at the decline in Irish middle distance running since the veil was lifted on paedo priests!

Renault 4s and Ford escorts were the common.
A Sierra Cosworth was a "Super car"
And only "posh" neighbours had a car and a house phone!
To this day, I know my childhood next door neighbours phone number.
Skinning orchards and drinking in fields!
The huge crush at the labour exchange when your Granda would be out of work.

What's really scary....
I saw the end of the 70's and all of the 80's
Is I'm only 38! :pac:

This country will never see those kind of days again...but it was the pre celebrity culture era...and the pre social media era...we'll never see the likes those days again either...

Uncomfortable, itchy wooly jumpers.

I don't miss that.

Lucky bags...if I'd have been on the ball I'd have sued the manufacturers!!

Being hot and and horny on Saturday nights in 1975/76 in my father's Morris Minor that he was brave and trustworthy enough to give me.

Giving out to my brothers and parents about not rewinding the vhs tapes...

Josiah Greasy Barefoot wrote: »

Mortgage deposit was 20% and repayments meant a huge struggle with more that a full salary in payments. In the 80s Mortgages were attainable mostly only if both spouses were working. We had two good jobs in which we were well established through this period and really struggled to pay a mortgage on a very modest home, doing without holidays, social life, and any purchases over and above the necessities - no phone, video players, a 10 year old car, etc.

Only from the 90s on did things become more obtainable.

People now piss and moan about the cost of a mortgage each month. Nothing compared to the 80s (as a percentage of income)... But now they HAVE to pay that 60e a month on phone bill (to get a free iPhone), the 100e a month for broadband and TV, weekly social allowance and holiday fund.

But things were easier for their parents... Sure anyone on a modest wage could buy a red brick in d6 back then.

topper75 wrote: »

...

An Irish CB ran the rate for the punt. It was a currency/rate for OUR economy, not for a depressed German banking sector or a roaring Parisian property market. It was ours. By us, for us.
And our politicians gave that away without ever asking us.

Well they did ask us in the referendums. But running your own currency isn't all sweetness and light either: don't you remember the currency crisis in 1992/1993?

One of the most notable features of the currency crisis was the
unprecedented levels to which Irish interest rates were increased
in defence of the currency. Initially, the Central Bank refrained
from increasing its Short Term Facility (STF) rate but, as it became
clear that pressure on money-market rates would persist, the STF
rate was raised by three percentage points to 13.75 per cent
on 28 September 1992. The Bank later suspended the STF and
provided overnight support at rates of up to 100 per cent
— see
Chart 2. Official rate increases were reflected in short-term
money-market interest rates and were passed on to business
borrowers who had DIBOR-related contracts.

At that time a £75,000 mortgage over 20 years would have cost you almost £900 a month at a time when average industrial wage was about £500 per week before tax. I was a bit young but I think interest rate went as high as 25% for deposits around that time.

The 80s music has stood the test of time. The pub scene was fantastic, now spoiled by every supermarket selling dirt cheap alcohol. Work was scarce, still is away from the cities and large towns. The british army garrisons were on every road across the frontier harrassing(and worse) people trying to travel a few miles north and there was a good living to be made smuggling. Mixed memories but Im glad I lived through it and not the modern day camera phone recorded existence. All that remains are some grubby photographs on kodak paper and the memories, as it should be !

UrbanFret wrote: »

The 80s music has stood the test of time. The pub scene was fantastic, now spoiled by every supermarket selling dirt cheap alcohol.

I wonder do people got to pubs for sessions these days?

Also, brown clothing, y fronts and bathing only once a week seemed to be the rage back then.

In the late 70s I went into A&E with broken bones in my hand . This was about 10 am. X-rayed, bones set and plaster and home in time for dinner. You'd be lucky to get out in 12 hours now.

I've a DVD here showing an event that travelled the country in the mid 70s. Crowds came out I'm the town's and I cannot see fat people amongst them. Believe me weight watchers wouldn't have made money.

Bought a house in 86.
I had an unskilled job and if I'd had 2 years wages on the table that would have covered the house price. I mean if you were a factory worker or supermarket checkout operator you could buy a house.
There was any number of houses for sale and you just offered 10% less than asking

Every gob****e wasn't going to 3rd level and I think there were less bitter twisted "Professional" types as a result. Apprenticeships , the defense forces and other career routes were options

There were the obvious problems ( not great times for women, maybe even worse for LGBT)

One big drawback was the emigration - so many of my friends gone to UK or USA .

But anyone who believes we haven't got a whole new heap of snags now has their eyes and ears closed

Pretty drab and depressing, not like the world we saw in American movies of the time where everything seemed an awful lot better, probably why people still clung to anything American back then.

Food was an awful lot simpler, it seemed like everyone was having mince or chops for dinner, you could smell it coming out of every house in the evenings, even simple things like pasta or pizza seemed extremely exotic, we had simpler pallets to put it mildly.

Oh and smog from the coal fires in the winter, hard to believe how smokey the air was in a relatively modern era, all changed in the early 90's with smokeless coal and people relying more on their central heating.

It wasn't all doom and gloom but I definitely remember feeling like we had progressed an awful lot as a country by the mid 90's.

Something I'd love to know is how happy were people then compared to now!

BBFAN wrote: »

Toilets?? Who on earth told you we didn't have toilets in the 80's????

I know a few people who didn't get toilets until the 1990's and even the 2000's!

cajonlardo wrote: »

In the late 70s I went into A&E with broken bones in my hand . This was about 10 am. X-rayed, bones set and plaster and home in time for dinner. You'd be lucky to get out in 12 hours now.

There is an extra 1.5 million people in the country now, and probably not a commensurate increase in health provision. But it is possible that a great number of patients are being treated promptly.

These days there is so much misery laden reportage that it is likely giving a skewed image of the overall position. Nobody will bother telling the media if they had an experience like yours yesterday, whereas a few hundred waiting on trolleys occupies most of the news for the whole month of January every year.

BBFAN wrote: »

Okay...….. well as someone who lived through the 70's and 80's we never didn't have a toilet. In the 70's maybe we didn't have a bath but always had a toilet. Where do you think people did their business????

I'm reffeing to people in rural areas so generally in a hole or ditch. Some where away from the house.
They probably had a commode in the house for night time/etc.

Shoe polish.