Where did it all go wrong??

session savage

The village I live in was a different place when I was a kid.

There used to be Carrols clothes shop, Murphy's with the curtains and vases etc and bicycle repair kits, O’Brien’s butchers, Kenny's and O'Hallorans and Gleesons groceries stores, a post office, Slattery’s garage, and three pubs and a convent of mercy / school in the village all based around the church in the middle.
Life for the locals consisted of a quiet pint after work in the evenings and at the weekends the whole parish would attend mass on Sunday morning and gather outside after mass talking and gossiping. It was common to go past the church at three or four, mass having been said at eleven, and still have a group of people chatting away. I could still name the people who stayed there all day talking.
Back then when there were big jobs to do the whole parish would get involved. When John 'Lightnin' had to bring in the hay he would pull up in the village with a tractor and trailer and myself and all the other young lads would just hop on and spend the day forkin bales of hay onto the trailer. We were typical lads, bold out at times often stealing apples from the nun’s orchard but as a community we were all one huge family. As a boy I knew the names of every person in the whole parish and they all knew my family and me. We all had so much time for each other and the pubs were always buzzing with a great atmosphere.
Its so terribly sad how things have changed. Everyone is in such a rush these days. You do your own work now and expect no help. There are people living in the parish now and I haven’t a clue who they are.
All but one of the shops has closed down. Only one pub remains open and the life and soul of the community has died.
Nowadays if you drove up the village after mass you would be lucky to see a cat strolling up the street.


The community family is dead…. and it would break your heart.


Thoughts?



PS.. I'm only 27.

elpresdentde

what happened ? you grew up your not a child anymore. every generation has its own nostaligaia for the past bet your parrents said how much better everything was when they were kids human nature

but your right in a way the world today does feels like a poor replacment for the world we had as children

session savage

Fair enough, that has an awfull lot to do with it but still its sad to see so many shops closing down.
I know from my dad that there were even more shops around before I was born and they closed down too, it just seens to be happening so fast now.

conchubhar1

jesus - get over it - im only gone 18 and half the ****e i knew is gone now

get over it

Karlusss

I was born and raised in suburban Dublin and I still miss stuff like that. It's just an unfortunate fact of life. Be glad it's just the Celtic Tiger and not the Famine that changed your town.

McArmalite

session savage wrote: »

The village I live in was a different place when I was a kid.

There used to be Carrols clothes shop, Murphy's with the curtains and vases etc and bicycle repair kits, O’Brien’s butchers, Kenny's and O'Hallorans and Gleesons groceries stores, a post office, Slattery’s garage, and three pubs and a convent of mercy / school in the village all based around the church in the middle.
Life for the locals consisted of a quiet pint after work in the evenings and at the weekends the whole parish would attend mass on Sunday morning and gather outside after mass talking and gossiping. It was common to go past the church at three or four, mass having been said at eleven, and still have a group of people chatting away. I could still name the people who stayed there all day talking.
Back then when there were big jobs to do the whole parish would get involved. When John 'Lightnin' had to bring in the hay he would pull up in the village with a tractor and trailer and myself and all the other young lads would just hop on and spend the day forkin bales of hay onto the trailer. We were typical lads, bold out at times often stealing apples from the nun’s orchard but as a community we were all one huge family. As a boy I knew the names of every person in the whole parish and they all knew my family and me. We all had so much time for each other and the pubs were always buzzing with a great atmosphere.
Its so terribly sad how things have changed. Everyone is in such a rush these days. You do your own work now and expect no help. There are people living in the parish now and I haven’t a clue who they are.
All but one of the shops has closed down. Only one pub remains open and the life and soul of the community has died.
Nowadays if you drove up the village after mass you would be lucky to see a cat strolling up the street.


The community family is dead…. and it would break your heart.

Thoughts?

PS.. I'm only 27.

Sounds just like the town and life where I grew up, very well descibed. It wasn't idilyic, as you say " talking and gossiping. " (I'll return to this again, I'm 40).

conchubhar1 wrote: »

jesus - get over it - im only gone 18 and half the ****e i knew is gone now

get over it

I think if their is ever a prize for the most stupid and ignorant post on the forum, then this post will have to get it. But as you say, your only 18 :rolleyes:

Ponster

How about you and as many people who feel the same as you boycott large Tesco-like supermarkets and buy everything from your local stores?

It'll take longer and cost more but you may feel better about it.

McArmalite

session savage wrote: »

The village I live in was a different place when I was a kid.

There used to be Carrols clothes shop, Murphy's with the curtains and vases etc and bicycle repair kits, O’Brien’s butchers, Kenny's and O'Hallorans and Gleesons groceries stores, a post office, Slattery’s garage, and three pubs and a convent of mercy / school in the village all based around the church in the middle.
Life for the locals consisted of a quiet pint after work in the evenings and at the weekends the whole parish would attend mass on Sunday morning and gather outside after mass talking and gossiping. It was common to go past the church at three or four, mass having been said at eleven, and still have a group of people chatting away. I could still name the people who stayed there all day talking.
Back then when there were big jobs to do the whole parish would get involved. When John 'Lightnin' had to bring in the hay he would pull up in the village with a tractor and trailer and myself and all the other young lads would just hop on and spend the day forkin bales of hay onto the trailer. We were typical lads, bold out at times often stealing apples from the nun’s orchard but as a community we were all one huge family. As a boy I knew the names of every person in the whole parish and they all knew my family and me. We all had so much time for each other and the pubs were always buzzing with a great atmosphere.
Its so terribly sad how things have changed. Everyone is in such a rush these days. You do your own work now and expect no help. There are people living in the parish now and I haven’t a clue who they are.
All but one of the shops has closed down. Only one pub remains open and the life and soul of the community has died.
Nowadays if you drove up the village after mass you would be lucky to see a cat strolling up the street.


The community family is dead…. and it would break your heart.


Thoughts?



PS.. I'm only 27.

I remember well saving hay and footing turf on the bog etc. A lot of the time they were old farmemrs who once could depend on their brothers coming down on a week's holidays to help them, but often they were at that point too old or passed away or busy with their own family's and had to get some of the locals lads from the town to help out. I think also they enjoyed the company of younger people, telling us stories of football matches between the local rival clubs, events at fairs etc ( I even rememebr before they built a mart outside the town, cattle and sheep fairs in the streets with sh1te all over the place before the fire brigade hosed it away. Try doing that now !!!! ) Sad, a life that has gone forever.

Many towns also had a local festival for a week, all the work been done voluntarily. It would bring a carnival atomsphere to the town with a travelling funfair, a parade of marching bands and kids in fancy dress etc, street competions like the soapbox derby, the wheelbarrow race where one fella would sit in a wheelbarrow and another fella would push him, stopping several times where a publican would have a table of pints which both had to consume a pint each and then interchange who sat in the barrow . Couldn't see such crack happening today, as you say, the community family is dead.

Well as I said, Ireland was not idllyic by any means. With all change there is some things for the good and some for the bad. But it has to be said, things have improved for the better overall. Jayus I remember when there was que's outside the American embassy for visa's, at least half of my friends left the country for London, US, Germany, Aussie etc. And it all wasn't down to the lack of jobs, the country was still in the hands of the Catholic right, younger people were just fed up to the back teeth with it, the change in the abortion laws which gave rise to the X case, the divource refendum failing etc. I don't blame anyone for leaving, indeed I went to Holland for a while myself.

But the worse thing though I think that has emerged in Irish society is greed, greed and then more greed.

Erin Go Brath

Yep, id agree with the sentiments above. The country has noticeably changed in the past few decades. A lack of community spirit compared to 20 years ago is noticeable in many areas. The reasons are local post offices/shops/pubs losing business and closing in many cases, and replaced by the superpub/shopping centre in the nearest big town to the detriment of many rural communities, and small towns. Also people are working longer hours than before, commuting longer distances through more gridlocked roads.

Theres a lot of negatives, but some good positives too. The positives are more employment/job opportunities, wealth, opportunities for foreign travel and many other pluses.

Technology is a major factor aswell, and has changed the country. Aside from people spending a lot of time on-line, and not directly interacting with other people as much as before, computer games such as Grand Theft Auto IV have taken over with younger people, and playing football with a local club for example has been on the decline. In 20+ years time the changes will be even more marked than now, C'est la vie!

Kaiser_Sma

I've always been a towney, and i've lived in a few of them, it still surprises me how differn't life is out in the country and villages. It still seems some what stable though, still an unpresidented amount of people in agriculture in this country. The major forces against however are the aglomertion of farms and the expansion of dublin.

I'll be sad when it's gone altogether.

meathstevie

I grew up in a small town in Belgium about 15 miles from Brussels ( think of something like Donabate or Rush or Lusk on the outskirts of Dublin ) and believe it or not. Exactly the same craic over there. As a kid I knew all the farmers by name, they all knew me and my family. Same for the shopkeepers, the local cop and so on. If I go over there now for a family visit I can see the same as happened here : the small local shops are gone...the farms are sold to developpers and you'll be doing well to get a hello back from any of the people you come accross. On the other hand as someone mentioned : it could have been a famine or worse that changed the place.

mikemac

Karlusss wrote: »

. Be glad it's just the Celtic Tiger and not the Famine that changed your town.

Very good point!