Ireland 1989 v Ireland 2009

Dudess

Terry wrote: »

My first time on a plane.
It was a Manx air one. 35 seater or thereabouts.

It was always the ferry for us.

Terry

i cant remember 1989

Dudess wrote: »

It was always the ferry for us.

Must resist crude joke...

bunny shooter

i cant remember 1989

Did leaving in '86 went to London till '94

Things ain't as bad here as '86 hope they don't get as bad

Mars Bar

A guy I know, who is turning 90 this year, remembers the great depression and is not worried one bit about the one we are in now. He says it's all hyped up and we just need to get on with it. I love his attitude...

staker

i cant remember 1989

Did the leaving in 89.
I had to go to college as i couldn't get a "sponsor" for an apprenticeship.
Spuds,bacon n' cabbage,hand-me-downs, aaaah.......:rolleyes:
The neighbour had a mobile phone and i could go out-2 pints,10 fags and a disco for £10!!!
A bit nostalgic,but I think Ireland 2009 is generally a better place to be provided you escaped debt during the boom....

Acacia

I was only a baba, so 1989 was a great year for me. Did sweet FA.

x in the city

thelordofcheese wrote: »

It's because they're so damn tasty.

Its because people like anto and dexter like sticking long needles into their heads because its the biz, unfortunately this is the type of creature that exists now but was not found in the 80s

Aisling(",)

i cant remember 1989

im going for 2009.
wasn't alive in the 80's so i choose to pretend it never existed

Disease Ridden

Wasnt around for '89 myself, but my brother says the 80's were a brilliant time to be a child, despite the fact that things were tight; apparently it was really sunny during the summers back then, but maybe thats his selective memory?! I'd say it wasn't too bad; at least then if you had wealth, the wealth was solid and you could buy one of those old classy fuel-inefficient E class mercedes!

Zamboni

If I want to remember what Dublin was like in 1989 I just book a flight to Glasgow.

Whosbetter?

2009 shall do.

Ah yes, 1989.

I remember it well.
I turned 21 in June that year. What a time;)

You could drive pissed everywhere & nobody cared.
You could smoke at will anywhere you liked.
Nobody cared what the Greens thought & everybody had time to talk to each other.
There was no such thing as 'elf 'n sayftey' & a claims culture.
You could drive a 'shed', no NCTs then.
No Red Tape, CCTV & Computers to track you down.
The only Scroungers in the country were Irish.
Cash in hand, a nod & a wink,saw you through.
Also, The Who started doing the first of their comeback tours then.
In addition, there was always a better country to emigrate to!
What a time there was to be had!??
Twas brill, no messing.

A great time to be a wild & ambitious young lad.
Honestly,we didn't know how lucky we were.

K-9

Busses to Ulster Final replays.

Holidays before that were on caravans. The joys of caravans.
That was posh then, now it means something else.

Sgt Hartman

2009 shall do.

There's pros and cons of both periods. In 1989, at least we didn't have uncontrolled immigration and at least people still had their religion. Nowaday's it's trendy among young people to hate the Catholic church, this forum being proof of that. I know that elements in the Church have led to the destruction of people's lives (sexual abuse, enslavement in Magdalene laundries etc.) and I make no excuses for that. I have also known in my time some great priests and Catholics who have made very positive contributions to my community. You never seem to hear about those people, only the evil, devious ones that have abused their positions in the Church and blackened it's name. Also, it seems that most people in this country are blind as to the long-term consequences of uncontrolled immigration, as seen in several other countries. People seem to forget that decent, hardworking immigrants are also negatively affected due to the criminal/scumbag/scrounger elements in their own communities who should have never been allowed into Ireland in the first place.

On the positive side, at least in 2009 we are more skilled and educated, thanks to the boom years. We are no longer an insular nation, thanks to the internet, development in communications technology and cheaper, easier, more widely available travel services. We can now avail of technology and services that make our lives much easier. In terms of immigration, the only positive thing that I can see from it is that we can now avail of foods and products that would have been almost impossible to get hold of back in 1989.

OwenM

Flying to London in 1989 cost several hundred pounds, a VCR cost hundreds, Levi 501's were £60.

a pint of Guinness was £1.80 (€2.28), and the then average wage bought you 119 pints

today it is ~€4.00, and the average wage buys 150 pints

We can fly to london for 1/10 of the price, in 1989 people got the bus to London - i'm not kidding...

We have gone through massive deflation for 'things' we could import thanks to China and we can thank Ryanair for cheap access to foreign countries, this has contributed to our standard of living greatly.

None of this excuses the me fein populist Fianna Fail gubbermint we voted for ourselves. Local elections are coming up soon - be sure to ask anyone who knocks on your door for a vote what they think should be done to fix the current situation.

Remember we will have water rates and property taxes in the next year or two and these people will have at least some say in how they are spent and how much the taxes are going to be.

The French say 'to govern is to choose', Bertie Ahern never choose anything unless it was 'in the context of social partnership' or suggested to him the Galway tent, hasn't he done well for us....

Naikon

Drats, I was born in May of 1989.

I would have liked to have lived during the 80's, if even just to get a
bit of extra perspective. Society has really gone to the dogs.

Amazingly, the only thing I retain from that period is my trusty IBM keyboard
I am typing on now. Made in June 88. This thing will probably outlive myself.

Long live the 80's:D

irish_bob

snyper wrote: »

Im just old enough to remember how shiite the 80's were. Lived the Celtic Tiger, rode it, and fell off it just before it hit the wall.

Now while we can all accept that the country is in economic turmoil, not seen since yes- the stinking 80's we have a very different society now than we did 20 years ago.

I do understand that there are many of you members here were not born by 1989 and others only infants, but for those of you in your 30's you would have been old enough to observe and somehow compare the 2.

I think the biggest single difference is the debt that each individual has now, i think alot of the people that receive loans to buy houses were in thir 20s and couldnt remember the 80's a time when nobody had anything only a job and a dream to leave the country.

We also have a much more multicultural society. We are for better or for worse changed, personally i choose to see the positives of this, rather than look at any posible negatives, but there is no doubt a big difference, 20 years ago the only time i would have seen a black person was when we would go to dublin, now i think its fair to say, anyone living in a urban setting would know a black, Asian or eastern european family.

The other big difference is we dont jave as many swans, im not sure as to why that is.

So.. Are we better off now or would a time warp back to 89 be preferred

ah 1989 , i was going into 6th class , we had a fantastic summer in 1989 , thats about all i remember to be honest

Dudess

Yes, the '89 heatwave was amazing!

994 wrote: »

'89 was a good year. Sleeping 14 hours a day, breast milk on tap, inability to conceive of a world outside myself. Can't go back...

Disease Ridden wrote: »

Wasnt around for '89 myself

Naikon wrote: »

Drats, I was born in May of 1989.

Jeebuss... you guys seem YEARS older than ye are...
Disease Ridden, your brother is right - the 80s was a class time to be a kid.

Placid_Casual wrote: »

Leaving aside any economic argument, Ireland in 1989 was a far more socially conservative (some might say repressed) place than Ireland today.

So, 2009 is infinitely preferable in my eyes.

Very true on that score.

Terry wrote: »

Must resist crude joke...

Heh heh ... (I don't get it )

Whosbetter? wrote: »

You could drive pissed everywhere & nobody cared.
There was no such thing as 'elf 'n sayftey'
The only Scroungers in the country were Irish.

Only "PC" people would have a problem with the above eh...?

Sgt Hartman wrote: »

at least people still had their religion.

Well, that being a good thing is subjective surely? I don't feel in any way as if it's a bad thing for people not to be religious - in fact I think it's more desirable that people face up to realities rather than convincing themselves it will be all right if they pray...

Nowaday's it's trendy among young people to hate the Catholic church, this forum being proof of that.

Sorry, no. Young people harbour great anger towards the catholic church because of what it stands for... not to be trendy. That misconception is very patronising and implies young people can't think for themselves. I dislike when people make out they're "rebels" for being atheist/anti catholic church, but to take up the position is not an attempt to be "cool" - unless you're a pre-pubescent.

I know that elements in the Church have led to the destruction of people's lives (sexual abuse, enslavement in Magdalene laundries etc.) and I make no excuses for that.

A lot of people consider those good enough reasons to despise the institution that is the catholic church.

I have also known in my time some great priests and Catholics who have made very positive contributions to my community. You never seem to hear about those people, only the evil, devious ones that have abused their positions in the Church and blackened it's name.

I don't think anyone would deny there are decent individuals who represent the catholic church but that doesn't make the institution any less reprehensible.

Princess Jade

Dudess wrote: »

Yes, the '89 heatwave was amazing!



Jeebuss... you guys seem YEARS older than ye are...
Disease Ridden, your brother is right - the 80s was a class time to be a kid.

Very true on that score.

Heh heh ... (I don't get it )

Only "PC" people would have a problem with the above eh...?

Well, that being a good thing is subjective surely? I don't feel in any way as if it's a bad thing for people not to be religious - in fact I think it's more desirable that people face up to realities rather than convincing themselves it will be all right if they pray...

Sorry, no. Young people harbour great anger towards the catholic church because of what it stands for... not to be trendy. That misconception is very patronising and implies young people can't think for themselves. I dislike when people make out they're "rebels" for being atheist/anti catholic church, but to take up the position is not an attempt to be "cool" - unless you're a pre-pubescent.

A lot of people consider those good enough reasons to despise the institution that is the catholic church.

I don't think anyone would deny there are decent individuals who represent the catholic church but that doesn't make the institution any less reprehensible.

unf!

entropi

i cant remember 1989

Mr.Lizard wrote: »

I was only a kid back then and I loved my childhood years in the 80's (best years of my life) but even at that I'd still reckon now is the better time to be living in Ireland. There did seem to be a general vibe about the country of being resigned to defeat and inferior to the rest of the first world. That's what all the Brit bashing was about back then. The stuff that you don't really see much anymore from Irish people. Pure inferiority complex on our part imho. We've a lot to thank Jack Charlton and the Irish football team for. They gave the country a belief for the first time that we were truely just as good as anyone else out there (and not just in football I mean).

Ireland is more or less a country of the modern world now. We've grown up and been accepted to the table. 20 years ago we were something like the current countries of Eastern Europe. The level of excitement success in something like the Eurovision Song Contest should be an indicator to most that there was really nothing going for this place back then. We (rightly) sneer at countries who take that contest seriously these days (eg the Eastern block) but they do serve to show us what we ourselves were like only 15-20 or so years ago.

We've come a long way and for the better imho.

Adding to this post, the fact that there was "community spirit" back then too, neighbours got along and helped each other out was a nice thing too...i was just a kid born in the early '80s but i had some fun fun times too:D

KeyLimePie

i cant remember 1989

2009

in 1989, no divorce and being gay was illeagal

live2thewire

like it should be

i joke i joke i kid i kid if i offend im sorry please please forgive

K-9

KeyLimePie wrote: »

2009

in 1989, no divorce and being gay was illeagal

Somethings are so much better and somethings aren't. *

I wonder what some have replaced the Catholic Church idolation with?

*The examples you give are examples of the better! :cool:

Epic Tissue

I was born then but I am still alive now so I can't choose!:o

mikemac

Ah the 1980's.

A holiday was a day out to the amusement park in Salthill in Galway.
And that was it, that was your holiday.
A trip to Dublin on December 8th on Bus Eireann was a day out, oh I'm in for some abuse from Dubs for that!

lol, many Leaving Cert students go on holidays nowadays after exams.
That didn't happen back then, I never left Ireland until I was 20 but that's just me

BlitzKrieg

comparison (sort of)

Coolock 1984:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAcHwGsvzwE

(thank you monkeyfudge)

Coolock 2008

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbzQVKablQw

A sum up of the problems from both sides

road_high

2009 shall do.

I was 6 in '89. Great aul times.

Mr. Freezes, fat frogs, sparklers, trips to Tramore on hot days....

Everything seemed so relaxed even looking back on my parents.
There was no great desire to be rich or have it all back then or maybe that's how it seems now to me.

K-9

mikemac wrote: »

The more you have the more you want

Indeed, great philosopher mikemac.

Yep, there is always somebody better off than me/you.

Blitzkrieg, at last, a useful use for Youtube.

Took long enough!

BlitzKrieg

Mr. Freezes, fat frogs, sparklers, trips to Tramore on hot days....

I am pretty sure most of those (if not all of them) are still there.

and going by yesterday (and my burnt face and arms) the days could even be hotter.

Though Tramore doesnt have alien terror anymore (and it didnt have it in 1989 either, that was a 1996 thing)

road_high

2009 shall do.

Nobody bothered too much with wearing safety belts in cars back then either really.

mikemac

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

Coolock 2008

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbzQVKablQw

A sum up of the problems from both sides

Muppet

Take that sort of messing to empty shopping centre carparks or maybe an industrial estate on a Sunday. There is no shortage of either in Dublin 13 or nearby Dublin 5.
Doing that in a residental area is just attention seeking and reckless. Though maybe attention seeking is what they're after