First signs of the Celtic tiger

mariaalice

Anyone remember the first time they saw signs of the Celtic tiger ( or lost the run of ourselves ) depending on your point of view...

I remember reading an article about a shoe department in a shop in Dublin and i think it was the late nineties ...anyway the article was about Nike shoes for toddlers...i remember thinking people must have more money than sense if they were buying designer runners for toddlers!!

orourkeda

http://www.inspiringcities.org/documenten/citycult/asbestos/lost/308499768_6d2ac96970_by_jaqian_celtic_tiger_house_prices.jpg

mikom

I think it was when I first saw Nike for lesbians advertised.

I remember the strapline well.........

New "Nikes For dykes".
50% more tongue and you can get them off with just one finger.

thebigbiffo

trying to convince my dad in about 1998 that building on the site he had and selling the gaff would make us a fortune. his argument was that the housing market would crash before we'd be finished the house. i was right in the end. if i had of had that argument with him 9 years later i'd have been wrong.

ChopShop

mariaalice wrote: »

I remember reading an article about a shoe department in a shop in Dublin and i think it was the late nineties ...anyway the article was about Nike shoes for toddlers...i remember thinking people must have more money than sense if they were buying designer runners for toddlers!!

I remember Sky Jordans (Toddler Air Jordans) on the shelves in Marathon Sports around 91 or 92. However well they sold...

The Aussie

I turned up here in ireland in 2001, so dont know the start but i know when i got here i thought this country is mad, the bosses wife was flying to the US 4/5 times a year for shopping trips and sh!t, i brought a 3 year old Transit off them for 4 grand (next to nothing) because he wanted a new one, i was getting more doing cash jobs on weekends than i was working the whole week and i was getting double then what i am now, money was like toilet paper in this country.

Hannibal Smith

when stamp duty on property became an 'every man/woman' issue and was no longer just for the posh people

KungPao

£1.20 for a coffee?

Get outta here.

smash

KungPao wrote: »

£1.20 for a coffee?

Get outta here.

or

What do you mean what type of coffee do I want... there's 30 different types?

thebigbiffo

also,

when i realised that 'jimmy choos' was not some type of cockney rhyming slang for simply 'shoes'. when i saw the price tags - thats when i realised the country was flying/screwed, depending on what humour i think about it in

KungPao

steve06 wrote: »

or

What do you mean what type of coffee do I want... there's 30 different types?

Yeah.

When you started having to speak fucking Italian to get a coffee with milk....oh sorry a Cafe Latte.

mikemac

When people quit school and went laboring pulling over 700 a week on sites
And some jobs were cash in hand too

KeithM89_old

People buying bottled water, or paying for something you can get for free in general





why did i subscribe???

mickydoomsux

feelingstressed wrote: »

When people quit school and went laboring pulling over 700 a week on sites
And some jobs were cash in hand too

Yeah, pretty much this. Half the lads in my class didn't come back to school the summer after the Junior Cert because they all went off to be labourers and apprentice block-layers and such.

They made a fortune at the time but spent it unwisely and now they're all on the dole and most have a couple of kids.

Wicklowrider

A girl I worked with had a nice white handbag and some scumbag had scrawled graffiti on it ( or so I thought) with a thick black marker - then she explained to me who Louis Vitton was and why she spent more than a weeks wages on the bag.

Luxie

steve06 wrote: »

or

What do you mean what type of coffee do I want... there's 30 different types?

Yeah, I've been away so was away before during and after it, but I remember being in Cork one day, and just wanting a ham sandwich in a particular shop, and could I get one? Could I feck, all they did was paninis and the like.

prinz

The price of a bag of Tayto.

KungPao

People buying pre-made or made for you sandwiches, with little or no taste for a hefty chunk of change.

When people simply had to have a new mooobiiiiile.

When sweets replaced fruit for Halloween.

Double-barrel surnames suddenly became widespread.

A new car every January started to become the norm.

The sunglasses-on-the-head look sadly became widely acceptable.

Nodin

I remember a few moments.....

'When did people start turning into ****.....' after listening to "upwardly mobile" talk from people I used have a lot of time for.

'who the fuck is going to stay in these poxy hotels' after I'd passed 3 being built over the course of a day or so.......

starbelgrade

I studied architecture & the year before I left college, all the students from the year ahead of me all headed off to Germany to get work... there was no work here & tonnes of it there as they were re-building much of the former East Germany.

When I left college just a year later, there was no shortage of work here & even as a student straight out of college, you could walk into virtually any office & be offered a really good salary.

A few years later, every office in the country was full of architects & technicians from all around the world.

Not so any more!

KungPao

Luxie wrote: »

Yeah, I've been away so was away before during and after it, but I remember being in Cork one day, and just wanting a ham sandwich in a particular shop, and could I get one? Could I feck, all they did was paninis and the like.

The worst is Ciabatta. :mad:

Because if you just want a sambo or a roll, you're like sooo not with it.

admiralofthefleet

when coffee became americano/mochiatto/mocha/frapachino

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

mike65

The first Ross Kelly O'Carroll article in the Tribune in early 1998

Nodin

KungPao wrote: »

People buying pre-made or made for you sandwiches, with little or no taste for a hefty chunk of change.

In fairness, thats been going on for a very very long time - pre minimum wage, in fact. You used see people who barely earned more than the dole spend christ knows buying food out and every feckin week complain about having no money......

southsiderosie

admiralofthefleet wrote: »

when coffee became americano/mochiatto/mocha/frapachino

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

When Ireland finally offered food options that were generally available in the rest of the developed world for years. (and it still has a long way to go in this regard)

Yes having variety is sooooo horrible. :rolleyes:

rossie1977

when all the main roads in the west of ireland stopped being narrow, windy, grass covered, pothole infested country lanes..............oh wait that never happened, they still are narrow, windy and full of potholes :mad:

skipz

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!

Sea Sharp

I first realised things were improving when my family went abroad on holiday. :eek:

KungPao

southsiderosie wrote: »

When Ireland finally offered food options that were generally available in the rest of the developed world for years. (and it still has a long way to go in this regard)

Yes having variety is sooooo horrible. :rolleyes:

Well I think he was referring to the pretentiousness of it all. There's nothing wrong with variety, but back in the day you could order a black coffee or a coffee with milk or whatever. But now its Cafe Latte and Americano. Why change the names to Italian? It's pointless.

scientific1982

When I was making 400 euro a week even though I was in college.

Cianos

KungPao wrote: »

Well I think he was referring to the pretentiousness of it all. There's nothing wrong with variety, but back in the day you could order a black coffee or a coffee with milk or whatever. But now its Cafe Latte and Americano. Why change the names to Italian? It's pointless.

You can still order a black coffee, or a coffe with milk. They didn't change the names to Italian. The 'new' ones are made differently, so they obviously need different names.

Agricola

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

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

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

What celtic tiger? seriously, am just wondering.

skipz

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

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

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

marrona

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

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

Blazer

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

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

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

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

dvpower

Jobs in Intel being advertised on bus shelters.

skipz

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

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

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

Gummy Panda

jerry2623 wrote: »

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

When €100 mobile phones became Xmas sock fillers.

mojesius

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

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!