Growing up in the 1980's Ireland

who the fug

gobnaitolunacy wrote: »

Just googled.....Ugh! Smacks of something designed behind the Iron Curtain.

I vaguly recall a motor trade mag article with a line that went like 'do you know how to fit a coil in a Princess'(!)

My mates father had one, bad you think, it got worse as his father was a teacher in our school.

Ever see a kid do an impression of Garfield on a back window

Ben D Bus

Snickers Man wrote: »

Anyone remember a truly awful record called "We're so proud to be Irish" by a band called Lucky Numbers? It's so bad I can't even find it on Youtube.

It was so cringe making it had, I imagine, the same effect on the 80s generation that Jedward has on the cool kids of today.

The shame, the shame!

"We're just a tiny island in the middle of the deep blue sea..." That one? Jeez, I still hum that occasionally and cringe to myself

Ironman76

Bryte Bytes, Alien Spacers (Nicest crisps ever), Battle of the Planets bars, Big Bars.

The freedom you had as a kid was unreal. As a 11-13 year old Id often be gone from 10am til 6pm , back for dinner, then out again til 10pm with my buddies.

Your mate with the double deck stereo always had a special place in your heart. Also if a kid on the road got an album a good few were after there would be a "bidding war" for a lend of it.

Watching Dusty Bin (3-2-1) on ITV and not having a clue what was going on. Still dont know what that was about.

Wearing runners/shoes until the day there was a hole in them, when the hole got big enough youd tell your ma you needed new runners/shoes.

Christmas to next Christmas seemed to take an eternity. Like, ten years it felt like.

If you had a calculator on your ruler you were winning. . . . .(even though you never used the thing)

Azure_sky

I was younger than a teenager, but I'll tell ye one thing; this recession we have is like an economic boom compared to the 80s. I was lucky enough to have food on the table regularly and have two Nintendo games bought for me a year, and I was considered the "rich kid" in my area.

People born post '98 or so really have no idea how lucky they are. Totally spoiled.:D

pauldla

Azure_sky wrote: »

I was younger than a teenager, but I'll tell ye one thing; this recession we have is like an economic boom compared to the 80s. I was lucky enough to have food on the table regularly and have two Nintendo games bought for me a year, and I was considered the "rich kid" in my area.

People born post '98 or so really have no idea how lucky they are. Totally spoiled.:D

Aye...and if you tell young folk today that, they won't believe you...

The 80s were grim, it has to be said.

Missymoohaa

Radio Luxembourg on a Sunday night on LW, terrible reception, moving around the room with radio pinned to my ear, listening to the new Top 30 for the week.

Anyone remember Logan's Run and Man from Atlantis, I used to love them.:pac:

Batwing Jumpers, shoes with bows (in vogue now I believe) princess di dresses and hair cuts.

Blinkers in leopardstown and Vixens in Tallaght, some great nights in both:P

Oh yes the memories

Judgement Day

The Lincoln's Inn - in its original incarnation - at the junction of Clare Street, South Leinster Street and Lincoln Place is where I spent most weekends in the early 1980's. It wasn't a good night if you could still stand up at closing time. They didn't open on Sundays or I would have turned into a complete alcoholic. Happy memories of far too much drink and free toasted sandwiches (at closing time on Saturdays) in cremated polythene bags. And you tell young people today..:D

InTheTrees

Missymoohaa wrote: »

Radio Luxembourg on a Sunday night on LW, terrible reception, moving around the room with radio pinned to my ear, listening to the new Top 30 for the week.

Oh yes. And the other exotic channels that would arrive over the airwaves in the dead of night.

InTheTrees

Judgement Day wrote: »

The Lincoln's Inn - in its original incarnation - at the junction of Clare Street, South Leinster Street and Lincoln Place is where I spent most weekends in the early 1980's.

Kehoe's. I loved that place. There's a great snug right at the front so if you get there early enough(!) it was yours for the night.

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=53.341101,-6.259451&spn=0.000983,0.002629&t=m&z=19&layer=c&cbll=53.341101,-6.259451&panoid=l0mz2nT7NRo7TER5oNtzdg&cbp=12,356.73,,0,-1.01

redalan

Ironman76 wrote: »

Bryte Bytes, Alien Spacers (Nicest crisps ever), Battle of the Planets bars, Big Bars.

The freedom you had as a kid was unreal. As a 11-13 year old Id often be gone from 10am til 6pm , back for dinner, then out again til 10pm with my buddies.

Your mate with the double deck stereo always had a special place in your heart. Also if a kid on the road got an album a good few were after there would be a "bidding war" for a lend of it.

Watching Dusty Bin (3-2-1) on ITV and not having a clue what was going on. Still dont know what that was about.

Wearing runners/shoes until the day there was a hole in them, when the hole got big enough youd tell your ma you needed new runners/shoes.

Christmas to next Christmas seemed to take an eternity. Like, ten years it felt like.

If you had a calculator on your ruler you were winning. . . . .(even though you never used the thing)

That is a very fair call. 3-2-1 was bizarre game show. The rules were opaque at best.

Judgement Day

InTheTrees wrote: »

Kehoe's. I loved that place. There's a great snug right at the front so if you get there early enough(!) it was yours for the night.

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=53.341101,-6.259451&spn=0.000983,0.002629&t=m&z=19&layer=c&cbll=53.341101,-6.259451&panoid=l0mz2nT7NRo7TER5oNtzdg&cbp=12,356.73,,0,-1.01

I only discovered Kehoe's in the 1990's and what a gem it is!
http://collectireland.wordpress.com/2009/04/02/kehoes-south-anne-street-another-institution/

InTheTrees

There was a pub the other side of Grafton Street (Chatham street/row?) but I dont remember the name. It was quite unique because it was on three(?) floors. I remember it had a huge basement area.

Does Neary's have a basement bar?

Now I think about it there was also a gay bar around there. Pretty dodgy too in those days as homosexuality was illegal.

Ben D Bus

Judgement Day wrote: »

I spent the second half of the 80's in there. When I wasn't in the Pav.

Ben D Bus

InTheTrees wrote: »

Now I think about it there was also a gay bar around there.

Bartley Bums?

fillefatale

Judgement Day wrote: »

The Lincoln's Inn - in its original incarnation - at the junction of Clare Street, South Leinster Street and Lincoln Place is where I spent most weekends in the early 1980's. It wasn't a good night if you could still stand up at closing time. They didn't open on Sundays or I would have turned into a complete alcoholic. Happy memories of far too much drink and free toasted sandwiches (at closing time on Saturdays) in cremated polythene bags. And you tell young people today..:D

Asked my Dad about this and he said last time he was up in Dublin he walked around looking for it... didn't get the memo poor fella

Fuzzy Clam

Ben D Bus wrote: »

Bartley Bums?

Bartley Dunnes wasn't strictly a gay bar although there a fair few that drank in there. You would also get lots of students as well. Same as most pubs in that area.
If i recall, there was a 50p glued to the floor and if you bent over to try and pick it up, you were guaranteed to get "goosed". Might be just a myth

InTheTrees

Fuzzy Clam wrote: »

Bartley Dunnes wasn't strictly a gay bar although there a fair few that drank in there. You would also get lots of students as well. Same as most pubs in that area.

I dont think anywhere could be openly gay back then because it was illegal until the 90's(?). We had a gay housemate, and it was quite a revelation to me back then the clandestine life he had to lead. (it was a simpler world back then wasnt it?).

upncmnhistori

Just had to put this hear but I know its 21st century http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dlb2bz39fXSQ&h=2AQGkfhFM

Monty7878

golden lane wrote: »

clothes etc were not cheap then......there were no sweatshopes in china, india, morroco etc...no kids.working 15 hours a day so you can have cheap clothes......

yes, your wealth, is sustained on their ill health.....enjoy it....

so true!

lurker2000

Ironman76 wrote: »

Wearing runners/shoes until the day there was a hole in them, when the hole got big enough youd tell your ma you needed new runners/shoes.

That reminds me of putting cardboard in my shoe to cover a big hole back in the day. I was on my way to mass as all good Catholic kids did back then !! when I said to my friends 'I have a hole in my shoe or really I should say....., I have a shoe in my hole because its so big'....

Yea, I said it without thinking it through.......Q...constant sniggering and nudges all the way through mass from us all at the image of that shoe !!!

80s memories -

Classy white stiletto's, white mini skirt, plastic jewellery combo, ear ring, necklace, bangle, belt all in cerise or turquoise Jumpsuits and ankle boots....The Dandelion market where Stephens Green Ctr is now. Paying €350 for a two week holiday in the Canaries while only earning about 60 quid a week.... Radio Nova...much better than Radio Dublin 253....Nova being raided...Being in a restaurant in Rathmines and having the 'General' pointed out to me....Rugy Club discos....slow sets.....Flamingo's in Stillorgan where the waitress's wore swimsuits and a gold tux jacket....bus strikes and walking or thumbing back from town.....when No 1 in the charts meant something....the Birdie song...ugh.....Orange double decker busses.... Cassidy's clothes shop....when Dunnes was St Bernards and Quinnsworth.....when guy's were just happy to have got a kiss at the end of the night !! Innocent times....

Peregrinus

InTheTrees wrote: »

I dont think anywhere could be openly gay back then because it was illegal until the 90's(?). We had a gay housemate, and it was quite a revelation to me back then the clandestine life he had to lead. (it was a simpler world back then wasnt it?).

It was illegal, but . . .

There were gay bars, and they were well-known.

Timberrrrrrrr

I moved to Ireland from the UK in 82

The TV was ****E! I went from 4 channels to two and they didn't start until 5 in the evening and then it was fecking Bosco! Everywhere closing on good friday and i do mean EVERYWHERE. Having the choice of salt and vinegar or cheese and onion crisps, nothing else just those.

Judgement Day

This ancient thread having been dug up again - I feel obliged to reply. Back in the 1980s while they may have been all sorts of problems we still had a country whereas today we have an economy. Give me the '80s any day.

PS This thread is more suited to AH.

philstar

Judgement Day wrote: »

Back in the 1980s while they may have been all sorts of problems we still had a country whereas today we have an economy. .

wha pls explain

Manach

The food was poor along with nearly every one else but the music was good, and the sense of common community was present which was fostered by a common belief in Catholicism in most areas.

Internationality it was a time of cold war where one was aware of the ideological divisions in the world with the threat of nuclear destruction if the cold war got hot.

Sam Kade

ejmaztec wrote: »

Consumers got ripped off and didn't realise it because there was no internet to compare prices on.

Were you even around back then? Back then you bought the basics, what you needed rather than what you wanted. Going out was great you could get into a nightclub for £3 take £20 for drink and have enough change out of it to go out again the following night

who the fug

Sam Kade wrote: »

Were you even around back then? Back then you bought the basics, what you needed rather than what you wanted. Going out was great you could get into a nightclub for £3 take £20 for drink and have enough change out of it to go out again the following night

Hark at him and his £20 pound notes

InTheTrees

And to get the £20, you' have to "cash a cheque" at the bank before it closed at 3:30.

Timberrrrrrrr

2 words

BUTTER VOUCHERS!

edit: Butter vouchers were rarely spent on butter!

Ben D Bus

Manach wrote: »

Internationality it was a time of cold war where one was aware of the ideological divisions in the world with the threat of nuclear destruction if the cold war got hot.

Back in the early 80s especially, places like Poland & Czechoslovakia might as well have been on another planet.

Now a weekend in Prague is nothing and you can fly to nearly every village in Poland for fifty euro. I don't know if I'd even heard of Lithuania back then.

Europe seems so much smaller these days.