Things that have changed in Ireland over the last 30 years

Crooked Jack

Boombastic wrote: »

It is, you just haven't come to terms with and learned to accept you are one of the auld boys now..welcome to the club :P

I remember when all this was fields

Wompa1

Video and DVD rentals are dead. Newsagents are dying out. Seems like less people are smoking cigars like Hamlets. There's less of a community type spirit around. People don't let each other into their lane in traffic any more.

Faith+1

Crooked Jack wrote: »

Cans of mineral are mad now as well. I remember coke being 35p a tine and 50 p a bottle. some shops in Newry are selling them now for 90p a time and £1.30 a bottle. And Im only 27 so it's not as if I'm some auld boy going "back in my day."

I'm 28 and remember Quinnsworth(Tesco) selling cans of coke for 31p and bottles for 45p. Fcuk me I'm old.

laraghrider

Crooked Jack wrote: »

Ah no man, wrestling in the 80s and 90s was class. I know I was a kid at the time but even now looking back on old videos they're still better than the crap on today.

Does anyone actually remember wrestling in the 80's or is it rose tinted glasses? Typical WWF Superstars ring announcing:

This bout is scheduled for 1 fall (was there ever any other?) Making his way to the ring standing at 7'2" tall weighing in at 310lbs of solid muscle....

...and his opponent already in the ring from Minnesota standing at 5'10" and weighing in at 150lbs, Tommy Murphy.

Wibbs

Triangla wrote: »

Dog poo was white before because dogs would be chewing on meaty bones day and night.

Dogs get fed well now so no more white poo. Plus less bones for them to chew on, mostly plastic toys.

Get fed well now? Ehhh no. Meaty bones are far better for them, compared to the meat flavoured weetabix most dogs get today.


Differences I've seen? People tend to want instant gratification more and are more impatient. You see this in the media. While episodic series have story arcs the individual episodes need to be more standalone.

In Ireland people drink far booze more than they did in the early 80's and there are many more outlets for buying booze. Plus the style of drinking has changed. My dad liked wine, literally a glass a day, but he was considered odd in his choice. Before you had less daily drinking. Now people are happy to admit necking a bottle a wine of an evening, most evenings.

The church still held a lot of sway. Stories of moving statues today would have people pissing themselves with derisive laughter and scorn(rightfully. Any half educated person in the west believing in such was a gibbering eejit). There was a lot of "father Ted is a documentary" stuff going on.

The roads were quieter and you saw far fewer BMW's and Mercs. Cars didn't last long either. A ten year old car would have been a rarity.

Kids tended to be more physical in play as computer gaming was in it's infancy as a mainstream toy.

There was a much bigger gulf between urban and rural Ireland. Today with modern coms that's pretty much gone.

Far fewer people ate takeaways and when they did it was from the chipper. Maccydees had barely kicked off in Dublin and Chinese stuff was rare enough too.

Fewer people travelled for it's own sake. No off to Oz for a year kinda thing.

Fewer big bands came here for gigs and movies were often out at least six months in the states before here.

Casual sex was much harder to get and people were generally older before they got any at all. I'd reckon of my sixth year buddies in 85, just over a hundred blokes, ten if that weren't virgins.

*edit* people are definitely fatter than they were, men and women. The "fat bloke" in my year was carrying a couple of extra stone and a round babyface, but he'd barely register as tubby today. Of the women I knew I can only think of one who was over size 14 and most were size 10.

Crooked Jack

laraghrider wrote: »

Does anyone actually remember wrestling in the 80's or is it rose tinted glasses? Typical WWF Superstars ring announcing:

This bout is scheduled for 1 fall (was there ever any other?) Making his way to the ring standing at 7'2" tall weighing in at 310lbs of solid muscle....

...and his opponent already in the ring from Minnesota standing at 5'10" and weighing in at 150lbs, Tommy Murphy.

The 90s was definitely the golden era but the 80s were good too because it was progressing that way.
There were however, as you mention, a lot of nothing matches just there to fill cards.
Most matches were one-fall but there was also 2 out of 3 and ironman matches and the like. plus that was when they were still presenting professional wrestling as a bona fide sport so that stuff all fit in.
Like I said, it's not just me remembering it that way, I would still watch old VHS tapes I have and clips on youtube and they're far better than the crap today.
More in-ring psychology and story telling.

PhlegmyMoses

Just on Wibbs's point about the women being no bigger than a size 14, the women have gotten better looking\take care of their appearance more nowadays. Everyone remember the class pictures of the 70s and 80s of the girls with the massive glasses, Mary Robinson hair-dos and milk bottle legs on the walls of your old school or pics of your parents and their mates when they were young 'uns? You could hardly spot a looker. Now they're all GHD'd, San Tropez'd, Brazilian'd and Mac'd up (you may tell at this point that I'm in deeper waters than I can handle when it comes to women's grooming products). Probably the extra cash in the country and the accessibility of the requisite products have caused this.

Wibbs

Yea defo more style about the place. In women's fashion anyway, the men have trailed behind a fair bit. I'd say that started in the 80's though. In urban areas anyway, rural folks if they had a TV had one station RTE, so those with "pipe TV" were exposed to more of the world fashion and pop culture stuff.

Pumpkinseeds

Nowadays we have modern showers I'd say 30 years ago power showers didn't exist anywhere in Ireland. I was looking at some photos the other day and in the late 70'/early 80's there seemed to be a lot of blue and brown clothing. Also brown is no longer a popular car colour.

When we were kids in the 70's a trip to the beach was a rarity and an actual holiday was mostly to relatives in Drogheda or a week in a mobile home in Fanore. Nowadays I think it's probably considered child abuse if the kids aren't given at least 1 foreign holiday a year.

Pretty much everything used to close by 3pm on Good Friday.

30 years ago people took it as a given that they would work to provide for their families and didn't father umpteen kids that they didn't have any intentions of ever doing a days work to feed.

Femme_Fatale

Nemeses wrote: »

Lies - I smoke in the car and many many people do.

Still far less do today than 30 years ago.

Mad the way people working in banks smoked at their public tills, people in civil service offices smoked when dealing with the public... and this lasted up to the early 90s.

Fox_In_Socks

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

Still far less do today than 30 years ago.

Mad the way people working in banks smoked at their public tills, people in civil service offices smoked when dealing with the public... and this lasted up to the early 90s.

"I am having a fag!" springs to mind from the Harry Enfield Show.

You should see how many smoke breaks a day some people take at work. It's crazy, yet accepted.

Nadser

PhlegmyMoses wrote: »

You either don't sweat at all, only eat food that doesn't come through your pores or you smell. I can't go to work in a shirt without having a wash that morning. I'd feel grim.

You can have a wash without having a shower you know! We didn't have a shower in the 80s, bath once a week and a wash at the sink with a flannel in between.

I was thinking about this the other day. You don't see water pumps anymore, we used to spend many a happy hour there when we went down the country. Also you used to have the coal man coming around on his horse and cart, you brought your empty bottles back to H Williams for 2p, and I knew some country folk that didn't have indoor plumbing. Yes that was the (probably early) 80s! Good times!

Micky Dolenz

Flat screen tvs.

Decent beers.

LowKeyReturn

The date.

hedgehog2

Coloured chewing gum on the pavements.

Firefox11

Boombastic wrote: »

For 10p in 1983 you could get a bag of tayto, 5 ha'penny sweets, a box of cigarettes and the bus home..

Penny sweets were a penny, not EUR 2.40.:D

Crooked Jack

Lots more girls have vibrators and it's perfectly normal to admit it

Sam Kade

Wossack wrote: »

am a bit young to remember personally 30 years ago, but from looking at old photos and television, theres far more colours nowerdays then there used to be

Yeah there have been lots of new colours invented since the 80's :rolleyes:

Am Chile

One thing has changed and its prob not just in ireland- when I was a kid back in the 80s- kids played outside more often/played football outside or play other games outside- nowadays I find todays generation of kids spend a lot more time playing video games inside the house ps3/x box etc instead of playing outside which I find unhealthy- I think parents should set a limit on how many hours they leave their kids in front of the ps3/x box.

Frank Lee Midere

Am Chile wrote: »

One thing has changed and its prob not just in ireland- when I was a kid back in the 80s- kids played outside more often/played football outside or play other games outside- nowadays I find todays generation of kids spend a lot more time playing video games inside the house ps3/x box etc instead of playing outside which I find unhealthy- I think parents should set a limit on how many hours they leave their kids in front of the ps3/x box.

Whats changed since the eighties is not what adults are complaining about, but small details. Back then they complained about our zx spectrums and how they played outside in the snow in shorts, and had none of these video games and computers.

Frank Lee Midere

Wossack wrote: »

am a bit young to remember personally 30 years ago, but from looking at old photos and television, theres far more colours nowerdays then there used to be

a few years before that it was just two colours. black n white.

Weevil

Where my bodily hair lives. Who'd have thought your balls could go bald? Sounds like something from Dr. Seuss.

Ben D Bus

The National Anthem when RTE closed down for the evening. Before midnight most nights. Radio went off the air at 01:50

Northern Ireland was the main news headline almost every night.

While there are now more phones than people on this island, back in '83 we all shared a public phonebox. The nearest kid would answer and go knock on the door of whoever the call was for. Though things may have been improving by then.

Mr. G

Smoking at work and in pubs is now illegal.

Ireland trades more in the EU and has the euro

Christ the Redeemer

Crooked Jack wrote: »

Im 27 and unless I had jsut done something physically demanding, gone out for a run or been working on the farm all day, i would only shower once or twice a week. I really don't understand these anal freaks who feel the need to shower once or twice a day

You must smell like an oul gooch most of the time.

Lima Golf

Barbecues and sitting around outside in the sunshine on your garden furniture wasn't the done thing.

The closest thing to it was granny dragging a kitchen chair out to the back of the house to sit and keep an eye on us

jimmytwotimes 2013

you can't buy a 54321 anymore and maurice pratt has gone off the telly

Katgurl

Organic, gluten-free, dairy-free, low GI diets.
Girls weight-lifting.
Private bin companies.
Ethnic diversity
Much less smoking
Lovely white teeth
Lack of 'buy Irish' campaigns
More extreme cases of overweight and underweight
Less acne
Osteopaths instead of chiropractors
Monstrous vehicles
Orange bodies with white faces instead of vice versa
Botox, fillers etc
Open contempt for the church

7ofBrian

The Catholic Church doesn't have the same stranglehold on the country. Thank fcuk.

Andrewf20

Less traffic for sure....

keeponhurling

7ofBrian wrote: »

The Catholic Church doesn't have the same stranglehold on the country. Thank fcuk.

Fianna Fail and Fine Gael don't still have the same strangehold on the ......oh wait, hang on.
No, that's just the same.

keeponhurling

Voodoomelon wrote: »

In the same breath, there are far more overweight people today.
.

Indeed, this is noticeable.
Why the hell is this though? People should be more aware of what food is good/bad for you.
There is still the same levels of sport, even more choice if anything.
There are now gyms.
The pubs are quieter.
There are more slimmer foreign nationals who we can learn from.

Boombastic

keeponhurling wrote: »

Indeed, this is noticeable.
Why the hell is this though? People should be more aware of what food is good/bad for you.
There is still the same levels of sport, even more choice if anything.
There are now gyms.
The pubs are quieter.
There are more slimmer foreign nationals who we can learn from.

Back in the day everyone cycled or walked.

Sir Humphrey Appleby

Divorce, contraception, and abortion are all legal now.
Homosexuality has been decriminalized.
The death penalty has been abolished.
We have had two women hold the office of President.
We have motorways! ( well dual carraigeways but we think they're motorways):D
We know what it is to qualify for the World Cup, we have beaten the English at soccer and cricket in major competitions.

However it might be said that we are now a lot greedier and less caring than we once were, and a lot less appreciative of the little things in life.

up for anything

Nobody eats Irish salad anymore.

Recipe:

3 leaves of Butterleaf lettuce
half a tomato
a scallion
slice of ham or luncheon
half a hard boiled egg
a dollop of Heinz vegetable salad
a dollop of Heinz salad cream

Method:

Arrange lettuce leaves neatly to one half of the plate. Spoon tinned vegetable salad artfully on one corner of lettuce leaf. Roll up ham slice and place opposite lettuce and surround it with tomato, egg, scallion. If you've been abroad cover egg in salad cream.

Serve with brown bread and/or white sliced pan.

Don't ask for seconds.

du Maurier

The media. Paedos are actually paedos. Not just some guy in a trenchcoat in your estate generally accepted as the local deviant.

bgrizzley

No more piking hay into wines (and bottles of Harp while you were doing it)...

_Kaiser_

- Music was better in the 80s as was the TV (this is before the days of wall-to-wall "Reality" TV and where every eejit can have their 15 mins of fame)

- Kids got more exercise (even me, the man who nowadays loves his car)

- If you were a little shit, you know you'd be in deep trouble.. especially if you were brought home by a neighbour/Garda (these days you'll be sent to the "naughty step" and your parents will threaten to sue the aforementioned neighbour/Garda :rolleyes:)

- The Church had far too much influence (although these days we have the EU)

- Politicians were still useless and corrupt (but these days we get to hear more about it - nothing changes though! :mad:)

- Buses were still useless, but they were more affordable

- Chocolate bars/crisp bags were bigger/had more in them AND were cheaper

- A takeaway was a huge treat

- A bath once a week was the norm

- It took about 20 mins to download a single MP3 file on dial-up

- It took about the same length of time to load a game from cassette (assuming you didn't have to adjust the heads with a jewellers screwdriver and start over)

- No "Political Correctness" cr@p!!!

- People didn't take offence at the slightest possible thing, or use it as an excuse to take offense

- Life was simpler in that everyone knew what was expected of them as a society and stress levels were a lot lower

DellyBelly

Holy Hour on a Sunday....

Boombastic

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

.............
- It took about the same length of time to load a game from cassette (assuming you didn't have to adjust the heads with a jewellers screwdriver and start over)
......................

or walk too hard on the wooden floor beside it

Worst of all, just as the game was loaded, my mam would flick the trip switch in the kitchen to let us know dinner was ready and sure hadn't we been playing the computer long enough :mad:

Surveyor11

Blue Nun has disappeared

Sam Kade

Back in the 80's children were not called young goats

krudler

Brown was a lot more prevalent in the 80's. brown clothes on the kids (brown chord dungarees who thought they were a good idea?) brown runners, brown colour schemes in places (mobile homes were notorious for this, brown and sickly yellow or green) brown cars, do you EVER see a brown car anymore? Think I've typed the word brown enough now.


Brown.

Teyla Emmagan

Homosexuality and contraception are no longer illegal. And the Catholic church has lost its death grip on the nation.

Sam Kade

krudler wrote: »

Brown was a lot more prevalent in the 80's. brown clothes on the kids (brown chord dungarees who thought they were a good idea?) brown runners, brown colour schemes in places (mobile homes were notorious for this, brown and sickly yellow or green) brown cars, do you EVER see a brown car anymore? Think I've typed the word brown enough now.


Brown.

sh1te is still brown :eek:

Wibbs

Boombastic wrote: »

Back in the day everyone cycled or walked.

Plus far less takeaway meals, most people ate meat and two veg type stuff as a main meal, less stodgy carbs going on and portions were smaller. Have a look at your grannies dinner plates, they're notably smaller than modern tableware.

BraziliaNZ

Andrewf20 wrote: »

Less traffic for sure....

Wow, thanks for that, so weird seeing the old hood from when I was a 4 year old. The depressing thing is, is that it's hardly changed at all! Grim as ever!

nineteen66

I remember thousands marching in the"Corpus Christi" processions in Galway in the mid 70's.Nearly every shop and business along the route had an altar in the window or doorway.Flags and bunting flew overhead and the whole town came to a standstill...........now we have the "Macnas"parade,it's much more entertaining

bbam

Money!
Late 70's & early 80's were a very bad recession in Ireland. There really was feck all oney going about. We're currently going through a recession as in we don't have as much money as there was during the boom.. But that recession was on the back of people having feck all money...

RossyG

Itwasntme. wrote: »

It's not anal to want to shower every day.

Although people who do anal should shower every day.