MaccyDs - 40 years in Ireland

Zebra3

I wonder how much tax they pay on their profits in Ireland.

And by how much, I mean how little.

PARlance

Pat McDonagh, owner of Supermacs, was on the radio recently complaining that McDonalds have hundreds of trademark licences taken that they never use. Some as weird as "McWash, McPhone" and the likes, he wasn't too concerned about those but he was taking a case to have "Snack Box" taken back off them. Think they went and TM'd it in the UK. Cheeky pups in fairness.

The_Valeyard

It's great hangover food.

dublinman1990

As a kid; I used to eat happy meals at McDonalds in Blackrock for a treat with my mam mainly eating their chicken nuggets or fish fingers with the french fries after school. But I have not eaten McDonalds food for years because I have stuck to eating healthier foods for the majority of the time now compared to years ago.

40 years is a quite a long time in Ireland. As long as you eat a healthy balanced diet; having a McDonalds the odd time in your life is ok. Otherwise; your health will turn to shít if you go on it regularly something like the guy in Supersize Me from years ago.

Please people, stop saying "MaccyDs".

It's not coola boola anymore...

Mint Sauce

Have not eaten in a Irish McDonald's since Dec 2000, bar a few chips on a late night out in Galway about 5 years ago. Just have no desire to ever go in one, unless say am on holidays and there is no where else. Their food only ever seemed to satisfy me for about half a hour before I felt hungry again.

For Forks Sake

Deleted User wrote: »

Please people, stop saying "MaccyDs".

It's not coola boola anymore...

Totes.

0ph0rce0

dublinman1990 wrote: »

As a kid; I used to eat happy meals at McDonalds in Blackrock for a treat with my mam mainly eating their chicken nuggets or fish fingers with the french fries after school. But I have not eaten McDonalds food for years because I have stuck to eating healthier foods for the majority of the time now compared to years ago.

40 years is a quite a long time in Ireland. As long as you eat a healthy balanced diet; having a McDonalds the odd time in your life is ok. Otherwise; your health will turn to shít if you go on it regularly something like the guy in Supersize Me from years ago.

Your man ate the stuff for breakfast , lunch and dinner for 30 days or something.

I really don't think once a week would do any harm.

I see all the fools in work eating salads and tuna and a chicken and dry rice, mouldy avacado and the look on their faces, They hate it. Why bother.


Healthy Food Me Hole

MilesMorales1

Why are they not in Leitrim and Roscommon?

Anyway, they have the best fries, ****ing great chicken nuggets, great chicken burgers, cheap not horrible burgers, nice ice cream and apple pies, can't argue with it.

RayM

First time I was ever brought to McDonalds, I cried because they didn't serve fish fingers or beans, and my parents had to bring me home.

I was 28 years old.

JamboMac

Like it when i'm in a rush, but if you have seen the film the founder. Turns out the guy who created was a complete d***, not the guys who actually invented the speedy kitchen and where actually called mcDonald. Completely screwed the real founders out of about a billion.

SEPT 23 1989

MilesMorales1 wrote: »

Why are they not in Leitrim and Roscommon?

.

You cant barter a donkey for a big mac

Taylor365

2 euro for 6 chicken nuggets.

Easy as.

0ph0rce0

0ph0rce0 wrote: »

Your man ate the stuff for breakfast , lunch and dinner for 30 days or something...

The whole premise was such a load of nonsense.

If I drank olive oil for 30 days, I'm sure there would be some changes in my body, higher cholesterol, weight gain etc. Think of the urine analysis after surviving on asparagus for 30 days.

Terrontress

MilesMorales1 wrote: »

Why are they not in Leitrim and Roscommon?

Because nobody cares about counties except for the GAA. They want to put them where people live rather than by some random centuries old division.

JupiterKid

There's a lot of anti McDonalds food snobbery out there but the occasional McDs is ok as long as you don't eat there every day.

I know people say that McDonalds tastes the same wherever you go in the world but I don't think that's the case at all. The burgers do vary. McD's burgers in the States are very bland and nowhere near as nice as here. The tastiest McDs I ever had was in Germany.

I probably went to my first McDonalds as a 3 or 4 year old. That's like 1979 or so. Wow!! How time flies! I loved McDonalds as a kid.

PARlance

[Deleted User] wrote: »

The whole premise was such a load of nonsense.

If I drank olive oil for 30 days, I'm sure there would be some changes in my body, higher cholesterol, weight gain etc. Think of the urine analysis after surviving on asparagus for 30 days.

I think that's a little facetious. The consumption levels of fast food is a serious health concern, the US lead the way and a lot followed. I'm sure there are plenty of people eating fast food only diets or diets comprised mainly of fast food.

I would be shocked if there was anyone out there on an olive oil or asparagus diet.

It was extreme in order to prove a point but I wouldn't call it nonsense.

JamboMac

It's funny how back in 80's/90's it was seen as such a treat for kids. But fast forward late 90's early 00's some kids lived on the stuff simply i think their parents couldn't cook.

Terrontress

Growing up in Belfast, our closest McDs was in dublin. No trip down would be complete without a visit. And we'd often keep the bag it came in. Then they came to Belfast around the time I got my driving licence. And I went once or twice then gave up on it until I had kids.

It's seen as progress, or putting a place on the map when it gets its own McDonalds. Everyone is excited. Then they yearn for the time when they didn't have it.

Brad Socrates Osmund

My enduring memory of McDonald's as a kid is that of my younger sister grabbing as many 'Happy Hats' as she could and running up to every kid she could find and shouting 'DON'T BE SAD, BE HAPPY, WITH A HAPPY HAT!' and crowning them accordingly. She was quite an eccentric kid.

Agricola

Handy if you're in a strange place (insert country/town joke here) and you just want a quick bit of fast food. You can usually do far better with a decent italian chipper.

JupiterKid

As countries go, McDonalds came to Ireland quite early.

First country McDs opened in Europe was Holland in 1971. Germany later in 1971. France in 1972, Sweden in 1973 and UK in 1974.

Ireland in 1977 along with Austria.

Came late to Southern Europe - Italy in 1985, Greece in 1991 and Portugal in 1992.

Russia in 1990 - at the time, the Moscow McDonalds was the largest in the world. There would be queues 3 hours long to get in!

Zebra3

McDonald's need to entice kids into their "restaurants" with the aid of toys.

Says a lot about the confidence that have in the quality of their own food.

Like all those breweries that make expensive ads that have nothing to do with beer instead of boasting about how good they think their beer is and why.

PARlance

PARlance wrote: »

I think that's a little facetious. The consumption levels of fast food is a serious health concern, the US lead the way and a lot followed. I'm sure there are plenty of people eating fast food only diets or diets comprised mainly of fast food.

I would be shocked if there was anyone out there on an olive oil or asparagus diet.

It was extreme in order to prove a point but I wouldn't call it nonsense.

Oh I agree to the extent that fast food is bad. It was the way he portrayed it as some serious impact on his health after 30 days, as if he had martyred himself to make the point, that irritated me. You ate chips and burgers for 30 days, jee whizz of course your cholesterol reading was off the charts. But to portray it as putting his body on the line...naaaaa. Eat it every day for 20 years, drink pints and smoke fags for 10 years...if you claim to do something that tests the body, don't dip your toe in the water and run away screaming...

pontoonz

old macdonalds gotta lotta shops

e i e i o

and in dem shops he's got a lotta meat

e i e i o

hungry hypno toad

RayM wrote: »

First time I was ever brought to McDonalds, I cried because they didn't serve fish fingers or beans, and my parents had to bring me home.

I was 28 years old.

This explains a lot. Thanks for sharing.

Beyondgone

McDonalds, by their own admission, is a property company, not a fast food company. They sell burgers to control corners. So not unlike The Wire. It's all about the corners. The shyte burgers are secondary.

fullstop

Steve F wrote: »

Anyone remember that story about someone buying a happy meal and leaving it in an office for months and months and it didn't rot?
Also,are their fries really potato or just flour?

Yes, they are potato. Russet Burbank usually and there is a batter on them.

PARlance

Zebra3 wrote: »

McDonald's need to entice kids into their "restaurants" with the aid of toys.

Says a lot about the confidence that have in the quality of their own food.

Like all those breweries that make expensive ads that have nothing to do with beer instead of boasting about how good they think their beer is and why.

My 4 year old daughter regularly asks me to go in and get a toy (or balloon) from McDonalds. No food, just a toy.

Our childminder had brought her in for a happy meal once when she was 2. Her first and only time. She still remembers feeling sick after it.

But it's amazing, as soon as she sees those golden arches, she screams McDonalds.

Kerrigooney

I'm 44 years old and have never eaten in a McDonalds. I'm very proud of that. I did vomit in one once but that was alcohol related.

nullzero

There is a definite snobbery attached to wanting to be seen to never even enter a McDonald's.

Honestly, an occasional bit of McDonald's can be pleasant enough, although you don't feel stuffed to the gills afterwards, which may not be a bad thing when you think about it.

My own personal fast food pet hate is KFC, it really does nothing for me at all, others obviously would disagree with that, but it's all down to personal preference.

nullzero

Zebra3 wrote: »

McDonald's need to entice kids into their "restaurants" with the aid of toys.

Says a lot about the confidence that have in the quality of their own food.

Like all those breweries that make expensive ads that have nothing to do with beer instead of boasting about how good they think their beer is and why.

It's actually a Fvcking great idea when you think about it, and a model followed by every other fast food chain you can care to think of.

hungry hypno toad

Kerrigooney wrote: »

I'm 44 years old and have never eaten in a McDonalds. I'm very proud of that. I did vomit in one once but that was alcohol related.

So you are boasting about never having eaten in McDonalds but you drink to excess to the point where you vomited. Classy.

Cupcake_Crisis

I'd have sworn there was way more than 80 maccy D's in Ireland. It seems like they're everywhere.

Don't mind the odd McDonald's, they have the best chips for dipping in your icecream

Nonoperational

You can spot the absolute pain in the holes a mile off whenever a McDonalds thread pops up.

lertsnim

I love the gherkins in their burgers.

D0NNELLY

cml387 wrote: »

What I fail to recall is the moment that McDonalds ceased being a fast food restaurant and turned into The Embodiment Of All Evil In The World.

Hipsters don't go for the popular stuff. Rather their grub served on a bread board.

At the end of the day, what are we taking about, 100% beef, some salad and a bundy...

magentis

D0NNELLY wrote: »

Hipsters don't go for the popular stuff. Rather their grub served on a bread board.

Haha!

2 gallons of heineken and a feed of mcdonalds=hipster nightmare.No hummus or stout brewed in a sheep's bladder to be seen!

PARlance

magentis wrote: »

Haha!

2 gallons of heineken and a feed of mcdonalds=hipster nightmare.No hummus or stout brewed in a sheep's bladder to be seen!

I'm imagining a group* of hipsters hanging arounding the corner asking teenagers to go in and order them a Big Mac.

* A group of unique individuals

Senna

Had a McMuffin breakfast a few months ago, it was possibly the most vile thing I have ever eaten. Tasted dodgy going down, but I was starving, didn't feel well for hours after.
Big Mac is nice, chips are always good but the Mcflurrys are beautiful.

First time ever having a McDonalds was 1988, family holiday to Florida. The burgers were $1 and I want another one after devouring the first one.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

Gross. Hate McDonald's because of the clown. All I need is my local Chinese to put a clown guarding the door and I'd never have takeaway

magentis

PARlance wrote: »

I'm imagining a group* of hipsters hanging arounding the corner asking teenagers to go in and order them a Big Mac.

* A group of unique individuals

I see them all the time in the pub with their brogues and funny little beards staring enviously at my Heineken,trying not to let their pals lorcan and fionn catch them.

D0NNELLY

LexieOnRale wrote: »

Gross. Hate McDonald's because of the clown. All I need is my local Chinese to put a clown guarding the door and I'd never have takeaway

They got rid of the clown few years ago.

Enjoy your big mac

Surreptitious

The McMor is a special treat to be savoured only infrequently. (It's a special)
I usually go for a medium Big Mac meal with a coffee. The frappuccinos and sundaes are pure bliss though. I would only go once maybe every two months for a meal and that would be it. Too much of it can't be good for you.

thelad95

Last summer they had this monopoly game where you had to collect tokens on the food packaging to try and win prizes.

Well f*ck it I was as fat as fool for the few weeks the promotion ran and the place was packed everyday. Genius marketing.

There's definitely something in the 'food' which doesn't make you feel full so you'll go back up and buy more, I could literally eat nuggets for hours without feeling in anyway full.

Jesus Wept

endacl wrote: »

Fun fact: George Hook was offered the first McDonalds franchise here, and turned it down because he thought Irish people wouldn't eat meals without plates and cutlery.

Interesting, anywhere to read more about this?

Boom_Bap wrote: »

uuuuggghhh, I had a McDonalds meal last week and it destroyed my insides for a few days. I vow to never eat there again.....but I know that it'll happen again in a few weeks.

As mentioned earlier, the movie 'The Founder' is well worth watching to see how it spread rapidly accross the US initially.

How did it destroy your inside for days?

Jesus Wept

LexieOnRale wrote: »

Gross. Hate McDonald's because of the clown. All I need is my local Chinese to put a clown guarding the door and I'd never have takeaway

Where is your local?

Arghus

I know that in many ways McDonalds are an evil abomination on this earth, but I have ate a fair few burgers there over the years. Some of them even tasted good at the time.

Billy86

Steve F wrote: »

Anyone remember that story about someone buying a happy meal and leaving it in an office for months and months and it didn't rot?
Also,are their fries really potato or just flour?

Made from 100% real Irish potatoes.

You can just picture their management laughing their arses off at that as they watch some lad plop a single potato (100% made in Ireland though!) into an Olympic swimming pool sized vat of shite.

Billy86

0ph0rce0 wrote: »

Your man ate the stuff for breakfast , lunch and dinner for 30 days or something.

I really don't think once a week would do any harm.

I see all the fools in work eating salads and tuna and a chicken and dry rice, mouldy avacado and the look on their faces, They hate it. Why bother.


Healthy Food Me Hole

It [Supersize Me] also turned out to probably be made up (not that eating McDonalds regularly is good for you)!

The Fallacy:
Here's the thing: No one has been able to replicate Spurlock's results, and even basic math disputes the claim that his McDiet consisted of 5,000 calories a day.

As Tom Naughton points out in his documentary, Fat Head, there's simply no way Spurlock could have been eating that much food if he was sticking to his own rules. A large Big Mac meal clocks in at "just" 1,450 calories, and it's by far one of the fattiest items on the menu. This means that even Supersizing lunch and dinner every day and adding dessert falls well short of the 5,000 calories a day Spurlock's nutritionist claims he was consuming. In an effort to find out just exactly what the hell, Naughton attempted to contact Spurlock to obtain his food log, but Spurlock (who makes a huge deal in his documentary about McDonald's never calling him back) never called him back.

Meanwhile, researchers from the Making Sure Movies Aren't Stupid department of Sweden's University of Linkoping tried to replicate Spurlock's experiment by tasking healthy college students with the challenge of eating 6,000 calories of fast food per day, inadvertently also answering the question "What's the easiest way to get guinea pigs ever?" At the end of the 30 days, the students had none of the liver or cholesterol troubles Spurlock reported. According to the guy in charge of the experiment (aka an actual scientist, not the guy who created MTV's I Bet You Will), the students' metabolism was able to adapt to the extra amount of food they were eating. They did feel more tired, but none of them experienced the mood swings and depression Spurlock claimed to have endured.