The 70's and 80's in Ireland

Grandeeod

ThomasFlynn wrote: »

What computer games did they have in the 80s?

NES? Sega Mastersystem? Atari? Commodore? Like the really really basic stuff?

Us 80s teenagers were the Kings of Arcade games that eventually paved the way for all the cool consoles you feckers had at home.:D Here's examples of what I paid to play, after a walk, bus and another walk.:D 1982-87

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMv0Pg1AxFc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84qaXESXdT4

The Commodore 64/128 at home just didn't have the same effect on a little portable TV or even the 22 inch in the sitting room.:D

Deusexmachina

JupiterKid wrote: »

Pong, the first successful video game, came out in the USA in late 1972, the first one developed by Atari.

Of course back then in little backwards poor Ireland we still lit our houses by gaslight, ate raw spuds and had no flush toilets...

1972 America = 1989 Ireland

Deusexmachina

JupiterKid wrote: »

Pong, the first successful video game, came out in the USA in late 1972, the first one developed by Atari.

Of course back then in little backwards poor Ireland we still lit our houses by gaslight, ate raw spuds and had no flush toilets...

While I enjoy your note of irony, we did all actually watch a programme every Sunday evening on RTE 1 which was basically 'Mike Murphy goes on his holidays to America (and you will never ever ever be able to afford to)'
It was like a completely different world. Glamourous and exotic beyond belief.

NewbridgeIR

BBFAN wrote: »

I've a terrible memory and this thread is brilliant, reminding me of so many things.

Anyone else remember Hammer House of Horrors?? A different horror movie every Saturday night, brilliant.

Yes! Bought the DVD around 2005 or so.

The House That Bled To Death

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MKz8-C1Vc8

There was also a later series called Hammer House Of Mystery And Suspense that was broadcast on Friday nights, autumn 1984 - after the Late Late.

Longer episodes (70 mins vs HHOH's 50 mins).

NasserShammaz

NewbridgeIR wrote: »

Yes! Bought the DVD around 2005 or so.

The House That Bled To Death

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MKz8-C1Vc8

There was also a later series called Hammer House Of Mystery And Suspense that was broadcast on Friday nights, autumn 1984 - after the Late Late.

Longer episodes (70 mins vs HHOH's 50 mins).

Christ I always remember that and they were usually a double bill too.

Grandeeod

The Hammer House of Horror TV show was great. I was allowed to stay up late to watch it. Seeing as though we are talking TV shows, here's a few 80s faves from me.:D Space 1999 was 70s made but a Saturday morning fave in the early 80s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0itlB23fFY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rq7G8HFlmc

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

NewbridgeIR

Thriller was another great anthology series. It ran from 1973 - 1976 and was repeated on HTV (and RTE IIRC) in the early 1980s. Still brilliant to watch now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCIDwPs34Ns

Hotblack Desiato

Billy86 wrote: »

There was a rude word? And nobody told me!? Ah for f*ck's sake lads, it was 25 years ago, in all that time would someone not have let me know?

yep a big mural with a German soldier seeing Captain America and saying "holy SH1T" with the "SH1T" in big gothic letters. It's still there

JupiterKid

The Hammer Horror flicks were great in the 80s - really chilling plots done on a tight U.K. budget. Remember the one where the occupants of a house woke up to find it all sealed in, circa 1985? Scared me to death as a 10 year old! :eek:

Salem’s Lot gave me nightmares, as did The Fog. The 70s and 80s was the golden era of good horror films.

BBFAN

ThomasFlynn wrote:

Wasn't smoking banned or partly banned on planes in the 1980s? The ban certainly first came somewhere in that decade.

1st time I ever went to America was 1995 and there was a smoking section on the plane.

BBFAN

NewbridgeIR wrote:

The House That Bled To Death

That's the one I remember most!

jimmytwotimes 2013

The Film Censor loved to ban movies that would seem harmless by today's standards. Life of Brian, From Dusk to Dawn, Natural Born Killers, Monty Python Meaning of Life for example.

Any controversial movies with any kind of sex or religious theme were gonners.

martinedwards

In the North of this fine Island, things weren't the most fun......

As country bumkins (living a whole 20 miles away), we only ever went into Belfast for the Balmoral Show.

the first time I was in a shop in Belfast was a week before my 16th birthday to get a wetsuit (I was a kayaker).

The gates on the city centre were closed at (I think) 6:30. So Belfast at night happened in other places.

Even out in the sticks (Newtownards) there were security guards on the door of every shop where you were wanded and had your bags checked.

Heavily armed Police and army all over the place.

I remember being in the passenger seat of the car, following an army land rover about 200 yards back and having a squadie in the back, sight straight at me down the SLR rifle. this was NORMAL!

when I was at Uni in Belfast in 85 onwards there were Police checkpoints all over the place. One guy on the white line checking licences, two land rovers and at least one guy in a hedge with a rifle pointed straight at you.

Bomb scares and actual bombs were common, it once took me 3 hours to get from Stranmillis to central station and back (which as I type this says 11 mins each way on google maps). this was NORMAL.

I worked in a restaurant on Hill st from 89 - 96 (now the Harp bar) and now all nicely branded the Cathedral Quarter

we regularly had sniffer dogs in for a tour before some bigwig or other was in.

Mo Mowlam was a regular, and George Mitchel and the other two guys who brokered the good Friday talks were in the weekend before they actually started.

we regularly had several close protection officers in having a meal two tables across from their clients, with big bulletproofed cars parked outside on the double yellows with engines running.

there is a dog leg in the road 20 yards up. locking up at 1 am there was regularly an army land rover parked up there with the back doors open and the guys having a brew as it was the only place where it was safe from potential sniper fire due to the high buildings all round.

I happened to be in that area at night for the first time in maybe 10 years and the change is unbelievable. there were about 200 people outside the Duke of York bar, sitting on benches enjoying outdoor live music. there are 4 restaurants on that street that were either offices or empty back then. all were packed.

We went to St George's Market on Sunday morning. Absolutely packed with people, both locals and from all over with dozens of languages and accents. Brilliant.

do I miss the 70s and 80s?

No, funnily enough, I don't!

Big Nasty

I gonna be honest here and say I've never liked the north, never felt comfortable there and always felt a lot of people had a massive chip on their shoulders. Reading that I can understand why considering what you had to deal with day in and day out. Thank fook that has changed.

jmayo

ThomasFlynn wrote: »

Wasn't smoking banned or partly banned on planes in the 1980s? The ban certainly first came somewhere in that decade.

Actually piece of trivia.
Once they banned smoking it was a bit of a double edged sword for passengers since the airlines could then save a bit of money by recycling the air in the cabin a lot less.

Billy86 wrote: »

Movies - 80s/90s quite easily. Movies cost too much to make now and TV has bridged the gap in such a way that all the cinema can offer for most is more noticeable visual spectacle (also needed as China is a bigger player than ever, without it the box office market would implode but they also have different language and culture of course - this is why the rom-com and the likes of the buddy cop movie have died a death over this century). The film industry has always been that - an industry there for the purpose of making money - but this is why in more recent times movies have moved further and further from 'works of art' and become more and more simply just 'products'.

Actually I loved some of the 70s & 80s TV shows. Things like ...
The Rockford Files
Columbo
Mannix
Simon & Simon
Mash
Alias Smith & Jones
Gemini Man (everyone wanted a digital watch to disappear)
Charlies Angels (gorgeous looking women, every lad had his favourite)
Dallas (come on everyone wanted to know who shot JR)
Mork & Mindy (nanu nanu)
The Muppet Show (no not the Dail coverage)
The Six Million Dollar Man,
The Bionic Woman (they created a bionic woman as well )
Chips
Hawaii Five-0 (no not the modern one)
Kojak (Who loves ya, baby?)
The Streets of San Francisco
Hill Street Blues (the first real gritty police drama that shaped things to come)
Minder (Arthur Daley and her indoors)
Nightrider (who didn't want Kitt or the sexy scientist)
The Equalizer

Of course then you the family type stuff like
The Waltons (that music)
Little House on the Prairie (another great theme tune)
- didn't like it and always watched it in hope some fecking indians would show up and slaughter the feckers.
When you had two channels there was no real option but watch it.

Maybe TV was less gritty and you didn't have well crafted stuff like Sopranos, ER, Boardwalk Empire, etc.
But sometimes some of the modern stuff like Criminal Minds is really just a headwreck and tries to shock.

Actually looking at that list think about how many of them had fantastic theme tunes and how many have been reworked in modern times.

Billy86 wrote: »

There was a rude word? And nobody told me!? Ah for f*ck's sake lads, it was 25 years ago, in all that time would someone not have let me know?

Fook off.

Deusexmachina wrote: »

While I enjoy your note of irony, we did all actually watch a programme every Sunday evening on RTE 1 which was basically 'Mike Murphy goes on his holidays to America (and you will never ever ever be able to afford to)'
It was like a completely different world. Glamourous and exotic beyond belief.

Don't forget he also went to Oz.
Actually loved those programs.

ilovesmybrick

Grandeeod wrote: »

The Hammer House of Horror TV show was great. I was allowed to stay up late to watch it. Seeing as though we are talking TV shows, here's a few 80s faves from me.:D Space 1999 was 70s made but a Saturday morning fave in the early 80s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0itlB23fFY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rq7G8HFlmc

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

Christ I hated Wurzel Gummidge, bloody traumatised me so much as a kid I had to watch it from behind the couch!

Badly Drunk Boy

Tales Of The Unexpected is still shown regularly on Sky Arts. It could be hit-and-miss but usually was good.

Wibbs

jmayo wrote: »

Actually piece of trivia.
Once they banned smoking it was a bit of a double edged sword for passengers since the airlines could then save a bit of money by recycling the air in the cabin a lot less.

Some have suggested that this cost cutting was one factor that because of the lower quality air and drop in oxygen has led to the increase of passengers with blood clots forming in legs on longer flights. Now many more people fly such long hauls compared to the past. We're all in the "jet set" now. However somebody noticed that Japanese airlines had far fewer cases of blood clots and the Japanese airlines were among the last to ban smoking on flights.

Claw Hammer

In the 70s and 80s, in Ireland, there were manual typewriters in offices. For some reason, secretaries always wore navy skirts. Not a black pair of trousers in sight. Bank officials also wore uniforms. AIB female staff used to wear green pinafores.

frosty123

Northern Ireland Troubles.
All irish people were tarred with the one brush due to the troubles.

The same could be said for protestants living in the republic at the time, as a young protestant lad growing up in a rural town back in the 80's to say i felt like an outsider would be an under-statement.

Got plenty of the cold-shoulder treatment called every name under the sun on the school playground, not nice, granted the troubles in the north didn't help matters but that doesn't get away from the fact that i hated the place, couldn't wait to leave. Ignorant & narrow-minded attitudes were widespread.

Happy & content in the modern multi-cultural Ireland of today but back then i detested the place, it was a dark dismal backward kip (for me anyway).

NasserShammaz

ilovesmybrick wrote: »

Christ I hated Wurzel Gummidge, bloody traumatised me so much as a kid I had to watch it from behind the couch!

Especially when he changed heads , madness. "cup o tea and a slice of cake"


Saturday morning TV , the hair bear bunch & the banana splits
Sundays TV was a bit sh#t black beauty, the waltons,

JupiterKid

AFAIK the smoking ban on airlines started in the early 1990s. I was on airplanes as a child in the 1980s and there was definitely smoking allowed on planes in the latter half of that decade.

topper75

I don't understand the 'cost' saving.
Isn't air in the cabin merely air bled directly from the engines? How is actual money saved?

It comes out at 250deg but is naturally cooled for from by the cold outside air before being regulated and sent into the cabin.

ohnonotgmail

topper75 wrote: »

I don't understand the 'cost' saving.
Isn't air in the cabin merely air bled directly from the engines? How is actual money saved?

It comes out at 250deg but is naturally cooled for from by the cold outside air before being regulated and sent into the cabin.

The air in the cabin is mixture of outside air and recycled cabin air. When cabin air is recycled it has to pass through a filter. When passengers were allowed to smoke the filtering had to be more intensive to remove the smoke. Now the cabin air is less filtered than before and is lower quality as a result.

Sycamore Tree

How did we survive in the 70s with the old weather forecast systems where we never knew a storm was tracking right for us? I don't remember ever experiencing bad weather and thinking why didn't someone warn us???
I think we just looked out the window and decided whether to go out or not.

mariaalice

Best TV series of the 80s was V scared the day lights out of me even as an adult that and salems lot.

Hotblack Desiato

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

The air in the cabin is mixture of outside air and recycled cabin air. When cabin air is recycled it has to pass through a filter. When passengers were allowed to smoke the filtering had to be more intensive to remove the smoke. Now the cabin air is less filtered than before and is lower quality as a result.

The HEPA filters in aircraft now are a lot better now than they were then, if smoking was allowed today they'd have to be cleaned/changed constantly. Cabin air quality is way higher and on the 787 the air pressure is closer to sea level, too.

The cost saving in recycling the air more is that bleeding more pressurised air out of the engine compressor reduces its efficiency, i.e. more fuel burn.

SharpshooterTom

Its interesting a lot of Irish people are quite anti all things 70s/80s/90s and pro 2000s/10s.

I think in the UK and US and parts of the anglosphere the 70s/80s/90s are not disliked as much. (Some people in the north of England might think differently quite rightly).

I grew up in the south of England in the 1990s and I have to say I don't share anything like the hatred for those decades by many in this thread and rather enjoyed my childhood, guess I must be different. It makes me glad I didn't grow up in Ireland if was that bad.

mariaalice

I am just after looking at the birth scene from V the one of the baby with the Lizards tongue it's on youtube it's hilarious its so hammy but in pre-internet days things like that were scary.

Deise Vu

ThomasFlynn wrote: »

Its interesting a lot of Irish people are quite anti all things 70s/80s/90s and pro 2000s/10s.

I think in the UK and US and parts of the anglosphere the 70s/80s/90s are not disliked as much. (Some people in the north of England might think differently quite rightly).

I grew up in the south of England in the 1990s and I have to say I don't share anything like the hatred for those decades by many in this thread and rather enjoyed my childhood, guess I must be different. It makes me glad I didn't grow up in Ireland if was that bad.

I'm not sure where you are picking this up? There seems to be a lot of nostalgia for the 70's and 80's too from what I read. Also, you've got to take the 90's out of it. Even in Ireland things were picking up hugely in the 90's. You also might think differently if you grew up in the Loony Labour times that were 70's UK (98% top rate tax) not to mention even loonier Thatcherite 80's, The Falklands war, Miner's strikes etc were hardly a barrell of laughs as I remember, plus your involvement in NI at the time such as the hunger strikes. The nightly BBC news back then wasn't exactly Disneyland either as I recall it.

Padre101

Up until the mid '80s, only the big city centre cinemas were "first-run" cinemas which got to show newly released films. The smaller and suburban cinemas showed old films, sometimes several years old.

The rise of home video players and video libraries in the '80s meant there was no longer any point in showing old films in cinemas, so all cinemas became first-run.

Electric Sheep

ThomasFlynn wrote: »

Its interesting a lot of Irish people are quite anti all things 70s/80s/90s and pro 2000s/10s.

I think in the UK and US and parts of the anglosphere the 70s/80s/90s are not disliked as much. (Some people in the north of England might think differently quite rightly).

I grew up in the south of England in the 1990s and I have to say I don't share anything like the hatred for those decades by many in this thread and rather enjoyed my childhood, guess I must be different. It makes me glad I didn't grow up in Ireland if was that bad.

Perhaps that is because the 70s and 80s were not as miserable in other countries as they were in Ireland.

mariaalice

Electric Sheep wrote: »

Perhaps that is because the 70s and 80s were not as miserable in other countries as they were in Ireland.

It wasn't for everybody your extrapolating from your own experiences.

SharpshooterTom

Deise Vu wrote: »

I'm not sure where you are picking this up? There seems to be a lot of nostalgia for the 70's and 80's too from what I read. Also, you've got to take the 90's out of it. Even in Ireland things were picking up hugely in the 90's. You also might think differently if you grew up in the Loony Labour times that were 70's UK (98% top rate tax) not to mention even loonier Thatcherite 80's, The Falklands war, Miner's strikes etc were hardly a barrell of laughs as I remember, plus your involvement in NI at the time such as the hunger strikes. The nightly BBC news back then wasn't exactly Disneyland either as I recall it.

Well I did mention parts of the north of England might not agree, but the Falkands war only last two months (255 British troops were killed), compared to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars which have last the best part of two decades and have killed between 600-700 British troops and counting.

Northern Ireland was a despot in those days as pointed out.

I've seen 60s/70s/80s/90s threads on UK and American forums and they aren't as negative overall as here. That's not to say they'd want to go back to those days.

I don't think the 90s were that great in Ireland either, 600 people still died in that decade during the troubles.

I've been living in Ireland since December 2000 and although I've liked living here in my near 18 years I'm glad I grew up in England in the 90s and not Ireland.

Big Nasty

It's our time now Tom Flynn. The US & UK are well past their best.

Ash.J.Williams

frosty123 wrote: »

The same could be said for protestants living in the republic at the time, as a young protestant lad growing up in a rural town back in the 80's to say i felt like an outsider would be an under-statement.

Got plenty of the cold-shoulder treatment called every name under the sun on the school playground, not nice, granted the troubles in the north didn't help matters but that doesn't get away from the fact that i hated the place, couldn't wait to leave. Ignorant & narrow-minded attitudes were widespread.

Happy & content in the modern multi-cultural Ireland of today but back then i detested the place, it was a dark dismal backward kip (for me anyway).

Ha I got that as well and I'm actually Catholic... Not that I give a sh1t (one parent is prod)

Ash.J.Williams

JupiterKid wrote: »

AFAIK the smoking ban on airlines started in the early 1990s. I was on airplanes as a child in the 1980s and there was definitely smoking allowed on planes in the latter half of that decade.

There was smoking in 2000

Big Nasty

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

There was smoking in 2000

And Maniac

fryup

Padre101 wrote: »

Up until the mid '80s, only the big city centre cinemas were "first-run" cinemas which got to show newly released films. The smaller and suburban cinemas showed old films, sometimes several years old.

The rise of home video players and video libraries in the '80s meant there was no longer any point in showing old films in cinemas, so all cinemas became first-run.

that explains how i saw the Darby O'Gill & the little people in the Ormonde in Arklow back in the 80's

Grandeeod

fryup wrote: »

that explains how i saw the Darby O'Gill & the little people in the Ormonde in Arklow back in the 80's

Feckin hell I saw the same movie on VHS in the 80s.:eek: By the time I got to a provincial town in the late 80s the struggling Cinemas were selecting the best of the first run films and alternating weekly. Lasted until the early 2000s and then went bang!

NewbridgeIR

JupiterKid wrote: »

The Hammer Horror flicks were great in the 80s - really chilling plots done on a tight U.K. budget. Remember the one where the occupants of a house woke up to find it all sealed in, circa 1985? Scared me to death as a 10 year old! :eek:

That was Hammer House Of Mystery And Suspense - Child's Play
Broadcast on RTE 1, November 1984.

So many people still remember it - all allowed to stay up late as it was a Friday night

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

NewbridgeIR

jmayo wrote: »

Actually I loved some of the 70s & 80s TV shows. Things like ...
The Rockford Files
Columbo
Mannix
Simon & Simon
Mash
Alias Smith & Jones
Gemini Man (everyone wanted a digital watch to disappear)
Charlies Angels (gorgeous looking women, every lad had his favourite)
Dallas (come on everyone wanted to know who shot JR)
Mork & Mindy (nanu nanu)
The Muppet Show (no not the Dail coverage)
The Six Million Dollar Man,
The Bionic Woman (they created a bionic woman as well )
Chips
Hawaii Five-0 (no not the modern one)
Kojak (Who loves ya, baby?)
The Streets of San Francisco
Hill Street Blues (the first real gritty police drama that shaped things to come)
Minder (Arthur Daley and her indoors)
Nightrider (who didn't want Kitt or the sexy scientist)
The Equalizer

Of course then you the family type stuff like
The Waltons (that music)
Little House on the Prairie (another great theme tune)
- didn't like it and always watched it in hope some fecking indians would show up and slaughter the feckers.
When you had two channels there was no real option but watch it.

Maybe TV was less gritty and you didn't have well crafted stuff like Sopranos, ER, Boardwalk Empire, etc.
But sometimes some of the modern stuff like Criminal Minds is really just a headwreck and tries to shock.

.

Great list. For me, television's golden age was 1960-1989.


I'd also add
Police Woman
Police Story
Harry O
The Bold Ones
Banacek
Ellery Queen
McCloud
Cannon
Barnaby Jones

And there's even more classics from the UK - must do a list tomorrow.

the purple tin

NewbridgeIR wrote: »

That was Hammer House Of Mystery And Suspense - Child's Play
Broadcast on RTE 1, November 1984.

So many people still remember it - all allowed to stay up late as it was a Friday night

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

It's a funny thing, but the irish parents in the old days used to let young children watch some very nasty horror films; people being carved upwith chainsaws, having their throats ripped out etc. but the first flash of a ladies nipple or hint of sex and a parent would be out of their chair and have the telly off quicker than Linford Christie, and you would all be chased off to bed :rolleyes:
We are a strange little isle.

Wibbs

the purple tin wrote: »

It's a funny thing, but the irish parents in the old days used to let young children watch some very nasty horror films; people being carved upwith chainsaws, having their throats ripped out etc. but the first flash of a ladies nipple or hint of sex and a parent would be out of their chair and have the telly off quicker than Linford Christie, and you would all be chased off to bed :rolleyes:
We are a strange little isle.

Same with British parents in "the old days". Google Mary Whitehouse for how up in arms a goodly chunk of the British population were about "sex and violence" on TV and in film. Most of Europe was much more conservative "in the old days", not just Ireland. The US is still like that in many ways. Outside cable TVLand savage beatings and shootings fairly OK, the sight of an unfettered tit on the other hand will cause issue.

NasserShammaz

Anyone remember TV show 'man in a suitcase' used to be on in the afternoons (Thurs) I know this cause I bunked of double history every Thurs afternoon and watched it

Big Nasty

The Littlest Hobo

NasserShammaz

Big Nasty wrote: »

The Littlest Hobo

I see your littlest hobo (ahh the tune) and raise you the kids of degrassie street

Maybe tomorrow i'll finally settle down:P

The Crowman

the purple tin wrote: »

It's a funny thing, but the irish parents in the old days used to let young children watch some very nasty horror films; people being carved upwith chainsaws, having their throats ripped out etc. but the first flash of a ladies nipple or hint of sex and a parent would be out of their chair and have the telly off quicker than Linford Christie, and you would all be chased off to bed :rolleyes:
We are a strange little isle.

My parents let me stay up to watch the Today Tonight Video Nasties edition with graphic clips from movies exactly like that.

freddie1970

fryup wrote: »

that explains how i saw the Darby O'Gill & the little people in the Ormonde in Arklow back in the 80's

I seen Jaws on a projector in my school in tallaght ..it was shown in hall .back then there was no shops cinema or anything in tallaght

the purple tin

Wibbs wrote: »

Same with British parents in "the old days". Google Mary Whitehouse for how up in arms a goodly chunk of the British population were about "sex and violence" on TV and in film. Most of Europe was much more conservative "in the old days", not just Ireland. The US is still like that in many ways. Outside cable TVLand savage beatings and shootings fairly OK, the sight of an unfettered tit on the other hand will cause issue.

Oh yes I remember Mrs Whitehouse well, and the power she wielded. I heard that a small time b-movie horror director used to pose as a concerned parent and send his latest film to Mary to 'alert' her to it. She would watch it and then denounce it in the press as 'shocking filth' and 'deranged' etc which of course made loads of people want to see it. Free advertising
With all the video nasty scare in Britain though, we never had that here to the same extent.

The irish family would kneel around the room and say decades of the rosary and then sit down to watch Michael Myers gut teenagers with a carving knife. Contradiction or what?
I think the brits were a bit more open with sex back then; in those days nearly every pub in England would have a stripper in on Sunday afternoon. Could you imagine an irish pub trying that in those days? how long would it have lasted until the PP, the Guards and old biddy's brigade got involved?
Hell, the OBB are still picketing the opening of sex shops in this country.