The 70's and 80's in Ireland

maccored

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

And mobiles were well late 90s.

I had a mobile in 94

ohnonotgmail

maccored wrote: »

I had a mobile in 94

they didnt become really mainstream until eircell launched their GSM service in 98 which is when i got my first mobile. It has the amazing ability to receive texts but not send them. I wasnt bothered by that as i knew that sms lark would never catch on.

storker

Wibbs wrote: »

Mobiles came from nowhere. From the house brick with an aerial very occasionally spotted in the 80's, then feck all until the mid 90's then by 2000 everyone and his dog had one. I knew a couple of people with pagers for work, but we largely bypassed them here as a private thing, unlike in the US where they were big for a time.

I remember the first time I made a call on one was 2002 and I was paranoid about waiting until nobody was around before calling. The first time I received a call on it I was so self-conscious I couldn't finish the call fast enough. "Yeahyeah okgrandthanks bye."

Mobiles got massive uptake from students in the late 97/98 onward.

Either BOI or AIB offered a deal when I went into college that when you opened an account I think you got a free phone.

I cant remember the exact details.

I just remember in school circa 1984 and on, we'd ask for "busty on ye" which means a prospective granny smith consumer, would take a few bites of his apple and then pass you the rest!!

Freddy mercury stopped all that!!!!:D

anyone with bleeding gums, (basically most kids) were virus carriers!!

ooohhh scary times!!:D

eviltimeban

97 is still the 90s.

I was on usenet newsgroups in 1992. And I had my first email account in 1994.

TheIrishGrover

Was born in 1972. From about the start of secondary school you pretty much assumed that you would have to leave the country to get a job.... Assuming the world wasn't nuked.

I remember when we got a colour TV (Well, remember renting a colour TV). Central heating consisted of a cat on yer bed. Remember when my sister rented a VCR in order to tape Live Aid and videotapes were about 6 quid each.

No phone but that was a decision by my father who didn't want one in the house so he wouldn't be called at home.... Was ahead of the curve there.

Lots of brown...... Everything was brown.

Yeah, it was pretty freakin' depressing. Nobody had a pot to p*ss in and don't believe all that "Ah but we were happy and everyone banded together" horsesh*te. It was miserable

TheIrishGrover

TheIrishGrover wrote: »

Was born in 1972. From about the start of secondary school you pretty much assumed that you would have to leave the country to get a job.... Assuming the world wasn't nuked.

I remember when we got a colour TV (Well, remember renting a colour TV). Central heating consisted of a cat on yer bed. Remember when my sister rented a VCR in order to tape Live Aid and videotapes were about 6 quid each.

No phone but that was a decision by my father who didn't want one in the house so he wouldn't be called at home.... Was ahead of the curve there.

Lots of brown...... Everything was brown.

Yeah, it was pretty freakin' depressing. Nobody had a pot to p*ss in and don't believe all that "Ah but we were happy and everyone banded together" horsesh*te. It was miserable

YEs all of this and AIDS!

bullpost

Wibbs wrote: »

That was my impression too, even at the time. There was a gulf between middle class Dubs and working class, but the gulf between Dublin/Cork/Galway and "The Country" was much larger. For one thing they were much more isolated from media. A captive audience. RTE was your lot as far as TV went(though radio gave you more)and if people think RTE today has a bias, bejesus it was more obvious then. A few years back I found an RTE Guide from the mid 70's and the references to the Church and input from priests in articles was eye opening. If you lived in Dublin or along the East coast, many people had either a dirty great aerial on their house, or had "the pipe" so you got the British TV channels which opened up your mental and cultural world. This tended to take away more of the Church and official state influence. There were fewer god botherers for a start. In the 80s when the satellite stuff was added to the mix again at the time I noticed a change in the cultural vibe.

Though it must be said, a lot of young people in places like Cork and Waterford were happy to bypass Dublin and head over to England to pick up their music, clothes , sport and other necessities. The ferries made this possible.

the purple tin

begbysback wrote: »

There was no drugs & people drank moderately?

No, drugs were around in Ireland since the 60's esp in Dublin. Heroin became a big problem in the 70's and 80's.
The introduction of heroin to ireland was more or less down to one Dublin drug dealer, a real scumbag. I can't remember his name but he just got released from prison about a year or two ago, and went abroad I think.


As for the drink, people were still getting pissed back then, my father split his time between work, pub and bookies and home in that order.

swimming in a sea

One thing i remember from the 80's was visiting relatives, we had no phone and neither did a lot of others so you often turned up at their home and they were simply not in and we had no way of knowing when they would be back. The void of information is unthinkable now.

eviltimeban

Sean Lock's "great British Sunday" show is pretty accurate about what it was like in the 70s and 80s. Relevant to Ireland as well.

https://dai.ly/x2g68h0

Franz Von Peppercorn

eviltimeban wrote: »

97 is still the 90s. :

The decade in general didn’t have much going on technology wise though.

I was on usenet newsgroups in 1992. And I had my first email account in 1994.

All 10-20 years old technology at that stage.

orangerhyme

begbysback wrote: »

There was no drugs & people drank moderately?

I mean in the rural west.
I know there was a heroin problem in Dublin but certainly not in the rural west.
Weed, coke etc were also confined to cities.

Now drugs are in every village and town.

People didn't drink to get drunk, it was to socialize.
There wasn't so many shots, cocktails, jaegerbombs etc.
People most drank Porter and beer, whiskey. Obviously you had drunks and hard drinking but not to the same level.
You didn't see the mayhem you see on the streets nowadays.

The Crowman

Anyone remember this?

"My name is Rashers, see?
I've had these flashes, see?
About the natural taste of bacon like it used to be!"

jimmytwotimes 2013

Snapping off the tab on a VHS and sellotaping back over it when you regretted that decision and needed to record something.

freddie1970

whitey1 wrote: »

Haha....remember people used to plug the TV put every night before going to bed

The state of ya man in the add..He looks in his forties but living and dressing like a old man ..40 was very old back then

Electric Sheep

Unemployed young men spending all day every day standing on the corner of the square in our village, because there was simply nothing else to day. Except Tuesdays, when they got their dole and spent all day in the pub. It was a miserable existence really.

Shotgun weddings and couples living with parents if they had room, or in a dilapidated caravan out the back while waiting to be allocated a council house. How many couples married only because of a pregnancy and lived the rest of their lives in regret?

Credit was unavailable to most. I remember "money clubs" at work. Each member would put in 5 pounds per week, and each week one member received the whole sum. It was one way to save.

A hen party was going for a couple of drinks with your female friends.

The Crowman

Those projector slides in Irish that you'd be forced to sit through in primary school. The artwork for the slide panels was fecking brutal.

storker

Hall's Pictorial Weekly

Electric Sheep

storker wrote: »

Hall's Pictorial Weekly

That was one of the few bright points of the time. Incredibly funny. Sad that there are so very few copies in existence.

Franz Von Peppercorn

orangerhyme wrote: »

People didn't drink to get drunk, it was to socialize.

Well that’s horsepoo.

This thread is full of nostalgia or anti nostalgia.

Grandeeod

orangerhyme wrote: »

I mean in the rural west.
I know there was a heroin problem in Dublin but certainly not in the rural west.
Weed, coke etc were also confined to cities.

Now drugs are in every village and town.

People didn't drink to get drunk, it was to socialize.
There wasn't so many shots, cocktails, jaegerbombs etc.
People most drank Porter and beer, whiskey. Obviously you had drunks and hard drinking but not to the same level.
You didn't see the mayhem you see on the streets nowadays.

The filth eventually spread to the regions. While Dublin had a Heroin problem in the 80s, addicts weren't stumbling around all over the place. Had it been tackled then, it wouldn't be such an issue these days. The 80s were a formative time for Heroin and it's gangland suppliers. The state failed to recognize it's emergence and deal with it. The reaction was based on poverty, disadvantaged etc. etc. All social justice bollocks that continues to this day.

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

We’ll that’s horsepoo.

This thread is full of nostalgia or anti nostalgia.

Hey Franz. WTF are you trying to say? In the 70s/80s/90s, people drank to socialize. My own father was an every night drinker who had two or three pints in his local with neighbours. They chatted and came home. He took my Mam out twice a week to the cinema and a drink afterwards. In my adult years of the 90s and early noughties, we went for a drink to socialize. These days its just filled with rampant binge drinking, Facebook/Social media crap, fights about nothing and the inevitable unfriending on Social media. All generations are guilty of it too. I'm hitting the late 40s soon and feel so despondent at being in a pub at the weekend looking at my own generation acting the bollox like they are teenagers with the phones out checking in, posting sh1te, selfies etc. and not actually having a decent chat over a few drinks.

Grandeeod

storker wrote: »

Hall's Pictorial Weekly

The Minister for Hardship.:D

dxhound2005

This video is from England, but I remember stuff like this in Ireland as well. Proper football supporters.

Sgt Hartman

Bouffant bubble perms and those awful glasses with the huge rectangular lenses seemed to be quite popular among women then, especially those over 30.
Men at that age also let their appearances go horrifically. They started dressing like old men and made no effort with their hair, especially if they were starting to go bald. They would just let big tufts of hair grow out at the sides with bald patches on the top and/or back of the head. Looking and dressing like an old person after 30, I just couldn't imagine it now.

The Crowman

Sgt Hartman wrote: »

Bouffant bubble perms and those awful glasses with the huge rectangular lenses seemed to be quite popular among women then, especially those over 30.
Men at that age also let their appearances go horrifically. They started dressing like old men and made no effort with their hair, especially if they were starting to go bald. They would just let big tufts of hair grow out at the sides with bald patches on the top and/or back of the head. Looking and dressing like an old person after 30, I just couldn't imagine it now.

The Deirdre Barlow look. They'd make even the most attractive woman look frumpy.

orangerhyme

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

We’ll that’s horsepoo.

This thread is full of nostalgia or anti nostalgia.

I was just a child in the 80's so I could be wrong but this is what people from that generation told me.

People certainly drank a lot and got drunk but binge drinking not so much.
People went to the pub instead of "predrinking", so there was a sense of control.
You drink slower and less in a pub than at home and bar staff control your behavior and drinking.

People went to the pub to socialize cos there was no other way.

It's harder to get blackout-out-of-control drunk on Porter and beer than it is on shots and other spirits that people drink more these days.

Franz Von Peppercorn

Grandeeod wrote: »

Hey Franz. WTF are you trying to say? In the 70s/80s/90s, people drank to socialize. My own father was an every night drinker who had two or three pints in his local with neighbours. They chatted and came home. He took my Mam out twice a week to the cinema and a drink afterwards. In my adult years of the 90s and early noughties, we went for a drink to socialize. These days its just filled with rampant binge drinking, Facebook/Social media crap, fights about nothing and the inevitable unfriending on Social media. All generations are guilty of it too. I'm hitting the late 40s soon and feel so despondent at being in a pub at the weekend looking at my own generation acting the bollox like they are teenagers with the phones out checking in, posting sh1te, selfies etc. and not actually having a decent chat over a few drinks.

There were alcoholics falling out of pubs all the time in that era. There were all day drinkers in every rural and city local. And it’s nonsense to say people didn’t get drunk in the 90’s.

And drinking every day is fairly problematic.

Purple Mountain

Penny sweets actually cost a penny!

orangerhyme

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

There were alcoholics falling out of pubs all the time in that era. There were all day drinkers in every rural and city local. And it’s nonsense to say people didn’t get drunk in the 90’s.

And drinking every day is fairly problematic.

I'm not saying there wasn't alcoholics and problem drinkers, I'd imagine there was the same as today, but social drinkers didn't drink to the same extent.
Like I said I could be wrong but people from that generation have told me that.

Fann Linn

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

There were alcoholics falling out of pubs all the time in that era. There were all day drinkers in every rural and city local. And it’s nonsense to say people didn’t get drunk in the 90’s.

And drinking every day is fairly problematic.

Furstenburg, Holsten Pils, Satzenbrau, Guinness light. Memories of being a lounge boy in the 70s/80s

I had a great few fun years in early 80s, learning to fly an airplane solo, being able to afford to do that on my small salary because I was living at home with parents, and with the flying club being run by the famous Captain Darby Kennedy (who died a couple of years ago aged 101) who did not do so to support a luxury lifestyle. He had an old rusty banger of a car, etc, and put any minimaknorofit back into keeping the students flying. There was even an unemployed man who learned to fly there. People from all over the world were part of the flying club and its instructors, even the local parish priest was an instructor. So for me the time was as colourful as anybody can imagine!

archer22

Sgt Hartman wrote: »

Bouffant bubble perms and those awful glasses with the huge rectangular lenses seemed to be quite popular among women then, especially those over 30.
Men at that age also let their appearances go horrifically. They started dressing like old men and made no effort with their hair, especially if they were starting to go bald. They would just let big tufts of hair grow out at the sides with bald patches on the top and/or back of the head. Looking and dressing like an old person after 30, I just couldn't imagine it now.

It was very socially unacceptable back then to close crop or shave your head.
You would be viewed with suspicion by all and sundry and you might have difficulty getting a job or even getting served in pubs.
I used to often close crop my hair as a young guy and many times was stopped at the doors of discos because of it.
It sounds bizarre now as close cropped is the norm...but that's how it was back then.

swimming in a sea

swimming in a sea wrote: »

One thing i remember from the 80's was visiting relatives, we had no phone and neither did a lot of others so you often turned up at their home and they were simply not in and we had no way of knowing when they would be back. The void of information is unthinkable now.

As a teenager in the 70s I used to love the surprise of relatives and people calling without warning, but I’m sure my poor mother didn’t as she had to rummage for something in the fridge, in an era of expensive and poor quality food. The standard thing in stock were slices of ham, jars of beetroot and pickles, and eggs to boil, and maybe tinned potatoes to make Russian potato salad to accompany this culinary glory. Sometimes when stocks had run out, I was quietly sent to local shops to buy an emergency dinner supply. At best a bottle of Blue Nun might accompany this treat, said bottle having been brought by visiting relative of it were likes if Christmas time. Of course it never got near a fridge to chill. Failing presence of the liebfraumilch, visitors would have been given sherry, Babysham, or a very daring gin & tonic, and that or second glass would be brought to table. Dessert would have been trifle around Christmas, or a slice of appalling boxed Gateaux cake, latter more likely brought by the visitor instead of the wine. Coffee invariably out of a jar, unless you went out to Bewleys; but tea could be surprisingly good back then and as a kid, in 60s, even sampled Chinese Lapsang Soochong, bought from a speciality store.

archer22

archer22 wrote: »

It was very socially unacceptable back then to close crop or shave your head.
You would be viewed with suspicion by all and sundry and you might have difficulty getting a job or even getting served in pubs.
I used to often close crop my hair as a young guy and many times was stopped at the doors of discos because of it.
It sounds bizarre now as close cropped is the norm...but that's how it was back then.[/quote

I remember my parents talking in fear of “the skinheads”. Fashion statement of ultra right wing anti-social types then, so people feared it. But of course the anti-social types were acting out too, and went around in gangs. Prior to that, in the 60s I heard my father exclaiming from his driving seat in the car “look, more Teddy Boys!” and as a wee kid I thought he was referring to teddy bears!

orangerhyme

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

Well that’s horsepoo.

This thread is full of nostalgia or anti nostalgia.

http://www.drugs.ie/resourcesfiles/research/2007/3863-4118.pdf

Read the above link. It doesn't quite settle the argument but it certainly suggests alcohol consumption has increased dramatically since the 80's.

" Alcohol consumption per adult increased from 9.8 litres of pure alcohol in 1987 to a
high of 14.3 litres in 2001, a 46% increase. The period of the most rapid change was from
the mid 1990s to 2001."

I honestly think young women drank far less back then.
Also people married younger so drank less. Also less disposable income.
Im sure theres many other factors at play.

The Crowman

archer22 wrote: »

It was very socially unacceptable back then to close crop or shave your head.
You would be viewed with suspicion by all and sundry and you might have difficulty getting a job or even getting served in pubs.
I used to often close crop my hair as a young guy and many times was stopped at the doors of discos because of it.
It sounds bizarre now as close cropped is the norm...but that's how it was back then.

Indeed, the only people you'd see with shaved heads were Hare Krishnas or punks/skinheads.

Big Nasty

Baileborough Milk

iguana

Wibbs wrote: »

True. Like I mentioned earlier I had "the internet" at home in '94 and I knew very very few people who had it, outside people who needed it for business/education. Mates would come and look at it and ooh and aah in wonder. A few had PC's at home by the mid 90's, only the very flush had Apple kit as it was very expensive. PC's were pretty expensive as it was. The Sinclairs, Commodores and the like of the late 70's early 80's home computer rage were in the 100-200 quid mark. Not cheap, but the desktop PC we think of now was at least double that and more likely triple. IIRC an Apple SE30 was nigh on 2000 punts.

We definitely had a decent PC at home in 95. We didn't have the internet though as we didn't actually get a phone until late 96. Internet cafes had become a thing though as I spent plenty of time and money in 95 discussing Babylon 5 theories.

JupiterKid

If this public service announcement appeared on your telly back in the 70s or 80s you knew it was time to get those iodine tablets ready...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNVMm2KpiDI

Count Down

I was 12 in 1972 and my memories of the 1970s early 1980s were high unemployment, high inflation and emigration.
How did we manage without mobile phones? We didn't! If you were meeting someone and they didn't turn up, you made other arrangements or cancelled whatever activity you had arranged.
Buses had conductors who collected the fares, and got very grumpy if you gave him a fiver for a 50p fare. I used to say to them "What's the problem, can't you count?"
All our towns nd cities were filthy, litter everywhere and buildings grimy with traffic fumes.
Cassette tapes were all the rage, especially in cars and no remote controls for the TV. You had to get up and press the buttons! And only 4 channels!
To start your car from cold you had to use the 'choke'.
No Green Party, pollution was the norm, polluted rivers and lakes not to mention the air.
And nearly everyone walked everywhere or got on your bike and played football on the local green or street. Obesity was rare.
When you left school you got a job, no arsing around with third level.
And when a kid misbehaved he got a clout and/or a good hiding and it did him no harm.

Plopsu

kyote00 wrote: »

fizzle sticks

I would take out a busload of grannies to get hold of a box of Fizzle Sticks. Chewy in the summer, like a stick of delicious chalk in the winter.

Pod123

Car reg made no sense and hard to work out what year it was.
If a car broke down it was towed by another car no breakdown trucks.
Front gates had to be opened manually no automatic gates.
Cars were smaller.
No mobile phone only a landline so if you told your friend what time and place to meet you would be there. People were better time keepers.
There was a man in our area who cycled the roads keeping the drains opened with a shovel and “slashers”.
You would get the kettle repaired with a new element.
Tv’s had a tube in them which made them big and awkward a two person lift.
Tv would start at four in the evening and finish about twelve at Night approx.
Tupperware parties.
If you had something made by Krups it lasted and they could repair it. Krups was a electrical factory in limerick.
Green shield stamps.
Petrol strikes.
One car only in front of houses
Garda cars were much plainer in blue colour no reflector stripes.
Getting pictures developed in the chemist after a wait of two weeks.
On a Farming front-
Brass cattle tags.
You could run cattle on the roads from farm to fields.
You could have more/less blue cards then the amount of stock you had.
There would be more men in the meadows then machinery.
No calendar farming.
More buying power from a bullock sold in the factory.
Square F.xxking bales of hay😢😢
Finger bar.
I think I will stop now but I was born in the 70s and really enjoy the memories people have posted about this era.
Thanks to all who have posted.

Plopsu

Has anybody mentioned pirate radio? Non stop music stations that weren't obliged to devote 25% of their time to the pointless witterings of DJs.
If you lived in Dublin and were under 20, you listened to NOVA (which was nothing like it's current incarnation).

Nearly forgot: movies used to stay in the cinema for way longer. I think six weeks was a standard run and way longer if it was popular.

Grandeeod

Plopsu wrote: »

Has anybody mentioned pirate radio? Non stop music stations that weren't obliged to devote 25% of their time to the pointless witterings of DJs.
If you lived in Dublin and were under 20, you listened to NOVA (which was nothing like it's current incarnation).

Nearly forgot: movies used to stay in the cinema for way longer. I think six weeks was a standard run and way longer if it was popular.

And Radio Nova even had its own Nightclub - Nova Park. Bob Galico, the newsreader with his American Twang.:D

Pod123

Afew more
Aluminium windows
A house extension was usually done with a flat felt roof with a life time guarantee!!
A better a+e if people remember Barringtons in limerick.
People wearing neck collars after a car crash.
Beads in the drivers seat to support your back and reduce sweating.
Car seat covers.
A tablet is what you got from the Doctor!!
Keep them coming.

Wibbs

Count Down wrote: »

No Green Party, pollution was the norm, polluted rivers and lakes not to mention the air.

For all that and speaking as someone who has been flyfishing since I wasn't far from being a toddler, rivers outside towns and cities were in better health in the 70's and 80's. The fly life was more diverse. Nowadays it's less so in many places, even though rivers may look cleaner. Fish farms in estuaries have also hit migratory fish like salmon and seatrout hard, very hard in some river systems. And so many think them a "green" solution.

the purple tin

Fashion was brutal as was said but most men didn't buy there own clothes; Mammy bought your clothes until you started working and could afford your own. Then when you got married at about 19 or 20, your wife took over from Mammy and started buying your clothes for you.
Some old fellas still get their wives to do all their clothes shopping for them.

gnarbarian

Ursus Horribilis wrote: »

I'm from the countryside and at worst, people had an outdoor toilet. I can only think of one house where they had no toilet and it was owned by a fella who was a bit useless anyway.

Yeah I remember going to my grandad's every sunday in the 80's, he lived rurally and I always found it very odd that I had to go out of the house and run across the garden to use the outside loo