Stories from the Celtic Tiger Years *Mod Warning in OP PLEASE READ*

The Davestator

Randy Archer wrote: »

Those arguments actually concern the Celtic Tiger, those topics led to its down fall and why the country got so Un competitive . Perhaps if those who did complain and shout stop were listened to back then (there were plenty of voices but they got shouted down by people like you whinging about causing trouble and ruining a nice time ) things might have faired better

Being blamed on the global financial crisis now :):)

if you don't have a decent story, move along, no one is interested in discussing the blame game for the end of the Celtic tiger more than a decade later.

Sebastian Dangerfield

pgj2015 wrote: »

one thing i remember about laboring was you would go to bed at night and be asleep in id say 10 seconds.

I'd delivered coal and briquettes, hauled kegs around pub store rooms etc, but nothing ever hit me quite like my first day on a site labouring, and all I was doing was sweeping and moving rubble around the place. I went home, had my dinner and a shower, and went straight to bed with pains in places I didnt even know I had. Nearly cried when I was woken for work the next day It was grand after a week or two, when I'd gotten used to it and learned all the good places to hide.

No matter how much more I've earned since, nothing quite matched the feeling of a sunny Friday evening, wages fresh in the pocket and a town full of pint bottles to be drank.

Actually that brings me to another Celtic Tiger bad practise - if I was tight for cash Monday -to Thursday (which I inevitably was after the mother took the contribution, phone credit, brylcreem and Lynx was bought and I drank my face off Friday to Sunday) the local would throw out a few pound out of the till, and take it back out of the next cheque that was inevitably cashed there. Where I drank often depended on where the money was owed - you might keep away from a particular place on a weekend if you had a particularly big expense coming up. Some lads used to joke if they ever robbed the pub, they'd leave the stock / till and take the book all this stuff was noted in, it'd be more valuable to them.

partyguinness

Sebastian Dangerfield wrote: »

Actually that brings me to another Celtic Tiger bad practise - if I was tight for cash Monday -to Thursday (which I inevitably was after the mother took the contribution, phone credit, brylcreem and Lynx was bought and I drank my face off Friday to Sunday) the local would throw out a few pound out of the till, and take it back out of the next cheque that was inevitably cashed there. Where I drank often depended on where the money was owed - you might keep away from a particular place on a weekend if you had a particularly big expense coming up. Some lads used to joke if they ever robbed the pub, they'd leave the stock / till and take the book all this stuff was noted in, it'd be more valuable to them.

There was a local in my town just like that. They loved cashing cheques on a Friday and lashing out the pints at 5pm. Deeply cynical. A lot of these young lads were already on the road to alcoholism and could barely write their own name.

Ironically, the pub owners are complete non drinkers.

Claw Hammer

If that pub didn't do it, another one would. If the pubs didn't do it, the bookie would. Youngsters with more money than sense are prey to all sorts of activity. I blame the parents.

Sebastian Dangerfield

Claw Hammer wrote: »

If that pub didn't do it, another one would. If the pubs didn't do it, the bookie would. Youngsters with more money than sense are prey to all sorts of activity. I blame the parents.

My mother did her best to stop publicans taking money off me, by taking it herself first

I'm assured it was redistributed throughout the college year that came after, but I have my doubts.

BattleCorp

Claw Hammer wrote: »

If that pub didn't do it, another one would. If the pubs didn't do it, the bookie would. Youngsters with more money than sense are prey to all sorts of activity. I blame the parents.

Ah yeah. Just so long as there is no personal responsibility. We can't have personal responsibility nowadays.

Necro

The Davestator wrote: »

Being blamed on the global financial crisis now :):)

if you don't have a decent story, move along, no one is interested in discussing the blame game for the end of the Celtic tiger more than a decade later.

Mod:

Folks report posts don't react, user was threadbanned ages ago for similar stuff.

Thread cleaned up now back on topic please.

timple23

One of the more interested jobs I had was working labouring in a place owned by a millionaire one day fencing. There were shrubs in the way of where the machine needed to drive stakes. This was 30/40 ft up an embankment. I think it was 500m of shrubs, every one was pulled by hand and carried down by hand, walked up another 30ft bank where they were temporarily sot to keep them alive. Phone said I walked over 20km that day, it was all either climbing or going down a bank, never done a harder days work since and I've done some 20hr days. 2 full days or work, just moving the plants, cost probably near 1k as machinery had to be brought in to water them over a few days. They were then all replanted in original place.

This was done during a heatwave. Every single plant died.

John_Rambo

Lots of reasons why there were a lot of buff and ripped youngfella's knocking around during the tiger!!

razorblunt

timple23 wrote: »

One of the more interested jobs I had was working labouring in a place owned by a millionaire one day fencing. There were shrubs in the way of where the machine needed to drive stakes. This was 30/40 ft up an embankment. I think it was 500m of shrubs, every one was pulled by hand and carried down by hand, walked up another 30ft bank where they were temporarily sot to keep them alive. Phone said I walked over 20km that day, it was all either climbing or going down a bank, never done a harder days work since and I've done some 20hr days. 2 full days or work, just moving the plants, cost probably near 1k as machinery had to be brought in to water them over a few days. They were then all replanted in original place.

This was done during a heatwave. Every single plant died.

A friend of mine used to do a bit of labouring back then too he told us a story of building a wallled driveway for a guy in the construction game himself who was off in Marbella for 6 weeks over the summer. They arrived with the stonemason who advised that the measurements looked a bit "tight". It was confirmed the house owner himself measured it up so off they went to work. Finished the job over the next few days and rang the builder who asked them to "take the car from the garage to make sure it can fit".
It was an A8 or 6 Series, I think. It had absolutely no hope of fitting.

"Grand, send the lads home for the day, knock it and tell them come back tomorrow to rebuild it".

KevRossi

Back around 2005 a stonemason from our area was doing work on a wall outside a house near us. Car stops, driver compliments him on the quality of the job and asked would be be able to do something similar on his house. "Yes, but I'm fully booked out for about another year". Driver of the car offered him an extra €15K cash on top of his normal fee for what would be 3 weeks work, if he started in a couple of weeks. Agreed. Then asked him where he got the stone, stonemason gave him a piece of the stone, told him which quarry to go to and who to ask for.

3 weeks later, almost finished the job he's on, he rang the guy about the details for the job; turns out it was in Bedfordshire. He was told the hotel etc. would be booked, so he flew over and the stone was already dumped in front of the house. When the stonemason said it looks exactly like the Irish stone, down to the seams, the home owner told him that he had 4 truckloads shipped over from that exact quarry to make sure it was the right stone. It was a local man who made good in the UK and wanted a bit of 'home' for sentimental reasons.

Marty Xavier

Good story, I think that's ok all in all, a bit mad but harmless. Good stonemasons are hard to come by. The guy that did my house last year is a genius. Everyone remarks on the stonework.

partyguinness

timple23 wrote: »

One of the more interested jobs I had was working labouring in a place owned by a millionaire one day fencing. There were shrubs in the way of where the machine needed to drive stakes. This was 30/40 ft up an embankment. I think it was 500m of shrubs, every one was pulled by hand and carried down by hand, walked up another 30ft bank where they were temporarily sot to keep them alive. Phone said I walked over 20km that day, it was all either climbing or going down a bank, never done a harder days work since and I've done some 20hr days. 2 full days or work, just moving the plants, cost probably near 1k as machinery had to be brought in to water them over a few days. They were then all replanted in original place.

This was done during a heatwave. Every single plant died.

Ah come on...phones circa 2002- 2007 didnt have that technology. I had my first mobile in 1999 and kept up to date unless there a phone out there that passed me by.

blackwhite

partyguinness wrote: »

Ah come on...phones circa 2002- 2007 didnt have that technology. I had my first mobile in 1999 and kept up to date unless there a phone out there that passed me by.

I had a Sony phone around that time which had a pedometer - think it might have been walkman branded.

ELM327

blackwhite wrote: »

I had a Sony phone around that time which had a pedometer - think it might have been walkman branded.

Yeah but you need something to count the steps, not to keep the pedos away

Strip club circa 2007..
2 young lads from the Central Bank..
Spending.

heldel00

Marty Xavier wrote: »

Good story, I think that's ok all in all, a bit mad but harmless. Good stonemasons are hard to come by. The guy that did my house last year is a genius. Everyone remarks on the stonework.

We had to wait 7 yrs for our original stonemason to come back and do another job for us. People kept saying to just get somebody else but in my mind it's like handwriting, every stonemason has their own style.
Worth the wait though.

Ubbquittious

timple23 wrote: »

One of the more interested jobs I had was working labouring in a place owned by a millionaire one day fencing. There were shrubs in the way of where the machine needed to drive stakes. This was 30/40 ft up an embankment. I think it was 500m of shrubs, every one was pulled by hand and carried down by hand, walked up another 30ft bank where they were temporarily sot to keep them alive. Phone said I walked over 20km that day, it was all either climbing or going down a bank, never done a harder days work since and I've done some 20hr days. 2 full days or work, just moving the plants, cost probably near 1k as machinery had to be brought in to water them over a few days. They were then all replanted in original place.

This was done during a heatwave. Every single plant died.

Should have tied a long rope to all the shrubs and one end of it onto the helicopter and taken off. You can't bate the auld helicopter for removing shrubbery from awkward places really

McGinniesta

I took an accounting job with a financial institution (that shall remain unnamed) just before the banking crisis started.

When the proverbial hit the fan, they looked to the wage bill to cut costs as companies will.

However, they discovered a snag that prevented a lot of the staff from losing their jobs. A lot of staff members were offered large mortgages on relatively modest salaries. A lot of staff on 30k-35k had 200k + mortgages. What they discovered was that the savings in wages would have resulted in an estimated 150 million euro worth of mortgage writedowns.

Ubbquittious

McGinniesta wrote: »

I took an accounting job with a financial institution (that shall remain unnamed) just before the banking crisis started.

When the proverbial hit the fan, they looked to the wage bill to cut costs as companies will.

However, they discovered a snag that prevented a lot of the staff from losing their jobs. A lot of staff members were offered large mortgages on relatively modest salaries. A lot of staff on 30k-35k had 200k + mortgages. What they discovered was that the savings in wages would have resulted in an estimated 150 million euro worth of mortgage writedowns.

Ha! Serves em right the phooqqers

McGinniesta

Ubbquittious wrote: »

Ha! Serves em right the phooqqers

That was only the tip of the iceberg.

It was a real mess.