Memories of the Celtic Tiger

To me it seems the recession started really properly around the time Bertie passed over power to Cowen. Obviously this pass over had little or nothing to do with it but it seems that’s when all the talk of it started - round the start of this summer.
My real question is though when did ye first hear of the ‘Celtic Tiger’. I’m not looking for a political or economic treatise on when or why it happened here.
More a personal thing of when you first heard people saying that the country was flying or when you first saw things that made you think things had changed and we were now a rich country. Or even when you first heard what was to become an annoying cliched phrase the ‘Celtic Tiger’.
Personally I can’t place it myself, went to Australia round the turn of the century and when I came back things had changed a fair bit. One concrete change I noticed was when I left Dublin in 99 all the spars, macdonalds etc were staffed almost exclusively by Dubs/Irish. When I returned in 03 to work the workers in these places were almost exclusively foreigners. That was a huge tangible change and must have been Celtic Tiger inspired.
Anyway what are yere personal memories of the start and end of the Celtic Tiger?

some FF goon attacking SF on questions & answers - the tone was that FF have given us the Celtic Tiger & that if the people voted SF we would be back to the dark days of recession

now we are in recession FF are blaming sub prime mortgages in the US

Cafe En Seine have tried a reverse psychology ploy with this recession lark and are now charging €10 into their bar at the weekend. Genius idea, there are lads queuing up to get in. €7 a pint once you get in.

Sure you’re making money by drinking in there.

Why anyone would pay to drink in that dive is beyond me.

well named that place.
and every bird i ever met in there was no more of a dub than myself.
they can keep it.

something very humorous about meeting lads who’ve been barred from a few of the pubs at home in jeans and a jacket swanning around in there.

I can remember hearing the phrase ‘Celtic Tiger’ being bandied about more and more around the time I was finishing school and starting college. Must check Wiki to see when it exactly originated. But it had no real impact on me personally as I went through college with fook all cash and then down the trainee accountant route, with its accompanying trainee wages, and didn’t really get a chance to publicly flaunt my wealth as I didn’t have any.

I saw you in Solas one night vulgarly buying drink and just throwing it on the ground while laughing your head off. Saw you burn a €50 note in front of a lounge girl aswell just for fun.

same carry on as this lad i would say

YouTube - Harry Enfield - Loadsamoney - I’ve Got Piles

Did you not know that Bandage is the Irish Frank Lampard - equally as fat as him at any rate.

Pretty much the same as, was in college during the boom years so permanently broke, then fecked off for a while, came back to a graduate role, was just about to start earning semi decent money and now it’s all been cruelly taken away.

I was like a Kenyan villager chasing a lion, only for the lion to turn around and bite my head off.

When a random pub starts charging in like that all of a sudden most seine (ha ha) people will say fook that and head eslewhere, but for the tossers who actually frequent that place having an entrance fee suddenly makes it more “exclusive”.

I was working in the States for a summer back in 1997. When I came back the term “Celtic Tiger” was been banded about. Can’t say for sure it was then but it’s the first time I took notice of the phrase.

Ah, that was fair enough. The lounge girl was telling us that she was from Uzbekistan and she was working over here to earn money to send back home so her little sister could have life saving heart surgery. So we decided to make fun of the bitch by burning fifties. Good clean fun.

Blowing your nose on a tenner bate all though Bandage.

That’s what I was thinking Locke. Some of the lads are thinking this millenium but I remember hearing the phrase in first or second year in college in 1997 or 98.

At that time it was more notional though and while things were going smoothly enough there was none of the hype about it - just people noticed less cutbacks and unemployment I guess.

I think Harney said something about Boston and suddenly Celtic Tiger became parlance

I think the rececession ended when people stopped looking at the job ads and started getting their chips delivered.

Serious questions to anyone who was knocking around Dublin and going out on the lash here in the mid 1990s or earlier pre-Celtic Tiger:

Is pretentious stuff like the champagne bar in Ron Black’s a product of the Celtic Tiger?

Or were there always knobs who went to equivalent places back in the day?

Has the scene changed in a natural manner as happens with different eras and places like this have cropped up as a result?

Or are these jumped up, self-important, champagne swilling, gimps holding court while also holding a copy of The Economist and talking scheidt about the deals they brokered today purely a phenomenon that came with the Celtic Tiger?

[quote=“Bandage”]Serious questions to anyone who was knocking around Dublin and going out on the lash here in the mid 1990s or earlier pre-Celtic Tiger:

Is pretentious stuff like the champagne bar in Ron Black’s a product of the Celtic Tiger?

Or were there always knobs who went to equivalent places back in the day?

Has the scene changed in a natural manner as happens with different eras and places like this have cropped up as a result?

Or are these jumped up, self-important, champagne swilling, gimps holding court while also holding a copy of The Economist and talking scheidt about the deals they brokered today purely a phenomenon that came with the Celtic Tiger?[/quote]

there was always knobs but there was less venues.

I think we drunk way more then to be honest. Also clubbing was better fun.

[quote=“Mairegangaire”]
Also clubbing was better fun.[/quote]

thats because you didn’t have to turn off your hearing aid going into the club like you do now…or lube up your hip with a heep of deep heat before you went dancing…

young people were probably more polite as well and respected their elders also…

and the line “if you didn’t want to dance why didn’t you bring your knitting” was all the rage

[quote=“The Puke”]thats because you didn’t have to turn off your hearing aid going into the club like you do now…or lube up your hip with a heep of deep heat before you went dancing…

young people were probably more polite as well and respected their elders also…

and the line “if you didn’t want to dance why didn’t you bring your knitting” was all the rage[/quote]

nah
there were slow sets then
also only us wimin wore the girdles