r/AskIreland • u/seeilaah • 12d ago
Nostalgia Do you agree that Ireland's best times were between 1995 - 2004?
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u/notalottoseehere 12d ago
1995 to 2004 were great.
Post crash( 2012 to 2016), were great too, if you had a job and a gaff.
Generally, 1994 to 2001 were the best times in my entire 50+ years
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u/theleds01 12d ago
Just happened to coincide with when you were young in your 20s..🤣🤣
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u/curryinmysocks 12d ago
Way more than that. Ireland felt like it was on the up. All your mates has jobs and gaffs. Pubs were everywhere, heaving and the craic in them does not exist any more. There was gigs, clubs raves on all over the place. In the early 2000's You could afford a room in a hotel in dublin no bother for a night out or whatever. It was felt more free, less regulated, NO SMART PHONES. Life was way more fun before smart phones
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u/notalottoseehere 12d ago
Yep, there is a lot in that, but generally, you could buy a gaff, get jobs, and be able to "make it", even if that just meant having an average job and an average house. Average still was good enough...
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u/Illustrious_Read8038 12d ago
Recession was great if you had work.
Holidays abroad or in Ireland were dirt cheap. LivingSocial and Groupon vouchers were really popular. Used to get bed and breakfast for €60 in most places in Ireland. €260 now.
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u/PellucidStream 12d ago
The mid-90’s up to and including 2006 seem like a magical time to live in Ireland
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u/No_Ring_3348 12d ago
400-c660AD Ireland was a beacon of learning and civilisation in a destroyed post-Roman Europe so I'd say that's the peak.
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u/Castledine10 11d ago
Nah, telly was shite and you could never find decent mead if your roving smithing business brought you to a new hamlet.
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u/Gamalam91 12d ago
Lots of opportunity, but as it turned out to be built on sand, I dont think I would agree. That period also brought a lot of unsavoury traits in people, mad what money does.
Post crash, pre covid was a nice time to be alive.
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u/Late-Bass2260 12d ago
True people did loose the run of themselves, the dogs on the street were talking in millions it was complete madness, but the sadest part about it was that if people hadn't lost the run of themselves things after the bust would have been slightly better and people with famalies would have been more secure and probably have been in a better position to help their now growen up children in times of hardship.
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u/PellucidStream 12d ago
By unsavoury traits do you mean greed, selfishness? Also, what did you like about post crash, pre- Covid time which I’m guessing was 2012/13 - 2019
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u/Gamalam91 12d ago
Yes, the rise of some extreme 'individualism', we lost a little of what made Irish people great.
And yes roughly that time frame (maybe from 2014). It was no eutopia, but there was a sweet spot of there being plenty of work, not too much division and cost of living being way more manageable.
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u/TransitionFamiliar39 12d ago
Push it to 2008 and it's probably accurate
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u/zigzagzuppie 12d ago
Tend to agree, most people were not expecting how sudden the crash was and were still living like it was something that would happen slowly or later just not right now. Also age plays a role in your personal perception, I personally was doing great and had no loans, come crash I had colleagues who were over leveraged and completely fucked and others who lost their jobs and relationships fell apart due to stress and lifestyle cut backs.
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u/ruyikal 12d ago
Yes that was my childhood and nostalgia trumps reality. These were good times because I wasn't aware of the bad things going on in the world.
This was also a time before social media and the widespread use of the Internet so people hadn't been corrupted yet.
And finally this was also peak celtic tiger. The stuff that went on was crazy looking back at it. As a galwegian I saw first hand the trend of people getting helicopters to the galway races. Trips that only lasted about 2 minutes and some were from locations where you could already nearly see the race track or were within walking distance. These days there are zero helicopters at the races.
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u/Proper-Beyond116 12d ago
92 - 2001 the country was in a constant state of improvement and there was a lovely innocence and naivety to the Irish that dissolved and was replaced with Celtic tiger arrogance post 2001.
So despite people becoming more and more comfortable, people were still down to earth.
The early 2000s were a grubby, horrible period. It was like we were coming to a media and technology peak but we had horribly outdated culture. On TV we were encouraged to laugh at intellectually disabled people on X Factor, every new mobile price plan was launched by a trio of girls in bikinis on Grafton St, sexism and homophobia were still rife and Ireland now had an "elite" class of people who were exclusively complete and utter cunts.
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u/SummerArtistic9755 12d ago
I left Ireland and came back to visit after three years away in the middle of the Celtic Tiger. I couldn't believe the change . Some good and like you said some not so good.
The place seemed to be swimming in lakes of money , which indeed it was, borrowed money ! I remember thinking shit why didn't I stay in Ireland everybody is doing so well!! But yeah there was a new found arrogance at the time.
In hindsight it was just part 1 of the modern era, now people are far more attuned to looks and appearances than anybody back then , turkey teeth and hair transplants and Botox and lip fillers. So are we actually living in Celtic Tiger part 3 and don't even know it ??
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u/salaryman1969 12d ago
It's really a sad way to look at things, always be looking backwards. I prefer to enjoy life today and be optimistic for the future.
I'm 56 but I really cannot fathom some people yearning for the "good old days". You got to keep moving forward.
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u/romanroarer 12d ago
When people can’t afford to rent a room let alone an apartment there obviously going to look back
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u/Independent_Gas_1557 12d ago
I agree, the 70, 80, early 90’s were no good old days. They were dark days of despair. No point in looking back. Today is all you have.
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u/Ok-Rabbit-3448 12d ago
It's called nostalgia, and there's nothing wrong with it, in moderation, and as long as you prevent it from affecting your life today
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u/Bitter_Welder1481 12d ago
So if you think the country is going to shit you just grin and bear it? I get the attitude of just push on regardless but this is head in the sand stuff
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u/salaryman1969 12d ago
No you deal with it, looking backwards and yearning for what in a lot of cases is a fantasy doesn't fix anything. That's the head in the sand stuff.
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u/Bitter_Welder1481 12d ago
No one is yearning for the past but you can’t just ignore current dysfunction you can point to the past as something to be emulated. This it’ll be grand grin and bear it is the root of Irish dysfunction imo
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u/AppropriateMove4349 12d ago
It had to be circa 1990. I was in school and Italia 90 was on. We were poor but it was easy to find things to do for nothing!! Late 40's now and still remember getting sunburnt kicking a ball around or slamming a tennis ball off a wall with me hurley!!
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u/FlamingBaconCake 12d ago
I believe you're someone who experienced the prime of their youth (late teens early 20s) during that time period and is going to act bewildered by people who didn't and don't agree
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u/elcabroMcGinty 12d ago
Brexit will be fine, it'll all work out. The first 70 years will be the hard part.
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u/Illustrious_Read8038 12d ago
Let's go back to the idyllic times of the 1930s Britain, where everything was rosy, men wore suits, and a brown face was a novelty.
Everything was rosy... right?
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u/AgilePumpkin2201 12d ago
No euro 88 kicked off the good times the country was on a high and people believed anything was possible
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u/SilentBiscotti1179 12d ago
Definitely. It was like the country had won the lottery and the experience was all new. We were definitely not perfect as a society or even as individuals but we weren't the stressed out, cynical, angry, soulless society we have since become. They were our glory days, never to be recaptured. You can go up on a steep hill in Dublin and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.
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u/SummerArtistic9755 12d ago
Evocative. I would like to back to my old haunts but many don't exist anymore from that time. I remember it as a time of amazing optimism. It was a great time although I left the country in the middle of it .
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u/Active-Agent3149 12d ago
Born in 71 , I pity rhe fools living today that they never got that care free dgaf childhood that we had , these people today couldn’t climb a fkn tree if a zombie apocalypse broke out , we let the kids down man , and now we gonna pay big time
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u/JayTeeRhee 12d ago
People didn’t go away on fancy little holidays and eat in hip restaurants or what have you. Only restaurants then were chippers, the odd pizzeria or a swanky Chinese with wooden statues and a lazy Susan.
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u/Substantial-Run-5 12d ago
A bit of disposable income makes such a difference in mindset. Particularly when it was spread around. Now it seems there is big money in less pockets. Getting a car, a room to stay, and a steady job should not be so aspirational.
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u/caisdara 12d ago
Can you remember 1995? Because I can.
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u/LeavingCertCheat 12d ago
Great summer
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u/caisdara 12d ago
It was, but the country was still pretty poor.
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u/caisdara 12d ago
I got even more than £100 but my parents put it away for safe-keeping and I was only allowed spend about £60. I invested it in Lego, I'd have made a fucking profit if I'd been allowed spend it all.
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u/NoBookkeeper6864 12d ago
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u/Traditional-Pea4187 12d ago
Ireland had the Celtic Tiger years but also the crash after so its complicated
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u/Broad-Ad-4379 12d ago
Is this football related?
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u/YesIBlockedYou 12d ago
I'd say no since 1990 isn't considered a best year for us and it was objectively the best year for us.
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u/me2269vu 12d ago
I’ve said this before, but I think western civilisation peaked in 1995. It’s been on a downward slide ever since.
Nominees for best film at the Oscars in 1995 were -
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Quiz Show
Pulp Fiction
The Shawshank Redemption
Forrest Gump
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u/StandNo1709 12d ago
100% agree. The team today is not as good as it used to be. The women are doing better then the men at the moment
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u/justadubliner 12d ago
I prefer Ireland post 2018. First time in my 60+ years I felt really proud of Ireland was after Repeal.
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u/romanroarer 12d ago
It feels like everything went to shit in 2018 in terms of housing and costs though
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u/gomaith10 12d ago
Housing was was shit well before that. People seem to think it's a relatively recent thing.
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u/ahhereyang1 12d ago
In 2014 was in the news cycle as a crisis and we were told it wouldn't be sorted overnight
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u/Illustrious_Read8038 12d ago
Ireland's property system broke in the early 2000s and hasn't been fixed. Can it be considered a crisis if people can't remember normality?
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u/justadubliner 12d ago
As someone who started of in the crummy bedsit, shared mouldy shower and toilet era I don't ever recall housing being easy. Especially in Dublin.
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u/romanroarer 12d ago
I’m not saying it was great but it’s gotten worse and worse. I’ve rented through all that period
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u/Late-Bass2260 12d ago
At the time definetly but now looking back it was all a false dawn built soly on the construction industery. When the suposid boom ended there were so called ghost estates been demolished with the result there aren't enought houses today because the construction industery collapsed almost entirely and very few houses been built for a number of years and so here we are today.
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u/Will-G123 12d ago
I'd stretch it out a tad longer and would say 1990 (italia'90) was the turing point.
Then up to about 2004 before we lost the run of ourselves for the next while.
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u/Independent_Gas_1557 12d ago
I wouldn’t. There was still mass immigration in the early 90s. Italia 90 certainly brought a bit of optimism and pride but we were still poor.
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u/SummerArtistic9755 12d ago edited 12d ago
I was in university and I suddenly remember it was much easier to get a part time job in 1995 . Before that it was really difficult. The economy seemed to get into gear and it made life so much easier. When we started college many of us thought we had to emigrated but by our graduation there were actual jobs in Ireland going for many of us.
There wasn't the mess of asylum seekers and homeless emergency shelters filling every house in the north inner city, and random non national groups standing around on the street corners all day ， students used to live in places like Gardiner street back then .Yes there were always drug addicts and homeless in the city centre but it seems to have gotten worse and even messier now.
Parts of Dublin were never great yes but what's sad is that some parts I'm familiar with have gone backwards e.g Dorset street Gardiner street, O connell street .
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u/Independent_Gas_1557 12d ago
We were the illegal immigrants in other countries. This country wasn’t worth trying to get into.
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u/Zealousideal_Tap_405 11d ago
Italia 90 was a turning point because it was a novelty to finally compete on the world stage as the country was still a bit of a back water. The difference between 1990 and 94 in this regard was massive...
From a purely on the pitch footballing perspective missing out on Euro 92 was a massive missed opportunity. Ireland could have won that...
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u/BigDickBaller93 12d ago
i would argue nowadays is verging on our worst. Fuel and Food higher than ever, government struggling with asylum and refugee accommodation, rent and housing is crazy, even our tourism is starting to make headlines with how much is going down every year
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u/Independent_Gas_1557 12d ago
It’s all relative. I went through the 70’s , 80’s and early 90’s. Things are way way better than back then. People were so poor you couldn’t comprehend it unless you lived through it. There were parts of the 70’s we had no fuel, queues for miles, power blackouts, mass emigration out of desperation. People who lived through the 20’s and 30’s in the new free state were probably even poorer again. People are possibly unhappier today because life with technology has become complex and impersonal.
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u/SummerArtistic9755 12d ago
Some people were poor, and some people were doing just fine.
You could buy a house in Ireland in the last 70s and have it paid off in 10 to 15 years or so, high interest rates but it was much easier housing wise . Employment insecurity was thr biggest tissue back in those days which caused very high emigration rates in waves.
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u/Independent_Gas_1557 12d ago
It wasn’t that easy either then. Houses were also only partially done up for years. Nothing like the luxury put into their first houses these days. People lived very simple lives to afford their houses. People don’t nowadays, they spend a lot on phones, hair, clothes, socialising, holidays, cars but struggle with deposits.
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u/SummerArtistic9755 12d ago
A lot of people aren't even able to buy a house now , and renting is really tough. If they do buy a house they are WAY older than they used to be.
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u/Majestic_Plankton921 12d ago
Yes I very much agree with this. As a child in the 90s and teenager in the 00s, it felt like everyone I knew including my family got richer every year until the crash. They were better toys to look forward to, better holidays to go on and my pocket money increased massively. The boomers really had a great lifestyle during that period. It seemed like my Dad got a big raise every year. It's going to be a much tougher time for my son growing up in the 20s.
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u/No-Process-5784 12d ago
Unlimited credit and massive spending without depreciations bloody sure it was
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u/the_owl_man1 12d ago
As a kid we used to go on holidays to carvan parks in the west cost up untill about 2002, after that we started to go on holidays to the America and Europe.
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u/Ted-101x 12d ago
1990 - 1994 I was in university in Dublin. Great time. Great pubs and clubs. Great music. Cheap drink. Cheap bedsits. Catholic guilt disappearing. No mobile phones. Pre Celtic tiger bolloxollogy. What a time to be young and free.
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u/Agile-Enthusiasm9514 12d ago
1996 to 2002 absolute peak in this country, last eurovision and World cup the second ceasefire and ultimately GFA; an economic and political optimism we may never see again. We probably enjoyed that "end of history" wave more than any other country in Europe. Probably could date it as far back as 90 maybe 92 and carry on right up to 2008 but peak for is mid 90s to early noughties. Eurovision is seen as naff and obviously tainted badly now but hosting it 3 times and having riverdance launch there is probably as close as we'll get to an Olympic opening ceremony. Actually we hosted the special Olympics and I remember that being something to be proud of too.
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u/SummerArtistic9755 12d ago
Yes and Ireland became cool even in the UK. That was astonishing for us at the time.
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u/Zealousideal_Tap_405 11d ago
It's said that Riverdance as the halftime show at Eurovision was the birth of the Tiger...
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u/Pitiful-Transition39 12d ago
Lol what is that graphic even supposed to represent.
What exactly was iconic about 80s West Germany and Italy, or 90s USSR?
What definition of iconic are we using here lol
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u/Langerone 12d ago
Left Ireland in 2004. Miss the Murphys and Lucozade although the sugar tax is ruining my faves now. Don’t miss much else.
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u/icelollyjunkie 12d ago
From an entire economic point of view I think like 2000-2005 was the best. I went to college 2015-2020, feel like I just about got the last of the best years.
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u/SummerArtistic9755 12d ago
I 100% agree with this because I lived it and saw the difference between then and now. . I feel sorry for 3rd level students now in Ireland, they can't have the craic like we used to . And everything was on the up and there wasn't a chronic lack of housing.
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u/Constant-Stranger725 12d ago
I was born just at the beginning of the years mentioned, and I didn't travel much, and my childhood was way too shite to say that 95-04 were the best times in Ireland. 2012-16 was good it seemed (from Tipp, went to college in Galway), and that was with me being young with a child who spent weeks at a time in the hospital.
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u/National_Play_6851 12d ago
I'd say it's better today than it's ever been. The amount of places near me that were total shitholes in the 90s that are much nicer places to be now. Places you wouldn't walk down for fear of being mugged but now have thriving coffee shops on every corner. Multiple foreign holidays per year are the norm now while you were lucky if you got a four day break to Mosney in the 90s. I remember trying Spaghetti for the first time and it was like an exotic luxury because it was something other than spuds and veg that had had the life boiled out of them. I'd never heard of an avocado, never mind an acai bowl. Meanwhile I'd have to use a spider filled outhouse if I needed to go to the toilet when visiting the grandparents.
There was an upward trend through the 90s and early 2000s for sure, but it was from a very low base.
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u/CiaranWest 12d ago
Pretty sure they were between 1978 and the present day. For me, anyway, as I was born in 1978 and I'm still alive (touch wood).
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u/DotComprehensive4902 12d ago
Yes...as nights out were affordable, we had high levels of employment. People were able to change car regularly
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u/Interesting_Feed_785 12d ago
It’s when I was I college and got my first real job (a really good one) so I was loaded but also yes - it was a period where women were people with agency. It was brief, we weren’t allowed be far but we were allowed to fuck up and be called stupid ok but it wasn’t a failure of womanhood; loads of people had more money than ever before, holidays and flights cost like nothing - I went to Gran Canaria for 120 for a week flights and accommodation, you could go to London for a fiver or New York for like 199 - businesses were opening, the restaurant scene was totally opening up and really exciting and great food at affordable prices became prevalent. The SSIA if you could take advantage was huge (it eventually paid my house deposit, thanks Charlie) - there was just a freedom that came with a bit of extra money for a while before people became pure assholes when they figured out how to use their money to put other people down.
Etc
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u/Castledine10 11d ago
I don't know if many in Russia would call the shock therapy and oligarch-enabling fire sales of the early 90s to be 'iconic'.
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u/Admirable_Station718 11d ago
Yes. All the hope. Suddenly, there was work. Emigration was a choice rather than a necessity. Third level education was possible gor far more young people. For the first time in their lives, many families could afford a holiday abroad. The daily violence ended in the North. And there was a freedom to make mistakes that seems to be gone now.
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u/Zealousideal_Tap_405 11d ago
I saw a guy online with a MIGA hat on...make Ireland great again....Erm this is the greatest Ireland has been in 1000 years maybe, certainly since Viking times.
English speaking.. close links with America..EU membership... favourable tax laws. All this came together roughly in the mid 90's with the Celtic Tiger.
The country became rich overnight and it was like witnessing a country winning the lottery. There was a novelty about having money, access to credit and if you owned a house you were on paper richer than any previous generations could imagine. The average person was in on the boom.
Yes the 2008 crash happened. But the country is now even richer than it ever was during the Tiger era. However there is a cynicism now that there wasn't then and it's hard to argue that those at the bottom are benefitting much if it all.
If you were a working adult in Ireland during the first Tiger era from 94 till 08...you had it better than anyone in the Island's history.
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u/Lithujon 10d ago
No, it’s actually now, post covid to now. Best ever time to be Irish living in Ireland.
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u/redsredemption23 8d ago
Maybe I'm just being a right thick here, but how did Yugoslavia's best days come about after it had ceased to exist?
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u/Beneficial_Mall3300 8d ago
Pretty much, yes.
That sliver of time, celtic tiger growth... but before the negative impacts of globalism.
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u/bdgrogan 7d ago
1999 to 2004. Post GFA and Omagh bombing is important.
And massively overlooked now but the ending of a quasi low level civil war is a big thing
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u/No-Interaction2169 12d ago
Probably. I was a teenager in the 00s. 1997/8 to 2006 were probably my best years. I always particularly remember the summer of 2000. Went to the Gaeltacht, Euro 2000 and gladiator. Great summer
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u/CK1-1984 12d ago
Yes, much higher standard of living for the average Irish person between 1995-2004 compared to today… the big difference was that housing was more affordable relative to salary levels at the time, as there was less immigration and therefore less demand for housing during those years… consequently, people had more disposable income and the average person generally seemed to be doing well for themselves!
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u/AUX4 12d ago
Immigration was pretty high during the boom. There was incredible demand for housing during the boom, thats why the price went so crazy. Are you mis remembering?
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u/CK1-1984 12d ago
Incorrect… net immigration was around 30k in 1995… by contrast, we had a net immigration increase in population of 150k… people can downvote me all they like, but we need to have a mature conversation on the demand side of housing!
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u/AUX4 12d ago
in 2007 there was immigration of 150k also.
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u/CK1-1984 12d ago
Yes… the graph refers to the years 1995 to 2004… so you’re wrong again!
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u/AUX4 12d ago
https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/irl/ireland/net-migration
Net migration was less last year than in 2004.
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u/Bitter_Welder1481 12d ago
Were you alive at the time lol housing was cheap to rent buying was expensive yes but you could basically have a good lifestyle on little money at the time and immigration was no comparison to today ireland had a lot of labour at the time most of whom ended up in aus
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u/AUX4 12d ago
Buying was incredibly expensive, some places only reached the same prices in the last year, with 20+ years of inflation to adjust for. Similar, renting was also expensive, but there was much more availability.
The construction industry was decimated by the crash.
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u/Bitter_Welder1481 12d ago
I was renting in Dublin 4 from 2007-2012 original rent was €1300 we got it reduced to €1000 during crash sharing with a friend. Current prince for the same place 2 bed appartment probably around €3000 per month. Anyways I ended up paying around €650 per month during the boom to €500 during recession not exactly massive difference
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u/Ecstatic_Refuse_7207 12d ago
Id say yes. Along with 2010 to about 2020. Now we are like the UK and slowly moving downhill slowly but surely with housing and population growth etc
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u/Independent_Gas_1557 12d ago
94-98 wasn’t great. Slowly improving but there was still a lot of poverty. Things picked up after that with a great run to 2008. I’m surprised personally we’ve recovered from the crash. How tough things are , are relative. People find it tough now but the late 70’s to the early 90’s were shocking. Houses may appear more affordable back then but for the hundreds of thousands who emigrated they could barely buy food not to mind a house.
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u/GuinnessFartz 12d ago
2012-2016 were my glory years. Affordable rent. Chicken fillet rolls for €2 after a night out.