# You know you live in Ireland, 2003, when . . .



## N0elC (16 Jul 2003)

You know you live in Ireland, 2003, when . . . . . 

You consider yourself lucky if you spend less than 20 hours a week commuting

The political parties spend time and money worrying about crimes of the past and ignore the crimes of the present

You have to explain to tourists why our road signs are in kilometers, and our speed limits in miles

Someone in Dublin airport is on strike again for some obscure reason

RTE advertises and shows highlights of the programme you have just finished viewing, then tells you what wonderful value the licence fee is, before showing another re-run of the Lyrics Board

The government GIVES all third level students free fees, and still they complain. Meanwhile primary schools across the country decay

You can't make a mobile phone call on Friday evening as the entire network is jammed

Every single political party tells you that taxes have to rise and public services need to be cut back because no one has the nerve to tell the Civil Service lobby that we can’t afford benchmarking

People still admire, and vote for, the politicians implicated in the tribunals

Your newborn child will be of voting age before the Metro line opens

Educated people still clap and cheer any country beating England, in any sport whatsoever, while most of England cheers on Irish players and teams when they excel

Adults feel uncomfortable around people with darker skin than them, and mutter about them in the street, while their children happily play with children of all colours in the street and at school

People STILL vote along civil war lines

Public spending on health doubles over a five year period, with no discernable improvement in service

And despite all our individual concerns, the whole nation comes together for the Special Olympics


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## Privatesectorworker (24 Jul 2003)

*Post Celtic Tiger*



> Every single political party tells you that taxes have to rise and public services need to be cut back because no one has the nerve to tell the Civil Service lobby that we can’t afford benchmarking



Sad but true. Usually the PDs are the only ones in the Dail speaking a bit of sense, not even they have the integrity to stand up and say stop to Benchmarking.


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## S (24 Jul 2003)

*You know you live in Ireland, 2003, when . .*

Those with a duel mandate can pass on one of their jobs/incomes to a close relative.

S


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## daltonr (29 Jul 2003)

*Re: You know you live in Ireland, 2003, when . .*

when.....

Neutrality has been redefined to allow us to take sides and have allies.  But we're still neutral.  And anyone who says otherwise is twisting the meaning of words.

Unemployment and house prices are rising at the same rate.

Jobs that were called Tech Jobs when they were created, and now called manufacturing jobs because they are being lost.

The only way to get anything done is to "Talk to Joe".

After years of sending money to "The Black Babies" Ireland seems surprised that some of them now want to come here to live.  Apparently charity begins as far away from home as possible.

The Irish soccer fans, once the best in the world (apparently) now Boo and Jeer any player who ever played for Rangers.

Every government department is asked to find ANY areas where savings can be made.  One suggestion is to postpone the purchase of a new Jet.  The savings are spent upgrading the two year old fleet of Mercs to shiny new ones.

The government makes serious sounding noises about the need to tackle inflation despite being the main cause of it themselves.

Due to the precarious financial position that our poor banks find themselves is, the government introduces taxes on anyone seeking to change their bank.

A movie about Veronica Guering portrays Tony Gregory as a suit wearing, "Member of Parliment" with a vaguely English accent.

Hard Core GAA fans can no longer figure out how the Championship works.  Is it a league? Is it a Cup?  GAA consideres new scheme for 2004 where the viewers will vote off teams until just one remains.

-Rd


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## Liam OReilly (30 Jul 2003)

*Re: You know you live in Ireland, 2003, when . .*

when.........

IFSRA representatives stand at the doors of all retail banking outlets with a cattle prod and 'shoooo' the unsuspecting customers up to meet the 'Life Man'.!!


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## daltonr (31 Jul 2003)

*Re: You know you live in Ireland, 2003, when . .*

when...

A politician sent to jail is housed in an empty medical wing, while patients sent to hospital are housed in hallways on trolleys and plastic chairs.

-Rd


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## CM (18 Aug 2003)

*Ireland in 2003*

When wealthy parents are eager to spend €3000 per year to send their little dinkums to State subsidised private secondary schools, while public schools are overstaffed, and full of under utilized teachers, who can’t be laid off.


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## Slash (18 Aug 2003)

*You know you live in Ireland, 2003, when . .*

....anyone who dares to question how Charlie Haughey made his money is immediately labelled a begrudger!


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## stobear (19 Aug 2003)

*Re: You know you live in Ireland, 2003, when . .*

Pity he's too old now to enjoy his Kinsealy house sale windfall!!


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## Dr Moriarty (20 Aug 2003)

*Re: You know you live in Ireland, 2003, when . .*

... or to move all his stuff over from Transylvania...


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## ClubMan (20 Aug 2003)

*Re: You know you live in Ireland, 2003, when . .*

You arrive back from San Francisco where petty criminal incidents receive prominent coverage in the local newspapers to find that there has been yet another gangland killing in Dublin.... :|


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## Firefly (8 Apr 2013)

Amusing to look back at this thread 10 years later!

_"You can't make a mobile phone call on Friday evening as the entire network is jammed"_ - I'd forgotten about that. 

You know you live in Ireland, *2013*, when . .


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## bazermc (8 Apr 2013)

.........You can use your mobile while driving, so long as you're a TD!!!

Shameful stuff, basically its ok if a TD crashes and kills somebody because they are not focused on the road and using a mobile phone


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## Firefly (8 Apr 2013)

.......When the world and his mother knows what a junior bondholder is


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## bazermc (8 Apr 2013)

Anglo Irish Bank is a dirty word, back in 2003 it was the darling of the stock market and not a bad word could be said about it.


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## MrMan (8 Apr 2013)

bazermc said:


> .........You can use your mobile while driving, so long as you're a TD!!!
> 
> Shameful stuff, basically its ok if a TD crashes and kills somebody because they are not focused on the road and using a mobile phone



When people still got carried away and blew things out of proportion.


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## PaddyW (8 Apr 2013)

Everyone knows now what a tracker mortgage is!


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## celebtastic (9 Apr 2013)

N0elC said:


> Every single political party tells you that taxes have to rise and public services need to be cut back because no one has the nerve to tell the Civil Service lobby that we can’t afford benchmarking
> 
> People still admire, and vote for, the politicians implicated in the tribunals
> 
> ...


 
Sadly, an awful lot of these very valid comments are still haunting us in 2013.


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## ajapale (9 Apr 2013)

N0elC said:


> You know you live in Ireland, 2003, when . . . . .
> 
> You have to explain to tourists why our road signs are in kilometers, and our speed limits in miles
> 
> And despite all our individual concerns, the whole nation comes together for the Special Olympics



I think the change over to kilometers has finally succeeded. The change over of speedometers and oedometers in new cars is what accellerated the change.

On the special olympics is it time to take down the "Host to Transylvania etc" signs on the approaches to our towns ten years later?


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## Mrs Vimes (11 Apr 2013)

ajapale said:


> I think the change over to kilometers has finally succeeded. The change over of speedometers and oedometers in new cars is what accellerated the change.



Anyone else noticed how many older drivers of newer cars seem to mentally convert to miles not realising that their speedometer is already in kilometers?

The number of times I've been behind someone driving at 30km/h then up to 40 then 60 .

Of course you still have the fellas who didn't get the memo when the normal speed limit went up from 55 to 60 .

BTW, it's now 62 if anyone's still counting in miles .


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## Firefly (11 Apr 2013)

Mrs Vimes said:


> BTW, it's now 62 if anyone's still counting in miles .



I still count in miles  and have to convert kms back to understand how fast it really is. Same for measurements, meters on a golf course and I'm adding 10% in my head all the time.


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