In Search of The Pope's Children (1 Viewer)

[Pantone247]

do you have a deck ngglbbth?

a mate of mine has!

are you talking about me? I don't think Davey Mc Willy had underwaged single fathers renting houses when he was coining the phrase 'decklander'



What gets my goat about McWilly's basic theroy, that the "Pope's Children" (by the by is it just me or is this a really loaded title? referring to people now in their late twentys onwards, possibly with familys of thier own, as children... the pope thing doesn't sit right either as 'we' were probably the last generation to live under the fading shadow of the chatholic churches stronghold on Irish society as the sex scandels and love children came tumbling out... neither of these things are positives Dave) what gets me is the basic idea is that the "Popes Children" have it so good... that we'll never experience the poverty of the 70's or 80's, we'll never have to face the fact that we will have to emigrate too find work... obviously in Daves eyes we all sit around eating breakfast rolls on our decking in a suburb in Kildare popping out kids.

It's one of those scenarios that brings back the ghost of Kevin Myers "bastard" article, it's the narrowness of the view point and the sneeriness of the language... "kids don't know they have it so good" "back in my day we walked a hundred miles in the snow" that kind of crap...

From my point of view I don't know anyone who has it easy, people with homes are overstreched on their mortgage, and commuting for hours... people renting find it hard to save, have no security over where they'll be living in a years time, and in my opinion, both groups are under a huge ammount of preasure, via the media, 'society' whatever, to continue spending. Clothes, shoes, keeping a new cars, all these things have never been more important in Irish society then right now.

The Celtic Tiger myth is well over and the only people who benifited from that are the property developers, and I believe a lot of employers who saw profits rise but refused to raise salarys in line with the inflation they were contributing too, and I firmly believe this will come and bite everyone in the ass, I'll put my money on it now, this will the corner stone of the next recession... five years after which Dave McWilliams will have another book about how all the "Popes Children" are broke now cause their thick not like him.

 

[Wavioli]

veryslowey: the original breakfast roll man

 

[nlgbbbblth]

I can understand patios and conservatories but what about outdoor Hot Tubs?

I know 3 families with Hot Tubs in their gardens. At least two of them barely have enough money to feed themselves but decided that they just had to have a hot tub.

Insane behaviour.

 

[Scientician 0.8]

You must spread some reputation around before giving it to Pantone247 again.

 

[Space]

do you have a deck ngglbbth?

a mate of mine has!

I had no idea people were making decks until recently, when a tiler guy (who also makes decks) said to me that everyone is getting them done

so you have all these Irish people, sitting in the rain on their decks

It's all about laziness and not having to cut grass, weed the garden etc.

About five years ago everyone was doing decks. I even did a few myself. It's fairly easy and nice work during the summer.

Ah, Seanc talking about Supermac's again.

Deadly.

There's a chicken shop in Cork does the two for the price of one offer on a Tuesday as well. Wonder why Tuesday?

It's the quitest night of the week .

 

[1000smurfs]

"Pope's Children" (by the by is it just me or is this a really loaded title? referring to people now in their late twentys onwards, possibly with familys of thier own, as children... the pope thing doesn't sit right either as 'we' were probably the last generation to live under the fading shadow of the chatholic churches stronghold on Irish society as the sex scandels and love children came tumbling out... neither of these things are positives Dave)

that's the first thing i thought when i saw that book, what a brutal title.
I used to like his agenda show but I dont think i'll never be able to bring myself to read the book . Does he actually explain what he means by the title ?
i have a vague recollection that when the last pope visited here he made some big speech to the kids, who would now be in the 30-40 age group.

 

[mr pharmacist!!!!1]

my sister (whos 20) decided last week to give me a grilling about my lifestyle, choices id made in my life and generally question my existance.
me and my sis are the complete opposite of each other, she gauges success on a monetary level, blah blah. we dont usually see eye to eye on things but it was when she said to me "mark, get a 9-5, you'd be happier so you can get a house, dont you want that" that i just looked at her and was like, what the fuck, you're 20!!!

shes studying accounting so her view of a lot of things is more black and white but its something thats always bugged me, teenagers/young adults pining to get onto the property ladder.

anyway i heard someone say one time that we're probably worse off than our parents in spite of their "you have it so much easier than we did"

 

[MDR]

I think it's one thing for McWilliams to say that people have decking or eat breakfast rolls; it's quite another to say that those things define the person, which is essentially what he is doing.

Personally I think the most disturbing aspect of the celtic tiger is the explosion of amateur punditry. It's specious insights on life in Dublin by people who get their information solely from the media. Don't get me started on his sensational predictions . . .

 

[mr pharmacist!!!!1]

I think it's one thing for McWilliams to say that people have decking or eat breakfast rolls; it's quite another to say that those things define the person, which is essentially what he is doing.

Personally I think the most disturbing aspect of the celtic tiger is the explosion of amateur punditry. It's specious insights on life in Dublin by people who get their information solely from the media. Don't get me started on his sensational predictions . . .

this is my sister...
plus about a million other folk in this country.
speculators and experts on everything.

 

[Pantone247]

Personally I think the most disturbing aspect of the celtic tiger is the explosion of amateur punditry.

sorry!

 

[MDR]

sorry!

I meant David McWilliams etc. Your posts have been spot on.

 

[nlgbbbblth]

something thats always bugged me, teenagers/young adults pining to get onto the property ladder.

yep
can't understand why people in their early 20s want to tie themselves down to a house / mortgage. I rented until 2003 and mostly was glad of it.

 

[snakybus]

the internet makes critics of us all

 

[Scientician 0.8]

yep
can't understand why people in their early 20s want to tie themselves down to a house / mortgage. I rented until 2003 and mostly was glad of it.

I suppose part of it is the media effect of "JAYSUS HOUSE PRICES ARE GOING THROUGH THE ROOF 5000000% INCREASE IN LAST 5 SECONDS!" type headlines and the proliferation of amateur pundits saying we need to own a gaff, and programmes on the telly about buying a home, and programmes about not being able to buy a home and the like. Ireland has traditionally had a way higher level of owner-occupiers than renters so I suppose it's also an extention of that. I believe in other countries renters have more rights, are less insecure in their place of residence than their counterparts here but I'm not entirely sure about that one. There's also the "dead money" perspective that money spent on renting would be better spent on accumulating an asset.

 

[nlgbbbblth]

I suppose part of it is the media effect of "JAYSUS HOUSE PRICES ARE GOING THROUGH THE ROOF 5000000% INCREASE IN LAST 5 SECONDS!" type headlines and the proliferation of amateur pundits saying we need to own a gaff, and programmes on the telly about buying a home, and programmes about not being able to buy a home and the like. Ireland has traditionally had a way higher level of owner-occupiers than renters so I suppose it's also an extention of that. I believe in other countries renters have more rights, are less insecure in their place of residence than their counterparts here but I'm not entirely sure about that one. There's also the "dead money" perspective that money spent on renting would be better spent on accumulating an asset.

yep, high home ownership here. Nothing wrong with that but the whole investment property market thing tends to annoy me (people who aren't happy unless they own three, four, five houses etc) and who price out first-timers in the process.

 

[Anthony]

the bastards

 

[JohnnyRaz]

shes studying accounting so her view of a lot of things is more black and white but its something thats always bugged me, teenagers/young adults pining to get onto the property ladder."

Accountants are a unique breed alright,
I dont get the property obsession either, I really think its some kind of collective mania fed by the media with the only people benifiting at the end the builders and people buying for investment. The idea of a 20-year old shelling out 300k+ for a gaff is scary

 

[nEiLo]

this is my sister...
plus about a million other folk in this country.
speculators and experts on everything.

is it wrong to have an opinion these days?

 

[mr pharmacist!!!!1]

is it wrong to have an opinion these days?

no, but when people pass off other peoples opinions as their own/as fact then it becomes tiresome.

 

[classic seanc]

no, but when people pass off other peoples opinions as their own/as fact then it becomes tiresome.

Yep, I've been saying that for years. You know I have.