Gentrification X

at

Montague Street, Dublin 2

Who is to blame?

Further to the outcry over gentrification by ‘millenials’ of Dublin city neighbourhoods.

Niamh writes:

Alright alright, ironic/artisan bakery schtick is not True Dublin enough, or whatever, blah blah, but there is a point I must make loud and clear, and ask that you, my peers, pay attention: this is NOT millennials.

Millennials are broke, indebted, and over-educated victims of circumstance, both terrified of never being employed, and obliged to live in decrepit, over-packed houses in order to remain within walking distance of work options. Because they can’t fuppking drive.

The generation opening bakeries and making The Happy Pear a thing are GENERATION X, or at least those who survived the cocaine blizzard of the early noughties long enough to produce Sucra and Fiachra and need somewhere hip to take the souped-up bugaboo of a Sunday morning.

So leave my poor, hungry, worthlessly qualified generation alone, ‘k?

Anyway the oul lads and oul ones of Rare Ould Dublin are the ones sitting on ex-council house goldmines, charging millenials five hundred quid a pop for a box room. They’re doing OK….

FIGHT!

Previously: Progress

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84 thoughts on “Gentrification X

  1. Vote Rep #1

    Millennials is like hispter. It is just a term used by people past their prime to sneer and look down on those younger then them.

    1. Rico

      Not even pal….it’s probably more the 52 genders reddit and tumblr crew that arouse the sneering you speak. I actually feel sorry for people in their 20s and early 30s now.

      1. EightersGonnaEight

        I can see the trigger warning on the torch for those poor little snowflakes now: WARNING. MAY BE HOT. HURT HANDEES!

    1. jeremy kyle

      No, it’s too late for us – donuts to the East, gelato to the South and avocado toast to the North. At night I hear them calling out “…join us…join us…”

  2. Baffled

    Sounds like Niamh could do with getting up out of her crying chair and heading down to Bakelicious for some avocado toast.

  3. Jonickal

    Labelling and pointing fingers, the opium of the masses.

    I prefer to go it alone and not find excuses for my failings in others.

      1. Jonickal

        I could go around blaming others and “the system”, but that sounds like a boring waste of my time.

  4. nellyb

    Niamh you’ll run out of feelings if you react to every moron saying something undeserving about millennials. Think a few decades ahead: these millennial bashers will realize that money itself doesn’t actually walk, talk or give them sponge bath. Or that sudocream on netherlands is more desirable than brandy in the mouth.

  5. anne

    What age group do millennials fall into exactly? I’m thinking I could be one of um unbeknownst to myself..

      1. RT

        Millennials generally start 1980/82 depending on the source and run through to mid to late 90s, basically anyone aged 20-35ish. It’s a quite a broad demographic in terms of encompassing cohorts such as college students, young (often single) professionals, and all the way up to those getting married/starting families/first time buyers

        Anyone under 20ish is NOT a millennial, yet most folks assume millennials to be in the 18-25 cohort, especially if having a go at them.

        1. anne

          ok thanks. Im not a millenial. I think I’m generation x.. although truth be told I probably look more like a millenial with my svelte youthful appearance.

      2. Milk teeth

        Approximately 1980ish – 1995ish. Basically the generation after generation X. Why we get such a lame title is beyond me though.

  6. Frilly Keane

    Ah get over yerself
    ffs

    your not the only generation to yowl about being over-educated
    and here’
    you’re not all that far away from corned beef sangwiches and swiss roll when you’ve visitors yerselves
    no matter how fancy exotic your take out order is

    ex-council house goldmines!?!?!?
    I bet there was a time during that education of yours you looked down your nose on those same house holders

    1. Nigel

      Remember: when people talk about their problems, bite their heads off, compare them unfavourably to others, neg them agressively and tell them to shut up.

      1. mildred st. meadowlark

        I’m gonna bite your head off like a curly wurly Nigel.

        Watch yourself.

          1. mildred st. meadowlark

            :D

            I’ve got three, if you can find them. Ive hidden them in secure locations around Ireland.

    2. scottser

      i bet frilly spent all her SSIA savings on a fully functioning, life-size latex doll of john miskella.

  7. EightersGonnaEight

    We shall fight Millennials on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender,

    She’s never been inside a council house in her life.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj9SeMZE_Yw

    We will never surrender.

    1. I'm "alright" Jack. Mad Jack is on annual leave.

      I’m just gonna fight them in the burrito bars

    1. mildred st. meadowlark

      You’re two letters away from an argument with me.

      But you said Minnie, not Millie, so we’re good.

  8. Yep

    So, has anyone actually eaten in this place? Is it any good? Isn’t that the question to be asked?

    Sure my Grandson could be holding a digital display placard outside this place protesting the removal of a signage that encapsulates a Dublin of old that was somehow better and must be preserved regardless of how relevant it was to the time or the city or represents a time when bread wasn’t 40% hair and 20% sawdust.

    Weird people get hung up on this stuff.

  9. eric cartman

    Millenials cause their own problems. Fail to tae personal responsibility for any of it, blame older people – shocker.

    1. mildred st. meadowlark

      To be fair, the ‘millenials’ (not a fan of the term at all) inherited a whole host of problems from the older generations.

      Most of them were in school at the time of the crash, for example. How can you blame those who weren’t even of voting age when these far-reaching decisions were made?

      1. eric cartman

        I’m 27 , so very much part of it having finished school in 2007. I also hate the term millenials but sure its ‘the term’ for it .

        I built a company up while in college and as the economy buoyed it worked out for me. I have had a driving licence since I was 18, as have my friends (who had the motivation to drive) . Very few of them live at home and a lot have gotten decent jobs too. Where I think the problems lie (and I say this as somebody who interacts with millenials (cringe) every day are

        1) Driving – just out and out laziness, not even phoning insurance companies or taking the theory test, just sitting there and saying ‘jaysus insurance is expensive’ without knowing and giving up.

        2) Accommodation – Due to not driving, insisting on living in Dublin city centre, where everyone and their dog wants to live, is there a shortage yeah, but if this generation would just take some of the rural jobs that are still on offer , learn how to drive or get over the fact that its expensive to live in any major european capitol city then they’d be much better off.

        3) Mortgages – sadly the reality is that a single income can not support a mortgage anymore , the difference from our parents days is that now its pretty much a given that both partners are in work and so house prices are stacked to deal with the demands of a dual income household. In my parents day foreign holidays weren’t common, owning 2 cars was very rare, having new furniture, going out to restaurants and gigs weekly wasn’t the done thing, people had a lot less expenditure and were more saving conscious. The idea that 2 people earning 40k a year can’t save 40k between them over 2 years for a deposit is in reality madness. They’ll blame rent prices or the cost of living but those are things you can pear back on.

        4) Work Expectations – Free education has made a degree standard now, but with such a variety of degrees , its harder to know what’s a good degree, Most jobs in the creative sector ask for experience as supply is high and demand low, the legal profession and a few others will also face this soon. Doing a degree in classic literature, music or fine art has very very limited work possibilities. Very few millenials have unemployed friends in engineering, software development, maths, economics etc… If you don’t have a paid work desirable qualification then thats on your own back to retrain or do a masters in something where there is demand.

        1. mildred st. meadowlark

          Congratulations on doing so well for yourself. I’m not being sarcastic, I do mean that.

          l think that you do make some valid points, with regards to saving for a mortgage and relative income especially. I do feel that if you’re serious about a mortgage you simply have to accept that you’re in for a tough few years. You do have to sacrifice that holiday/new phone/new car/that weekend away whatever.

          But, to give you an example, in Dublin I earn almost 10k more than I would for doing the same job, in say Wexford or Carlow. I know this, because I’ve done the job hunting.
          And jobs outside of Dublin are scarce. You are limited in what you can do outside of Dublin, and it’s a pity.

          But it leaves people with a choice to make, that sometimes they can’t afford to make. If you’re paying exorbitant rents and childcare on top of that, in addition to bills and living expenses, then some people are left with little.

          It’s a product of the times. I’m inclined to pity people who are in that situation.

        2. anne

          pear back on rent? & what? live in your car once you bother taking the theory test & phoning insurance companies is it.

          1. eric cartman

            anne – live in swords instead of grand canal dock,
            Mildred – Well done, and there definitely is a premium for working in dublin, now if the job is only available in dublin then thats fair. There are some jobs which are available outside dublin for less money but people see it as a loss. We have to start looking at the overall cost of living. If you have a job in dublin paying 40 and in athlone its paying 30 it seems like a big drop, but when you factor in free parking at work, a house costing 120k instead of 350, a pint being 4.50 instead of 6+ euro, childcare being cheaper etc… it may work out better. Theres a lot of people just see the headline salary and think they’re better off. Especially if renting in dublin this is not the case anymore, most people working 40 hours will easily evaporate 10k a year in extra living expenses.

          2. Cian

            Eric – well said.
            The other thing to remember is that a big chunk of the difference between 30K and 40K is going on tax (more than half if it’s 50K-40K). You need to look at the take-home pay when you compare salaries.

          1. Eric cartman

            Its only judgemental if you fit the stereotype. We only get to hear about the people who can’t from this generation, a lot of people can get mortgages, do work hard and are making good lives for themselves, but everyone would rather focus on the people who made poor choices and their ‘struggle’

        3. EKelly

          Brilliant example of lack of big picture thinking. The “I’m doing okay why aren’t you, oh it’s all your own fault” school of economics. I’m amazed that you’re only 27. I thought it took years to develop that kind of social self-centredness and dull penny-counting. Apparently not. Some are obviously born with the gift. One of the main points in the initial post was about landlords of a certain age over-charging young people for property, not about what young people are doing to build their own businesses in order to pay the immoral rents. You’ve accepted the whole package as the way things are, but some of us are asking does it have to be this way at all. I don’t think so. But I’ll only take issue with one technicality in your shopping list of how to live “properly”. The word is “pare” not “pear”. I noticed your misspelling was being picked up by others, and might, given the butterfly effect, cause untold damage to the language down the road.

      2. Yep

        To be fair, how can we blame those of voting age? The decisions that made the most impact were made without consensus of the citizenry and when we had a say we were told we were wrong. Not to mention the empty promises made by many of the elected.

        Not starting a row MIldred but the idea that one generation has had it better by way of who they elected isn’t true.

        1. mildred st. meadowlark

          That’s a fair point too, won’t argue that at all.

          I suppose, it would be better to say that the millenials, unlike the older generations, were ignorant of the long-standing consequences of the bailout/selling our souls to the devil, simply because they were kids, or teenagers at the time, and now they are waking up to the reality of what everyone else has been dealing with for the past ten years. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, regardless of your age.

  10. DefinitelyNotMemes

    I checked Wikipedia.
    I checked LinkedIn.
    I checked Google Images and they tried to sell me a 60” screen.

    She’s on Google Earth, but I find that very unreliable.

  11. dave g k

    You say ‘millenial’.

    I say ‘millennial’.

    And that is the real issue here.

    Even Niamh is hedging her bets.

  12. scarscarscar red

    Hello Ladies,
    my name is ‘da mooch’.
    …or maybe it’s still ‘Scarface’, like in the poster for de movie I never saw…
    …I just saw the poster…

    You might remember me from last week.
    …my book comes out in October…I get sued in January.
    …then I write another book, and if that one sells…

    1. Onlymessing

      I used to be in the best video ever, by a band called Bohemian Rhapsody.
      Mattress Mick ruined my life, but if he gives me a free mattress we’re quits.

      He looks a bit like me uncle Tommy.
      I reckon Mattress Tommy doesn’t sound as sexy.

      Givvus a free mattress ye boo boo…

      1. Onlymessing-ish...

        It isn’t me who wet the bed…
        …hang on…

        Okay…
        …it was partly MY fault. YOU were the one who started going on about the ‘last bus home’ , ‘last train to Hueston’.
        No direction.. The Point is at least six stops further along…i can’t even…
        What’s this thread about?

  13. Downwithdaysul

    “he generation opening bakeries and making The Happy Pear a thing are GENERATION X, or at least those who survived the cocaine blizzard of the early noughties long enough to produce Sucra and Fiachra and need somewhere hip to take the souped-up bugaboo of a Sunday morning. ”

    Paddy Last discovered cocaine in the early noughties – at least ten years after London, and 30 years after NYC (*). Around about the same time he discovered that you can’t lose on property (**), and all the smart, canny, ballsy guys are, uhm, hoovering up property right now.

    Canny fella, dat Paddy Last guy. No files on him!

    * http://www.anthonyhadenguest.com/articles.htm
    ** http://www.davidmcwilliams.ie/2007/01/09/the-dundrum-paradox%E2%80%93dont-be-paddy-last

    1. Gay Tea Shop

      Cocaine blizzard?

      If I had a bakery I’d call it The RTÉ Canteen and invite Gerry Ry…. no, wait, that won’t work…

      I blame Jay Bourke.

      1. Downwithdaysul

        ^ what are you actually talking about? The implication of your last sentence seems to be defamatory, if I understand you correctly.

  14. Downwithdaysul

    ” I have had a driving licence since I was 18, as have my friends (who had the motivation to drive) . Very few of them live at home and a lot have gotten decent jobs too. Where I think the problems lie (and I say this as somebody who interacts with millenials (cringe) every day are

    1) Driving – just out and out laziness, not even phoning insurance companies or taking the theory test, just sitting there and saying ‘jaysus insurance is expensive’ without knowing and giving up. ”

    At the risk of being called a old codger (which, fair enough, I am), I paid 1,600 in old money (that’s Irish punts) in 1995 for third party fire and theft insurance cover on a basic Nissan Micra, despite having learned out to drive at 17, and having several years’ of named driver experience on my parents policy before I got my own car. Admittedly I didn’t have a full licence at that time but a year later I passed the test, and was still paying 1,000 or so.

    A few years before that, I went to college from 1990-1993 and out of a class of 300 people, I think no more than a half a dozen of them (if even that) had their own cars (which in reality were paid for with daddy’s money). The rest of us cycled, walked, or bussed it to our lectures. And if we were late, we RAN to our lectures. That’s how it was.

    1. Cian

      Ha! Back in my day if we were late for lectures, we, erm… went to the pub instead*

      *for a chat mainly – didn’t have the cash to be buying drinks!

    2. scottser

      i still remember taking out a monster loan of 3 grand back in 1990 for my first car, a 12-year old, monkey-puke yellow mark 1 fiesta. the car cost 600 quid, the insurance was 2,400 through PMPA, the only company who would insure a newly-qualified male driver. according to the inflation calculator that’s over 5 grand today.

  15. Alastair

    Are McKinsey Consultants Gen X’ers? Because the actual reason this has happened is nothing to do with avocado toast or ‘cocaine blizzards’. It’s because An Post did research on the viability of the post office network, and decided to shut a couple of hundred branches, and transfer some operations into booths in convenience shops. The reason for that is primarily that people send emails or texts now, not letters, and get their packages from lads in brown vans. Pretty much everyone is culpable in this societal change. Unless the old post office on Montague St. was replaced with a coddle co-operative, it’s hard to know what would have made a suitable new retail replacement.

    Oh, and I’m seemingly an early-ish Gen X’er, and I don’t see any evidence that my peers were any less ‘over-educated’ than Millennials.

    1. downwithdaysul

      ” Are McKinsey Consultants Gen X’ers? Because the actual reason this has happened is nothing to do with avocado toast or ‘cocaine blizzards’. It’s because An Post did research on the viability of the post office network, and decided to shut a couple of hundred branches, and transfer some operations into booths in convenience shops. The reason for that is primarily that people send emails or texts now, not letters, and get their packages from lads in brown vans. ”

      I have dealt with An Post. I haven’t found them satisfactory at a senior level.

      How much did An Post pay for the services of McKinsey Consultants?

      Who sanctioned the decision to start up the Postbank, and how much did it cost the taxpayer?

      In your view,did the taxpayer get value for money when the former chief executive of An Post retired on a massive pension?

  16. andy moore

    I’m 50 & to young to be a Baby Boomer apparently & to old to be an X-er , so where may I fit within these spaces ? Kebabs were considered sophisticated during my teenage years & yes their were hipsters abouts to beat the band ! Give the Lassie a break , she’s only picking up for our losses during the Blizzards of the Rave era of the 90’s ! Who’s Jay Bourke ??

    1. Frilly Keane

      Same here
      ‘ish
      20 more days to go
      For the Five Oh

      So I’d be interested in knowing what Gen I’m qualified for

      And don’t say the E Generation
      That’s too easy

      1. Alastair

        If you’re 50, you’re officially a Gen X’er. ’61 onwards seemingly. If Douglas Copeland qualifies, then so do you.

          1. anne

            what about silver surfers? they’re digital natives but not xennials.

            what about digital immigrants who become digital natives but are millenials?

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