I moved home in August 2007 and people still booming however the bust was looming. Nerves were starting to rattle but they were whispers of collapse some were more convinced than others that the good times were coming to an end. Those who were not convinced were those who had enjoyed the wealth the most, the developers, the bankers, senior government were all in denial (at least public) they were still flying the flag of invincibility despite the cries of some leading economists who might I add were being called negative and cynics for their concerns and were being dismissed amidst all their efforts.
I opened a small retail store in October and Christmas 2007 was unbelievable, no money was spared mothers and fathers alike came in store to buy for their families and cost was not part of the conversation, it was all about desire, about brands the only time cost entered the conversation was if it was too cheap they would choose the more expensive type as cost equalled identity. Children were getting phones at a cost of €600 a piece and these were the stocking fillers, I do not exaggerate !!! And this was all in a small town north of Cork City where historically people would have worked hard and earned modest livings but this was outrageous, as I had been out the country for the boom I found this type of consumerism in Ireland bewildering but hey my shop was doing well and I was not complaining.
So 2008 came and my shop was still doing well, through word of mouth our reputation was spreading and our customer base growing. It was hard work and I dedicated my time, energy and resources to it but it was working, actually while I have you here I better explain how I managed to open a business so soon after moving home from living abroad for several years....I did what everybody did....I borrowed the money!!!!
I went to the bank and gave in a business plan, I moved home in August and was approved and opened for business just 2 months later on October 7th 2007. In the first 6 months of moving home I had secured €50k to open the store with €15k overdraft, €10k to buy a vehicle, €20k as a down payment for a house and €195k to buy the house and a further €12k to do some work on the house, I only had to tie up €3k to secure the lot (I found out afterwards the 3k was not even locked in), I also got uncapped credit from all my suppliers to buy stock even though I had no credit ratings here in Ireland, I actually could not believe it.
2008 rolled in nice and smooth, business was good we were enjoying our new home, which I might add is a modest dwelling it has a view that would melt your thoughts on any given day hail, rain or shine, it is in the open countryside of southern Ireland however the house itself needs work my point here being if we had done what many of our fellow friends had done which was buy a house which could house half the neighbourhood with lavish gardens and only the finest of furnishings and finishing we would have been in debt 3 times at least than what we were, my husband Frank had said "no way" and he never says no so when he does..I listen (most of the time) but I thank God I did this time as it was his level thinking that kept me grounded which is not easy to do...
so 2008 rolled on and we were doing a lot of the work ourselves on the house, Frank refused to pay people to come in and do jobs that we were well capable of doing ourselves and I was enjoying it, we were there together hammering down walls, I became a dab hand with a paint brush and Frank worked night after night until we got the house to a standard which was perfect for our current needs, we have no children so space etc was not a major priority. The news at this stage was ringing alarm bells and the arguments were starting, tho the government with Bertie at the head of power were still sticking to the story that all was fine and he made some dreadful statements that would later destroy any credibility he once had, but for now him and his party members were shamefully denying any potential bust but denial or no denial Ireland was on a train at a very high speed and it was about to get derailed and the working class of Ireland were in the carriage that got hit the hardest.
The economy was starting to contract and growth was its lowest in 10 years, fear started setting in and you could feel the shift in attitudes, you could smell the fear of what was unravelling around us, people sat back and looked at what they had borrowed and awoke to the realisation that they were in over their heads and the "hangover" set in. Then Bertie played a blinder, in May 2008 he did the smartest shrewdest thing he could have done...he resigned...now, as appalling as this move was, it was very clever of him because he had partied very hard and had led the country to the bar and told them to drink as much as they wanted but now he was bailing, running out the back door as the smouldering concerns of economists started to burn in flames and he escaped while the rest of us burned baby burned !!! his replacement Brian Cowen was sworn in as Taoiseach and in my opinion it was the worst promotion in the history of Ireland if not the world, love nor money would pay a person to stand into Bertie's role at the time, the country was slipping into severe depression and Brian Cowen was there for the blame. In September 2008 the government made a blanket bank guarantee on deposits and accrued debts and the re-capitalisation of the banks, I will always remember driving home from work that day and I was listening to the radio and there was a stillness, there was an eerie feeling and I actually felt fear of what was coming, as business was about to become a whole lot harder and the first five years of any business is difficult but to have a deep economic recession thrown on top was really the icing that was going to ruin the cake.
The conversation was all about recession everywhere you went, every radio show, every newspaper it was all consuming you could not last an hour without engaging in some sort of communication about the recession, the banks, the government and please excuse my language but the most poignant statement I heard that shook me to my core because it was the realisation of what was happening was when my brother in law who is an astute business man said "Niamhy the country's fucked" and I thought to myself...it absolutely is!! Business went slowly down but I worked as hard as I ever did, i stayed positive and I believed that we would survive. Some days and weeks were worse than others, I often broke into tears on the bad days but then I would think of new ideas and I drove my business as hard as I could, I went into new product lines and in 2009 Frank joined the business and this was a huge risk as we were now in a situation where - all eggs one basket- came to mind but together we would do it and it worked, we tightened our belts, there were weeks where we would have no spending money but we never ever missed a loan repayment, not once did we default on a payment, we had no discretionary money but we paid our bills on time, we did not once borrow money to survive we just went without and worked harder than you could imagine, it was tough at times but I always kept my favourite quote in mind "tough times don't last but tough people do" and we are tough, were Irish our DNA has been through harder times than this.
Everyone else got paid and if there was something left over we would take it but only after all debts and bills were paid and neither of us ever even considered doing it another way, we had no social life but we did not feel sorry for ourselves and not once did the word default or anything resembling it entered our conversations. There were bad days, I missed terribly going shopping, I hated having to count up what was in my shopping basket but we were surviving and the business was surviving and that's all that mattered, I knew that if we hung in there that one day it would turn.One thing we made sure to have every year was a holiday I would go without food rather than go without travel.
In September 2009 Frank and I got married, we had a beautiful but when I think back modest wedding I did not spend money unnecessarily and as much as I adore fashion my dress was beautiful but not expensive I went without the lavishness (which I do love) but to me the wedding was not about that, don't get me wrong if I had the money I would have spent it and I would have spent it well and if I waited I could have had the lavish wedding but to me I wanted to marry Frank I wanted to marry him since I was 14 (yes 14 he was my childhood sweetheart unrequited at times I might add...but none the less we were friends with benefits :-) until we went our separate ways when I was 17 only to find each other again over 10 years later) so I wanted to marry him I didn't want to be his live in partner I did not want money to determine whether we made vows to each other so money or no money we got married and it was awesome, I had my closest friends and my dearest family and of course I had the love of my life standing beside me while we giggled our way through the mass and loved each other more than we could ever have dreamt of, a wedding day is so exceptional it is indescribable unless you have experienced it yourself, the wedding was tasteful and elegant and full of happiness and love and recession or no recession the bar was drank dry - once again the resilience of the Irish :-)
2009 right up until today has been full of ups and downs in the business. I will be honest in saying that I have experienced a feeling of annoyance in recent times, and I am speaking from my own opinion and not about any one individual persons or case but I have worked my ass off I have scrimped and scraped a living I have held my head high on days when all I wanted to do was give in, I have lied to myself and to others about the success of my business in an effort to survive by whatever means necessary and I have never missed a payment, It is now frustrating to hear some of the discussions around the writing down of loans and the breaks that should be available to people who spent beyond their means whilst I pay more taxes and carry not only my own burdens but the burdens of others - I just do not think it is fair and I oppose all of it. I am now debt free only 5 years later, I have paid every cent of every loan, every cent of interest and with the help of no one but my Husband and family.
I have done exactly what was needed and I now sit with a business which is 5.5yrs old and debt free as a result of hard work, dedication and an unwillingness to fail, so why now should I continue to pay for the debts of others it is unfair and unjust and I do not agree. I see plenty of people every day who will not work because they are so used to getting benefits that there is no incentive to work, they become part of the system and the system is changing but its too slow, the handouts have to stop because they are coming from my pocket and people like me, those of us who work for a living pay for those who choose not to work, there are plenty of bullshit arguments out there explaining why they cant work but the majority are rubbish. That said I know there are completely genuine cases of people who would love to work but they cant either because of a genuine disability or health reason or people who are finding it very difficult to find a job in their field but you walk into every pub in Ireland during the week or weekend and it is not the working class that you will find fluttering away their money on pints, this might sound very cruel and very hardcore but its reality and sometimes the truth is hard to bare but there is only one way we will recover and that is to work our way out and that's what us Irish are very good at but we must do it as a nation not as part of the nation who will carry the rest, society will suffer and so will the pockets of every hard working person so from boom to bust that's what its been since I moved home and I hope that with some good decisions at government level the good times may return just a more realistic view of what good times mean and not the madness that enveloped Ireland in what was romantically referred to as the naughties.
Until next time x
