Milk bottles spark Millennium memories

IT’S hard to believe but this time 25 years ago, back in 1988, Dubliners were celebrating the city’s Millennium.

One of the most iconic souvenirs from that year was the Premier Dairies Millennium Milk Bottle and doorstep milkmen service, MyMilkman.ie, has reproduced the bottle to commemorate the event.

The company also commissioned a survey among Dubliners over the age of 35 to find out what they remembered from the Millennium of ’88, and what they missed about Dublin from that time.

But let’s get the things we don’t miss out of the way first. The top three in that list were smog, former Taoiseach Charlie Haughey and

“waiting an hour for a bus.

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The people we do associate positively with the

’80s were actor Colm Meaney (19 per cent) and singer, song writer and political activist Bob Geldof (16 per cent) who were voted as our favourite living Dubliners who were famous back them.

The popular pair beat Brendan Grace, Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Moran and Bono to the top spot. Actor Gabriel Byrne was voted favourite among one in 10 Dublin women over the age of 35.

In entertainment, Dubliners voted Ian Dempsey as favourite living DJ or TV personality from 1988. He was followed closely by Gay Byrne, Dave Fanning and Ray Darcy.

Dubliners also called for the return of Dermot Morgan’s satirical radio sketch show, Scrap Saturday, while other

’80s favourites included Strumpet City and rural soap, Glenroe.

According to Dubs, The Pink Elephant Nightclub was the No 1 place to be seen in Dublin in 1988, and they’d like to see it re-open, along with music venue McGonagles.

The Premier Milk Millennium Bottle came out on top as one of Dublin’s best memories from 1988. To celebrate, replicas of the much sought after retro bottle will be delivered to doorstep customers by milkmen across the city from this week.

Amanda Ryan from Premier Milk said:

“We were amazed to find out that three out of four Dubliners don’t know that milkmen still exist. We also discovered that many Dubliners have kept their original Millennium milk bottle as an heirloom or they still use it as an ornament or vase.

“We’re delighted that both the milkman and the commemorative bottle are making a comeback!

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Do you remember..?

Dublin’s Millennium celebrations were the brainchild of Dublin City Manager, Frank Feely, who wanted to bring back a sense of pride and confidence in the city

Despite controversy around the exact historical date, the Millennium was widely celebrated in 1988 and was a welcome boost to the capital.

As well as the Premier Dairies Millennium Bottle, a commemorative Millennium 50p coin was also minted. It was the first decimal coin to feature words on it. The word

‘Dublin’ appeared in Roman script and

‘Áth Cliath’ in Gaelic script.

Here’s a few more 1988 memories:

?¢ Carmencita Hederman was Dublin’s Lord Mayor in the first half of the Millennium year, while Ben Briscoe took over in the second half.

?¢ As part of the festivities, a sculpture of Gulliver was sent floating down the

River Liffey.

?¢ In 1988, the Republic of Ireland soccer team celebrated their most historic win in 60 years. They beat England one-nil in the European Football Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

?¢ Sculptor Eamonn Doherty designed the Anna Livia, affectionately christened by Dubliners as the

‘Floozie in the Jacuzzi’. It was commissioned by businessman Michael Smurfit.

?¢ The Molly Malone statue on Grafton Street was unveiled by Lord Mayor Ben Briscoe.

?¢ Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre was officially opened.

?¢ U2 released Rattle and Hum.

?¢ The 1988 Eurovision Song Contest was hosted in Dublin for the third time.

?¢ In January, the Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl reached No 1 in the charts with Fairytale of New York.

?¢ In June, The Boys in Green sung by the Republic of Ireland Soccer Squad sat at the top of the charts for four weeks.