The Irish authored books on the shelf in primary school

Monkey61

that you have never heard of since...

That mention of "Joe in the Middle" by Tony Hicky

- Fionnuala the Glendalough Goat by Vera Pettigrew.
- Any of those Robbers books by Carolyn Swift, Robbers in the city, Robbers on Tv, there were robbers feckin' everywhere.
- Loads of Tony Hicky - particularly Spike and the professor, and Doreen, at the races.
- The Summer of Lily and Esme by John Quinn
- And those S.K.U.N.K. books - were they even Irish
- Tom McCaughren's god awful animal books - Run Swift Run Free, Run to Earth etc.

I have to say I absolutely hated every single one of them and still hold a grudge against Poolbeg press for torturing me with so many titles. Of course the ubiquitous "Under the Hawthorn Tree" which does actually hold a special place in my heart. Oh how I flinched when they bled the cow to make black pudding.

So come on...any more?

Ann22

I don't remember many books on our shelves but I remember the books we had for reading.. like the Hopscotch readers. With Maura, Sean and Rusty the dog. Then the more interesting ones like 'Deirdre' the Irish legend,'The Secret Place' about a girl who ran away with a calf 'cos her father was going to sell him and her dog Bilko.A tree fell on her leg or something.The last one I did was in 3rd class 'The Tara Brooch'The first Irish reader I had was Bran (a black poodle I think). The 5th and 6th class books we had were good 'Lift off' and 'Reaching Out'. They had cool short stories in them.

Firetrap

I remember too a reader called Trouble in the Mountains which was from around second class or so. I think the plot revolved around sheep being stolen in Headford in an ambulance. Honestly, you couldn't make these things up. I remember the Tara Brooch book as well. It led me to seek it out the first time I ever stood in the National Museum

Ann22

Feck yeah! I do remember 'Trouble in the mountains'. They were looking for sheep in the snow. I think I could be wrong in thinking there was one called 'deirdre'-it could've been called something else as it started off with a family waiting to watch a circus on tv and it went on the blink and some uncle who was there told them the story of 'Deirdre'. Wasn't there one as well about a gang of children who sneaked into a grouchy old man's garden to play, think he was called 'moneybags'. Think the flowers stopped blooming when he threw them out.

_blank_

The Shamrogues

MagicMarker

Well i went to primary school in england.. I remember reading the likes of rahl dahl (sp?), Danny the Champion of the World etc..

Also Burglar Bill:)

Pretty much all the Penguin and Ladybird books. For the life of me though i can't really remember any particular titles.

c - 13

The "Hennessy" books by Vincent Banville were a staple on the shelves at our primary school.

Also as someone else mentioned Under the Hawthorn Tree was bloody everywhere but i never actually got around to reading it.

Whoah just had a severe flashback there - Anyone else remember the "Brogeen" Books by Patricia Lynch. Dont know how I remembered those.

Ann22

MagicMarker wrote: »

Well i went to primary school in england.. I remember reading the likes of rahl dahl (sp?), Danny the Champion of the World etc..

Also Burglar Bill:)

Pretty much all the Penguin and Ladybird books. For the life of me though i can't really remember any particular titles.

Think you mean Rohl Dahl who wrote 'The Witches','Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' and many others. The Ladybird books you read could've been the 'Peter and Jane' ones. Don't remember having them at school as textbook readers but they were around a lot, probably on the shelves in the classrooms.

L1011

Bike Hunt, by, erm *googles* Hugh Galt. Ever since reading that I love going up the mountains, although I've yet to triangulate the position of a kidnapped German...

L1011

Ann22 wrote: »

Think you mean Rohl Dahl who wrote 'The Witches','Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' and many others. The Ladybird books you read could've been the 'Peter and Jane' ones. Don't remember having them at school as textbook readers but they were around a lot, probably on the shelves in the classrooms.

Roald

Gauge

Strongbow was an interesting one by Morgan Llyweln, also there was a book about a horse by the same author, it was a dressage horse with a rider who was afraid of jumps and a young lad.

Was a big fan of the Marita Conlon-McKenna books, there was always a waiting list in the school library for them. Wildflower Girl was the best one! I remember the first one spawned a TV movie and my friend and I were excited. We sat down to watch it on RTE and barely lasted five minutes before switching it off, it was absolutely appalling.

Wasn't there a series of diary-type books written by a 14 year old girl? I borrowed one from a friend but found all the graphic period descriptions off-putting, even for me!

Edit: Turns out her name is Claire Hennessy and she's still writing...

grumpytrousers

oh God those Tom McCaughran books were shockin' alright. We didn't get too many Irish ones foisted upon us 'cos they were Irish thank God...I seem to recall it nearly being mandatory that by the time you'd done sixth class, you'd have read all the Chronicles of Narnia - INCLUDING The Magicians Nephew...which now that i think of it was all very progressive...

Scarinae

I remember a series of books about a girl called Rosie who could travel back through time to fix things in her ancestors pasts - one of them was during the civil war I think. Also does anyone remember the Battle Below Giltspur, about a scarecrow belonging to two kids that came to life in Co. Wicklow, and they had to battle the forces of evil with it? There were two other books as well, I absolutely loved them

innocentsmile

Fishie wrote: »

I remember a series of books about a girl called Rosie who could travel back through time to fix things in her ancestors pasts - one of them was during the civil war I think.

Yes! She went to like the 50s to help her mum?
And then her granny in the 20s?
Ah god I loved them. She was a skinhead, no?

last6lbs

Monkey61 wrote: »

that you have never heard of since...

That mention of "Joe in the Middle" by Tony Hicky

- Fionnuala the Glendalough Goat by Vera Pettigrew.
- Any of those Robbers books by Carolyn Swift, Robbers in the city, Robbers on Tv, there were robbers feckin' everywhere.
- Loads of Tony Hicky - particularly Spike and the professor, and Doreen, at the races.
- The Summer of Lily and Esme by John Quinn
- And those S.K.U.N.K. books - were they even Irish
- Tom McCaughren's god awful animal books - Run Swift Run Free, Run to Earth etc.

I have to say I absolutely hated every single one of them and still hold a grudge against Poolbeg press for torturing me with so many titles. Of course the ubiquitous "Under the Hawthorn Tree" which does actually hold a special place in my heart. Oh how I flinched when they bled the cow to make black pudding.

So come on...any more?

Tom McCaughren's books are great, he's still writing. Have you actually read any of

Risteard

A load of books by Cora Harrison, all centered around Drumshee I think it was over various timelines of Irish history. She actually came to the school and talked about how she started writing them. I had a lot of them as a child but haven't heard about them since.

EDIT: I didn't see that this was bumped from 2008.

mikemac

Marita Conlon McKenna and Under the Hawthorn Tree about children in Ireland during the famine.
She had another book about an itinerant girl, I think it was Blue Horse

Good books anyway

Danco

last6lbs wrote: »

Tom McCaughren's books are great, he's still writing.

Yeah, they were awesome! Although I never read the animal ones. But I remember getting a copy of The Legend of the Phantom Highwayman at a bring and buy sale in primary school, loving it and tracking down the rest of his books with those characters in them afterwards. The Legend of the Golden Key was killer!

He also had a book set during The Troubles which was probably my favourite book when I was young, it was called Rainbows of the Moon. He's a great writer, able to write for young people without patronising them. I used to love listening to his reports on the news aswell. He's just really good at whatever he turns his hand to.

darkdubh

I remember in primary school we had Richard Scarry's "Funniest storybook ever" which was illustrated with pictures of animal's acting like people,driving cars and so on.

iguana

Does anyone remember a series of books about teenagers on a housing estate somewhere in Dublin? They mainly centred around one family, most of the books were about the younger daughter who was about 12-13, but some of them were about the older daughter who was 15-16. They would have been like an Irish attempt at a "Sweet Valley" type series. I think they were from the late 80s/early 90s. I never saw them in schools though, they were for sale in poundshops. I remember one was about the younger girl and her friends taking up smoking at the community centre disco.

mental07

Monkey61 wrote: »

- Loads of Tony Hicky - particularly Spike and the professor, and Doreen, at the races.
-

Foodland!


Also, I liked the Tom McCaughren books too.

x_Ellie_x

Does anyone remember the Bright Sparks collection of books. They were books by Irish authors and they were all set in Ireland. I think they must have been given to the schools for free because every class in my school had a collection of them. I actually won about 30 of them for being the student to read the most books in my school during the readathon one year (think it was '90 or '91). I loved those books. Read them over and over again. I still have them up in boxes somewhere. I managed to find one of them: Daisy chain War by Joan O'Neill.



Some of the books in the series where Summer Without Mum by Bernadette Leach, Welcoming the French by Geraldine Mitchell, Searching For A Friend by Maria Quirk Walsh, The Pony Express by Mairin Johnston, Escape to the West by Geraldine Mitchell. Goodbye, Summer, Goodbye by Rose Doyle, Has Anyone Seen Heather by Mary Callaghan, Vanessa by Bernadette Leach.

Does anyone remember them?

RichieC

grumpytrousers wrote: »

oh God those Tom McCaughran books were shockin' alright. We didn't get too many Irish ones foisted upon us 'cos they were Irish thank God...I seem to recall it nearly being mandatory that by the time you'd done sixth class, you'd have read all the Chronicles of Narnia - INCLUDING The Magicians Nephew...which now that i think of it was all very progressive...

Not really progressive, the books are widely criticised as promoting racist stereotypes and being sexist.