Old Primary school English Irish and Religion : anyone remember 'Myth and Magic'?

Jaygon2009

O.k, we have had many threads on here about the older English and Irish books we had at Primary school. As a teacher, with a keen interest in curriculum development, I have spent the last year trying to track some of the more popular series:

For English, I have tracked most of The Rainbow Reader series of the 1980's

I'll make a list, showing what I have and what I'm missing!

Stage One : Book One Ann and Barry (missing)
Stage One : Book Two Lots of Fun (Ann and Barry) (missing)
Stage Two : Book One At the Zoo (Ann and Barry) (Have it)
Stage Two : Book Two Happy Days (Ann and Barry) (Have it)
Stage Two : Book Three Down on the Farm (Have it)
Stage Two : Book Four Away to Fairyland (Have it)
Stage Two : Books 5 and 6, I am missing , one is called 'Myth and Magic', the other I am uncertain.

Stage Three Book One: Flying Colours
Stage Three Book Two: Silver Springs
Stage Four Book One : Treasure Seekers
Stage Four Book Two : Crock of Gold

Can anybody remember what the missing reader was called, it would have been from second class, I vaguely remember it having a story in it about Midas and the golder touch (although maybe this was in 'Myth and Magic' which I am also missing!


For Irish : Lorcain agus lúsaí luch etc.
I have all of these with the exception of the pre-reader which was called 'Tús ré'

Lúsaí
Pól agus a chairde
Seán agus an fathach
Diarmuid an dragúin
An fear sneachta
Scéalta scoile
Ispíní agus subh
Peadar Pluaise
Spaslong
Tine Chnámh
Dioscó na mbó

Hope I haven't forgotton to type one.

I also have tracked down all (but one) of the religion tapes with all those old songs! If anybody else has tracked these, I am missing the tape from senior infants.

Hopefully someone's memory will also fill in the missing English reader!

UhOh

where the hell did you track down all those old English books?? I had from Flying Colours on but I defo remember the second class having something about Midas or gold in the title aswell. Or there definitely a Midas story in one of them, prehaps that what it was...Myths & Magic sounds very familiar

Any chance of posting up some pics of Flying Colours, Sliver Springs, Treasure Seekers & Crock of Gold?? They would bring back some memories.....

Jaygon2009

Hi UH-Oh, The missing book was called 'The Golden Gate' and it came after Myth and Magic,
When I get back to work in a week or so I will sort something out for you!

Qe2

I have being trying for the last 12 months, annoying friends and family to source a book I did in primary school the crock of gold. I see by your posting that you were successful in locating it. Wonder if you could tell where and how you located it

Jaygon2009

I got it a few years back when collecting up sme old Irish primary school books. It is the sixth class book in the series.

dlofnep

I rememeber Ann & Barry and all the Irish ones. I kept all the Irish ones, but lost them a few years ago when cleaning up the house

Dubfella

Jaygon2009 wrote: »

O.k, we have had many threads on here about the older English and Irish books we had at Primary school. As a teacher, with a keen interest in curriculum development, I have spent the last year trying to track some of the more popular series:

For English, I have tracked most of The Rainbow Reader series of the 1980's

I'll make a list, showing what I have and what I'm missing!

Stage One : Book One Ann and Barry (missing)
Stage One : Book Two Lots of Fun (Ann and Barry) (missing)
Stage Two : Book One At the Zoo (Ann and Barry) (Have it)
Stage Two : Book Two Happy Days (Ann and Barry) (Have it)
Stage Two : Book Three Down on the Farm (Have it)
Stage Two : Book Four Away to Fairyland (Have it)
Stage Two : Books 5 and 6, I am missing , one is called 'Myth and Magic', the other I am uncertain.

Stage Three Book One: Flying Colours
Stage Three Book Two: Silver Springs
Stage Four Book One : Treasure Seekers
Stage Four Book Two : Crock of Gold

Can anybody remember what the missing reader was called, it would have been from second class, I vaguely remember it having a story in it about Midas and the golder touch (although maybe this was in 'Myth and Magic' which I am also missing!


For Irish : Lorcain agus lúsaí luch etc.
I have all of these with the exception of the pre-reader which was called 'Tús ré'

Lúsaí
Pól agus a chairde
Seán agus an fathach
Diarmuid an dragúin
An fear sneachta
Scéalta scoile
Ispíní agus subh
Peadar Pluaise
Spaslong
Tine Chnámh
Dioscó na mbó

Hope I haven't forgotton to type one.

I also have tracked down all (but one) of the religion tapes with all those old songs! If anybody else has tracked these, I am missing the tape from senior infants.

Hopefully someone's memory will also fill in the missing English reader!

Was the missing reader the golden gate??

Jaygon2009

Yep....that it was!

There were two other Ann and Barry Readers that were not on that original list also... Ann and Barry Again and Play with Us!

A great series!

UhOh

Jaygon you need to post some pics.....I can see the books in my head but I'd love to see them for real again

Dubfella

UhOh wrote: »

Jaygon you need to post some pics.....I can see the books in my head but I'd love to see them for real again

It's mad what ya remember from the days of yore haha

Jaygon2009

I will have to do some scanning, will definitely get around to it

darkdubh

Did any of the English books you mention have a story about a busker who finds a magic fiddle in a dump and then becomes rich and famous only to lose it all when he breaks the fiddle in a fit of temper?In about third class in the early 80's we had a book with that story in but can't remember what it was called.

actuallylike

Midas definitely rings a bell for me. I can remember the pictures, vaguely. That also reminds me of another story, possibly in the same book about why the sea is salty. Seemingly some guy had a machine that constantly made salt then dropped it in the sea (the fool). No idea if there was a moral to it?

UhOh

actuallylike wrote: »

That also reminds me of another story, possibly in the same book about why the sea is salty. Seemingly some guy had a machine that constantly made salt then dropped it in the sea (the fool). No idea if there was a moral to it?

Yes I remember that one aswell....

Jaygon2009

Hmm....I will have to have a look when I get home to my parents at the end of the month (where I have the books)

I don't remember those stories. It could be that they were included in the 'Hopscotch' series, the CJ Fallon Reading Programme that came before 'Rainbow'.
They could also have been part of an English programme by another publisher. I will have a look.

Jaygon2009

Why the sea is salt is indeed in 'The Golden Gate'.

The fiddle story may have been in a later book in the series (have to fish it out)

Dubfella

Winter Short Stories
Why the Sea is Salt
Long ago, there were two brothers, one rich and one poor. The Rich Brother was stingy. It was winter. The wind howled down the chimney, and the snow almost covered the hut in which the Poor Brother lived.

"We cannot starve," said the Poor Brother to his wife. "I will ask my brother to help us."

Now it annoyed the Rich Brother to have the Poor Brother ask for help. When the Poor Brother asked for bread, the Rich Brother said angrily, "Here, take this ham and go to the dwarfs. They will boil it for you."

So the Poor Brother started out, with the ham under his arm, to find the home of the dwarfs. He trudged on through the snow until he saw seven queer little dwarfs rolling a huge snowball, at the foot of a hill.

The dwarfs paid no attention to the Poor Brother, but kept on rolling the snowball, which grew larger and larger each moment, as they sang,

"Behind the door
The Mill you'll find,
But snow, the Mill
Will never grind.
We'll gather snow,
And still more snow,
Then roll it down
To cool Below."

"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed the Chief Dwarf. "We have snow enough here to put out a dozen fires. Come, brothers, let us roll the snowball Below!"

"Heave ho! Heave ho!" cried the other six dwarfs.

In the twinkling of an eye, the seven little dwarfs had rolled the snowball through an entrance in the side of the hill.

Down, down, the snowball rolled, until it reached the place where the fires burned. Then sizzle, sizzle, came the hot steam pouring out of the entrance.

All this time the Poor Brother had stood watching the seven dwarfs, and saying not a word. But suddenly he thought, "If I do not go Below at once, there will be no fire left to boil my ham."

So the Poor Brother groped his way through the steam and the smoke, and at last he found his way into the home of the seven dwarfs.

It certainly was a very queer place! There were great fires burning on every side. Although the huge snowball had cooled the air, it had not quenched the fires.

The Chief Dwarf was stirring some fat that was boiling in a kettle. When he saw the Poor Brother standing before him with the ham under his arm, he cried, "Ho, ho! Who comes here?"

Before the Poor Brother could answer, the seven little dwarfs had crowded around him, teasing for the ham. It was many a day since they had tasted ham, and they were very fond of it.

"What will you give me for the ham?" asked the Poor Brother.

"We have neither silver nor gold," said the dwarfs, "but we will give you the Mill that stands behind the door."

"Of what use would the Mill be to me? I am hungry and have come to boil the ham," said the Poor Brother.

"It is a wonderful Mill," the Chief Dwarf replied. "It will grind anything in the world that you might wish, excepting snow and ham. I will show you how to use it."

The Poor Brother agreed to give the ham in exchange for the Mill, and the Chief Dwarf told him how to use it.

The dwarf said, "When you wish the Mill to grind, use these words:

Grind, quickly grind, little Mill,
Grind--with a right good will!
"When you wish the Mill to stop grinding, you must say,

Halt, halt, little Mill!
The Mill will obey you."

Taking the little Mill under his arm, the Poor Brother climbed up and up, until he came to the entrance in the side of the hill. Then he trudged home again through the snow.

When he arrived in front of the hut, he put the little Mill down on the snow, and said at once,

"Grind, quickly grind, little Mill,
Grind a HOUSE--with a right good will!"
The little Mill ground and ground, until there stood, in place of the hut, the finest house in the world. It had fine large windows and broad stairways, and the house was furnished from garret to cellar.

By spring, the Mill had ground out the last article that was needed for the house, and the Poor Brother cried,

"Halt, halt, little Mill!"
The Mill obeyed him.

Then the Poor Brother placed the Mill in the barnyard and told it to grind horses, cows, woolly sheep, and fat little pigs.

When he told it to halt, the Mill stopped grinding.

The Poor Brother carried the Mill to the fields and commanded it to grind rich crops of wheat, oats, barley, and corn.

Then he took the Mill into the house and asked it to grind fine clothing for his wife and his daughters, and to keep all the cupboards filled with good things to eat.

At last the Poor Brother had everything that he wanted. He placed the Mill behind the kitchen door and sat down, with his wife and daughters, to eat the choicest food he had ever tasted.

The Rich Brother heard about all the strange things that had happened, and he went to visit the Poor Brother.

"How did you manage to become so rich?" he asked in astonishment.

The Poor Brother told about the Mill, and that he need only say,

"Grind, quickly grind, little Mill,
Grind--with a right good will!"
And the Mill would grind anything he might wish to have.

The Rich Brother did not wait to hear any more but said, "Lend the Mill to me for an hour."

Taking it under his arm, the stingy Rich Brother ran across the fields toward home.

His wife was in the hayfield, spreading the hay after the mowers. He passed her on the way home and told her that he would attend to breakfast that morning.

"I will call you when all is ready," said he.

When the Rich Brother reached home, he placed the Mill on the table, and told it to grind porridge and red herrings.

The Mill began at once to grind oatmeal porridge and fat red herrings.

All the dishes and pans were soon filled. Then the porridge and herrings began to flow over the kitchen floor into the yard.

The Rich Brother tried to stop the Mill. He turned and twisted and screwed the handle, but he could not stop it, for he did not know the magic words.

At last he waded through the porridge across the fields to the mowers, crying, "Help! Help!"

When he told the mowers about the Mill, they said, "Ask your brother to stop the Mill, or we shall be drowned in porridge."

Then the Rich Brother ran to the Poor Brother's house, crying and shouting for help.

The Poor Brother laughed when he found out what had happened. They rowed back to the kitchen in a boat, and the Poor Brother whispered the magic words. The Mill stopped grinding.

In the course of time, the porridge soaked into the ground, but after that nothing would grow there excepting oats, and afterwards the brooks and ponds were always filled with herrings.

The Rich Brother no longer wished to keep the Mill. The Poor Brother carried it home once more and placed it behind the door.

Years afterwards, a rich merchant sailed from a distant land and anchored his ship in the harbor. He visited the home of the Poor Brother and asked about the Mill, for he had heard how wonderful it was.

"Will it grind salt?" the merchant asked.

"Yes, indeed!" said the Poor Brother. "It will grind anything in the whole world excepting snow and ham."

"Let me borrow the Mill for a short time, and great will be your reward," said the merchant.

He thought it would be much easier to fill his ship with salt from the Mill, than to make a long voyage across the ocean to procure his cargo.

The Poor Brother consented gladly. The merchant went away with the Mill. He did not wait to find out how to stop the grinding.

When the merchant went aboard the ship, he said to the captain, "Here is a great treasure. Guard it carefully."

The captain thought that the little Mill did not appear very wonderful, but he placed it upon the deck of the ship. Then he ordered the sailors to their posts of duty, and the ship sailed away.

When they were out at sea, the merchant said, "Captain, we need not go any further upon our voyage. The Mill will grind out salt enough to fill the hold of the ship."

So saying he cried,

"Grind, quickly grind, little Mill,
Grind SALT--with a right good will!"
And the Mill ground salt, and more salt, and still more salt. When the hold of the ship was full of salt, the merchant cried, "Now you must stop, little Mill."

But the little Mill did not stop. It kept on grinding salt, and more salt, and still more salt.

The captain shouted, "We shall be lost! The ship will sink!"

One of the sailors called, "Ahoy, captain! Throw the Mill overboard."

So, heave ho! Heave ho! And overboard went the wonderful Mill, down to the bottom of the deep sea.

The captain and his crew sailed home with the merchant's cargo of salt.

But the Mill kept on grinding salt at the bottom of the sea.

AND THAT IS WHY THE SEA IS SALT.

At least, so some people say.

Jaygon2009

The version in 'The Golden Gate' is simplified but tells the same story!

MvsC3

This Thread was very useful today, its bizzare the things you end up discussing, I could only remember two of them, thanks for posting the list OP, great

BluesBerry

Icarus the boy who flew to close to the sun was another story I'm thinking it was 1st class can't be to sure though I just remember loving that story when I was in school

On another note the religion book either senior infants ,1st class or third class I remember at the start of the book for a note to parents something was written that must have offended someone because I remember my principle at the time came in and and told us to scribble out a particular chapter with pencil , a few years later I seen this book and it said something along the lines of "God is like a policeman and will punish you" It always stuck in my mind because the principle was actually allowing us to deface our books , books that were to be handed down to other siblings lol

cleanslate

Hi, I wonder if you can help me, in one of those English Readers (3rd class to 6th class) (Stages 3-4)there was a story set in the future about a boy and a girl, and they read books on what now are e-readers and kindles, I have never forgotten that story and it's amazing that it has finally come true, I wonder if you could please give me any information on it, as I have been trying to find anything about it for over a year, I am beginning to think I imagined it. I am 99.99% sure it was in the 4th or 5th class reader.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane

MvsC3

I believe the story you are thinking of is called "the way we were" the boy and girl of the future were envious of past pupils because they got to go to school with their friends instead of being home schooled by technology, hope this helps a bit

quickbeam

I remember that story about e-readers alright. I was only thinking about it recently actually. I remember one of the kids in the story thought it was odd the thought of books in paper format that could just be thrown away once read.

WindSock

I remember a few stories from first or second class. I do remember Icarus and Midas, but also Samson and his pricely haircut, one about a slave in Rome who pulled out a thorn from a lion's paw and the lion remembered him so didn't eat him and some leprechaun stories about pins being in a girls bed all the time and ribbons tied around trees to confuse the man as to where the crock of gold was buried.
Seeing those books again would be cool.

An Riabhach

Wow,what a thread.

Seeing the names of all these books again-makes me remember some of the stories we did,but can't remember which books they came from:

A Strange Cure
The Golden Touch
The story of Jack fooling the three devils(Jack O'Lantern)
The Iron Man
The Glittering Cloud
How the Indians Came to have Fire
The Story of Páidín and the fairies

We had workbooks also,called "Look!I can Do It" and "Work Away".

For Gaeilge,we used the series of FÁS readers i.e.A,B,C,D,E,F,G,some of the Stories we did were Oíche Ciúin,Clann Lir,Ali Baba,An tAsal,Bodach an Chóta Lachna and Tír na nÓg.Once we were done with the FÁS books,we used Féasta,Sléibhte and Coillte.Anseo Is Ansiúd was another book we used,as well as the readers.

The only books I remember for religion are Come And See,and My Friends.
I think the one we used in sixth class had a picture of the sunset on the cover....

UhOh

we need some pics/scans in this thread!! Come on Jaygon

byhookorbycrook

What about the Huggy Bear and Patsy Panda books?

ronanmatson

Hey, I remember that one too! That brings back some serious memories! I remember in school, my dad made me read a page of the book every night. However he didn't say which one... I picked out this story which I think was called "the way they were" because it had one of the shortest pages in the book and proceeded to read it every night ... Until I pretty much remembered it off by heart...

Here goes...

Margie was hurt, she read the book over his shoulder for a while, then said anyway, they had a teacher but it wasn't a proper teacher, it was a man. A man? How can a man be a teacher? Well he just told them stories and asked them questions. A man can't know as much as a teacher. Sure he can my father knows as much as my teacher.

Over 20 years on and I still remember, I wonder how long I read it for?!?

dicky82

From the primary Irish school books there were four characters.
Mici, rira, lulu and who was the fourth I think it's Elle or something.

cleanslate

MvsC3 wrote: »

I believe the story you are thinking of is called "the way we were" the boy and girl of the future were envious of past pupils because they got to go to school with their friends instead of being home schooled by technology, hope this helps a bit

Thank you so much, yes it was! I would love to read it again, thanks :-)

cleanslate

ronanmatson wrote: »

Hey, I remember that one too! That brings back some serious memories! I remember in school, my dad made me read a page of the book every night. However he didn't say which one... I picked out this story which I think was called "the way they were" because it had one of the shortest pages in the book and proceeded to read it every night ... Until I pretty much remembered it off by heart...

Here goes...

Margie was hurt, she read the book over his shoulder for a while, then said anyway, they had a teacher but it wasn't a proper teacher, it was a man. A man? How can a man be a teacher? Well he just told them stories and asked them questions. A man can't know as much as a teacher. Sure he can my father knows as much as my teacher.

Over 20 years on and I still remember, I wonder how long I read it for?!?

Thank you for the line!!!! I was able to google it from that and found the full story 'http://users.aber.ac.uk/dgc/funtheyhad.html' really enjoyed reading it again, with our kindles and e-readers we're on our way to 2157 haha :-)