Ann and Barry books

solice · 30-06-2003 11:03pm

isn't that, tá brón agam/orm? ach tá gaeilge maith orm?

it was sarcasm, not very good sarcasm ill admit but it was sarcasm

aine · 01-07-2003 12:13am

Axed?! They should have been recalled and then burned in some sort of ritualistic ceremony! Now I can assure you that I am in no way a flaming feminist...I believe in equality thats all....and by equality no I do not mean positive descrimination, in fact if there is one phrase in the English language I hate then it is 'positive descrimination"!

However, Ann and Barry books were without a doubt the worst thing to give impressionable children, the idea of Barry helping Daddy in the garden while Ann helped Mommy in the kitchen is a concept that I should hope is well and truly dead! We should not be encouraging our children to think in any such way!

I'm not a flaming feminist....honest!

de5p0i1er · 02-07-2003 2:10am

Thanks for bringing that up, I hated school and want to forget it and all those terrable thing they made you do. I had the worst teachers on the planet.

oeNeo · 02-07-2003 2:30am

These are still being used in schools. My little brother just finished Junior Infants and he was using the same book I used when I was there, which happens to be the same book all of my sisters used aswell. It brought back so many memories reading over it again.

sunbeam · 02-07-2003 2:46am

Originally posted by aine

However, Ann and Barry books were without a doubt the worst thing to give impressionable children, the idea of Barry helping Daddy in the garden while Ann helped Mommy in the kitchen is a concept that I should hope is well and truly dead! We should not be encouraging our children to think in any such way!

I'm not a flaming feminist....honest!

Anyone remember the uproar that ensued with San Niochlas gave Pol a babog and Niamh a car?:D

Did anyone else have those slideshow as gaeilge things where the entire class had to recite a different storyline by rote each week? Torture! Their precursor was a felt board with stick on velcro figures-we thought getting a screen and projector was the ultimate in high tech.

Our teacher refused point blank to use the one where the women washed up after Christmas dinner while the men sat down and relaxed....

commuterised · 02-07-2003 9:33am

I was talking to my folks about these books at the weekend and my mom produced a 20 year old video of me sitting on the couch reading Ann and Barry books..... OH MY GOD.

and my fav book of all time, Puppies and Kittens!

Kalina · 02-07-2003 9:46am

Does anyone remember "Ann and Barry on the Farm"? It was a big day for us junior infants when we fianlly finished "Ann and Barry" and moved up to "Ann and Barry on the Farm"!

Stark · 02-07-2003 9:53am

we never got that far, had to leave for secondary school.

Kalina · 02-07-2003 3:59pm

Ah k.oriordan, you missed out there!

RobertFoster · 02-07-2003 11:55pm

Originally posted by sunbeam Did anyone else have those slideshow as gaeilge things where the entire class had to recite a different storyline by rote each week? Torture!

I HATED that projector. Made me sick - not only had the whole class to read it, but sometimes individuals were picked on to read. I was bad enough reading in English, let alone as Gaeilge!

We were taking turns to read in class one day. As the person beside me started to read I hopped up and went into the bathroom to hide. I could heard the teacher throught the wall asking "is he alright?" lol, and I thought I wasn't drawing attention to myself

Anyway, to stay on topic, I remember Ann and Barry. Didn't like them, didn't hate them. I can't remember the stories even.

Amz · 05-07-2003 2:59pm

*shudder* at reminder of projector! I hated that with a passion! I never got to be the one who moved the film through either (still bitter about that, it might have made it slightly more interesting)

Used to read Ann and Barry books, still have them all in a box in my room. For Irish class we read Seal ag Leamh, if I remember correctly that was only up to first class. My mam has a problem with throwing out things I even have a box with her old school books.

In first class I think we had The Golden Gate or something like that. We thought we were the bees knees getting a school book which was longer than 30 pages!

Now I'm lucky if I have a text book less than 400 pages!

mcgarnicle · 13-07-2003 5:50pm

Ewwwww those projectors sucked. I remember our teacher made a big deal of it made out like we were going to get a movie to watch, we were all dead excited and then we had to spend the next few hrs reading irish THAT STANK!!!!! I think the projector is the reason i cant speak irish must have conditioned my brain to Irish= reading boring muck for hrs

Chevano Riley · 14-07-2003 12:39pm

are they the same kids as had a dog called holly and dusty the cat, or am i confused. i remember their parents always made them burgers and chips. the more i think, it was probably a brit book.

billy the squid · 22-07-2003 4:54pm

We did the peter and jane books in school for english then the hopscotch ones followed by the hopscotch extention ones and then the rainbow books

never did ann and barry but my sister did in her school

Seal ag leabh and the projector was what we had for irish
Pol agus niamh i think they were called and the bloke in the slideshow was paide

Lukin Black · 17-08-2003 7:49pm

We had the Anne & Barry books for English, and the Áine agus Rónan ones for Irish.

Blast from the past:

BossArky · 17-08-2003 9:35pm

I remember that I would get really hungry whenever there were cakes in the books. Not sure if it was Ann or Barry though. I can barely remember those two, but the names will forever stick in my head. What kind of education where they trying to brain-wash us with???? That whole men do tough stuff whilst women wash-up??? Who was Minister for education then and why did they let him/her get away with having such tripe on the ciriculum?

Agh the memories!

Lukin Black · 17-08-2003 11:34pm

I think it just fitted in with the times that were in it. It's not all that long ago that those kind of things were the norm, and although we have changed our public attitudes, I think to a large extent lots of us are still of the mind that certain things are girly, and certain other things for lads.

sheleentje · 28-02-2004 7:15pm

*bursts out laughing*

Wow this topic has made my day (esp. that pic)
I have some up in the attic as well...gotta get them out tomorrow! And look trough some of my irish school books.

penguinbloke · 01-03-2004 10:43am

Axed for the sheer p.c. of it, the book was deemed to be Sexist with Mammy in the kitchen, Daddy in the garden, Ann helping mammy, and Barry helping daddy.

Its replacement (Tara and Ben* possibly not real names but should do the job) was totally different with Mammy in the kitchen, Daddy in the garden, Ben helping Mammy, and Tara helping Daddy.

Such a dfference.

RobertFoster · 01-03-2004 11:14am

Originally posted by penguinbloke
Tara and Ben

Yeah, they were the next pair. I don't know if they're still going, or somthing else has replaced them.

SantaHoe · 03-03-2004 8:15am

Originally posted by Lukin Black
We had the Anne & Barry books for English, and the Áine agus Rónan ones for Irish.

Blast from the past:

Jesus, I haven't seen that cover in almost 20 years... mega-flashback & shudder.

gucci · 03-03-2004 1:39pm

ann barry......at bottom of page,new words on this page section ann barry

a source of much bullying by me being actually called barry and a girl in my class also havin the similar misfortune of being called ann....wasnt as pretty as the one in the book either

byte · 04-03-2004 12:47am

I have 2 of my primary school books (still!).

My infants one had Tom and Nora. And a dog called Spot.

Another one has Bess and Sam. That book was printed in 1978! :eek: Though I didn't start primary school until a few years after that.

Unpossible · 04-03-2004 2:08pm

wasn't there Diramuid an Dragún ? and Pól, I think Pól was a snake or a worm

BigO · 09-03-2004 12:19pm

i'd say he was a worm cause good ol' st. patrick got rid of snakes.

yeah remember in tara and ben when thier friends (conor) dad's toothpaste factory exploded and it went everywhere,

I also think conor owned some sort of speakeasy or a convienience store.

Holly and Dusty were the cats and dog's alright!

I actually remember whatthe first page looked like showing our two lead stars in their grey school uniform.

I was a good bit ahead in tara and ben and got to read the one with the polar bear in a hot air ballon, ( now that was one underground scripture). Wrote by the same crew as tara and ben but it was wild!

i remember the irish book as well it was crazy! monkey men and all!.
In one of the irish books at one stage they had a story call - An Doppelganger. some wild stuff about a nazi escaping some POW camp and having a replacement, well thats how i enterpret it!

oh well.... better not reminisce much more or will never stop

simu · 10-03-2004 11:40pm

We also had Peter and Jane Ladybird books at school for extra reading once you were done with the Ann and Barrys - I used to read them really fast but no matter how fast i went, there waere always more and more to read. Argh!

I also remember a certain Lug agus Lag in Irish - one was a bald old guy if I tremember correctly and the two used to topple on top of each other all the time. Hmm, that sounds a bit dodgy actually.

Plus, in english, there were books like Myth and Magic and Silver Springs that had Greek Myths in them - Midas, Icarus and so on. That knowledge of classical culture has stood me well over the years!

Then, Irish grammar books - Tar Liom, Éist Liom, Siúl Liom and so on - full of lovely exercises. Anybody remeber the cartoons in Tar Liom? They were hilarious - the drunk driver one and the boy eating his breakfast and surprised by a chicken popping out ogf his egg - the look on his face was priceless!

Last but not least, we had weird English books from South Africa (I think) that we used after we had gone through the standard schoolbooks - I remember a spider from Tanzania or Jamaica or something who went on a voyage on a boat or something!

BigO · 11-03-2004 12:10am

That south africa book sounds wild!!!

I'm abit younger, but i still used suil liom at some times, its was alot better than blaeden, bun go barr, That was a crazy book always had easy q's at begining then real hard ones at the end!

when I was doing the leaving cert last year I really needed to know my basics in Irish in german and I dug out good old osbourne book - german for begginers!

Sounds stupid but the picture with the labels for the holiday resort actually saved my ass I scraped passed with a d2 in higher level, all I needed

.

LoneGunM@n · 23-03-2004 12:25pm

I must have a root around in the storage, because I'm sure I saw a bag of my old school books when I was in there last.

I loved the Ann & Barry books! Strangely, when someone mentioned Ann & Barry on the Farm, I got a strange shiver up my back :dunno: I'd completely forgotten about that 1, but I remember now that I loved it

Hope it's in with all the old school books. I'll sit down tonight & relax for 3.5 minuted whilst I read it

jill_valentine · 25-03-2004 5:00pm

Theres something very Children-of-the-damned about Anne and Barry. Silver Spring etc. were great though.

But christ how I hated that projector. we'd just learn the stuff off by heart and have no idea what we were saying. What benefit is that? Plus our projector caught fire repeatedly...f*cker was lethal.

Nala · 26-03-2004 4:25pm

Ann & Barry-The Movie.
RTE should cash in on us retrokids.:D

Ann and Barry books

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