I've used Ireland's Own stories and articles in 5th & 6th class, always handy to have a few in the classroom, as they are normally quite well written and the children don't see many examples of well-written stories and articles these days except in textbooks. For the more able reader/early finishers, they are an excellent resource to have in the classroom, also good for comprehension exercises and for history projects! Crosswords and the lives of the popes and saints are useful too for the more-fact-hungry childrren in the classroom.

Long may it continue I say, one of the few things that INM own that is making money....?

Originally Posted by FrankSpeaks

A journalist! I'd say they had to employ a few sub-editors just for you as well.

indeed fRANK-WHILE im a much better typist than my posts on this site would suggest-Im really bad and have to spend extra time corrceting typos before filing copy.....

Originally Posted by SayItAintSo

Ah yes, Mallory Towers, St Clares, The Chalet School. I adored all those stories, still have most of the books too (I'm a dreadful hoarder when it comes to books, if they're a 'keeper' that's it). They're still in book shops I'm happy to note, childen must still love them.

If you have some Chalet School novels in hardback, in good condition, they are quite valuable...

June and School Friend comics from the 50s and 60s are always in demand...

If you want to add to your vintage collection, a company in London called "30th Century Comics" sells them cheaply.

While I wish Ireland's Own the best of luck, and it's great to see something doing well in these hard-pressed times, nevertheless I do not have warm memories of it...

It represented that awful cultural poverty that I associate with my childhood where books were hard to get, and for a bookworm child like me from a poor family, the only stuff on offer was Catholic magazines like The Far East, or else Ireland's Own with its unlikely yarns and threadbare plots, its woeful jokes, and limited cultural references...

Oh how I longed for exciting books and magazines that could tell me of wild exotic places, cities, worlds of beauty, adventure, wit...we had no television, and my imagination had long over-leaped the narrow world of Ireland's Own, and needed something to nourish it.....

I loved Treasure Island and A Tale Of Two Cities which I won in a school essay competition, but there were few bookshops outside of the big cities, and books were sort of frowned on in the censorious Catholic Ireland of the time..

In my mid-teens a priest who was a friend of the family used to give me the New Yorker magazine...fantastic..

When I think of the cornucopia of reading material that kids have today, I envy them...

And Girl, a lot of kids don't read nowadays!

My son is reading The Count of Monte Cristo at the moment, I'm delighted to see it. I used to eat books but, my Mother used to think that it was a big waste of time, so, I went to the bathroom to read, my Mum thought I was constipated!!

Originally Posted by gatsbygirl20

There are not enough P.ie ladies of my vintage to remember the glory days of June And School Friend...(sigh)....

Ah, but the men of that vintage are here, ma'am! I can well remember Sindy doll coming aboard J&SF, back in the mid-60's!

I also read my sister's Bunty, Jackie (esp. the Cathy and Claire problem page - the frequently recurring problem being that one boob was bigger than the other!), etc. etc. with a quasi-Talibanesque devotion! I often wondered which of the Four Marys would be the best option for a quick knee trembler in the undergrowth - in those innocent days, the idea of a foursome simply wouldn't have occurred to me!

Fortunately, the Imeldist constantly reminded me that only the chaste would make it to Paradise.

Originally Posted by Rural

And Girl, a lot of kids don't read nowadays!

My son is reading The Count of Monte Cristo at the moment, I'm delighted to see it. I used to eat books but, my Mother used to think that it was a big waste of time, so, I went to the bathroom to read, my Mum thought I was constipated!!

Yes, my mother was the same, although she was a great believer in education.

The nuns were like that too.

What was it?

I think there was that robust outdoor Catholic thing that feared solitude. You were supposed to do everything in groups, even go on dates in groups! (according to uber-Catholic agony aunt, Angela McNamara)

You had to avoid solitude as "an occasion of sin"

You might get "notions" from books--- daft, non-Catholic ideas...

The nuns would confiscate "unsuitable" novels. And nearly every novel was "unsuitable", or had a "non-Catholic tone"...

We who were bookworms would "score" books like they were illegal substances, swapping with each other, giving each other pointers on where to get books..

There was a deep Philistine anti-intellectualism in Ireland at that time, where the artist was shunned, feared or censored..

Perhaps I am over-stating it, but when I think of the book clubs of today, the way we celebrate writers, the way we try to get our kids to read....

Its great to see the magazine doing well even in these dark days. Of course some of it is old and cliched but maybe for once a magazine is giving its readers what it wants rather than sexing it up and getting in a load of focus groups to modernise the image etc

I remember reading it as a kid and laughing at the personals but are they any different to today's ads being put on POF, anotherfriend etc ? For TT Sober farmer in 2012 is now busy 30 something professional

Originally Posted by gatsbygirl20

n...evertheless I do not have warm memories of it...

It represented that awful cultural poverty that I associate with my childhood where books were hard to get, and for a bookworm child like me from a poor family, the only stuff on offer was Catholic magazines like The Far East, or else Ireland's Own with its unlikely yarns and threadbare plots, its woeful jokes, and limited cultural references...

Oh how I longed for exciting books and magazines that could tell me of wild exotic places, cities, worlds of beauty, adventure, wit...we had no television, and my imagination had long over-leaped the narrow world of Ireland's Own, and needed something to nourish it.....

I loved Treasure Island and A Tale Of Two Cities which I won in a school essay competition, but there were few bookshops outside of the big cities, and books were sort of frowned on in the censorious Catholic Ireland of the time..

I hear you. Been there. As a child,there was little to read for me where I lived in the bog (literally...it looked like the Dead Marshes outside my door). The adult books were of little interest;mainly pious stuff-including those magazines- and patriotic stuff full of pictures of men with enormous beards and sideburns. There was a strange, varied collection of old books full of baffling engravings,including a 1906 encyclopedia which I perused with curiousity. Later when my mother began to get away, she used to return with books for me,including a series callad 'Classics Illustrated' that consisted of illustrated-comic book versions-of famous novels. that was where I first encountered the afore-mentioned count, Doctor Jekyll,Charles Dickens, Jules Verne, the Three Musketeers and more. There was Irelands Own in the house,of course,but I took little interest in it...unless there was a ghost Story.
Then one day a visitor brought in a magazine called Look and Learn and that world of "wild exotic places, cities, worlds of beauty, adventure, wit" began to be revealed.

Originally Posted by Mushroom

Ah, but the men of that vintage are here, ma'am! I can well remember Sindy doll coming aboard J&SF, back in the mid-60's!

I also read my sister's Bunty, Jackie (esp. the Cathy and Claire problem page - the frequently recurring problem being that one boob was bigger than the other!), etc. etc. with a quasi-Talibanesque devotion! I often wondered which of the Four Marys would be the best option for a quick knee trembler in the undergrowth - in those innocent days, the idea of a foursome simply wouldn't have occurred to me!

Fortunately, the Imeldist constantly reminded me that only the chaste would make it to Paradise.

I am surprised so many boys read the girls' mags and boarding school stories (which I read too). I remember the Just William books and I used to laugh all the time. Then when I read it when I was older I did not find them so funny. And I loved Enid Blyton, and how embarrassingly bad they are when you read them as an adult

Many years later I happened to be waiting at a bus stop in an industrial area sharing it with a boy in his late teens. He was reading an article on loneliness in a woman's magazine. The thing is that men's mags do not cover those sorts of topics, or didn't when I last read them - a long time ago. I hoped that none of his mates ever found out what he was reading, as they'd probably rib him to pieces.

Originally Posted by gatsbygirl20

Yes, my mother was the same, although she was a great believer in education.

The nuns were like that too.

What was it?

I think there was that robust outdoor Catholic thing that feared solitude. You were supposed to do everything in groups, even go on dates in groups! (according to uber-Catholic agony aunt, Angela McNamara)

You had to avoid solitude as "an occasion of sin"

You might get "notions" from books--- daft, non-Catholic ideas...

The nuns would confiscate "unsuitable" novels. And nearly every novel was "unsuitable", or had a "non-Catholic tone"...

We who were bookworms would "score" books like they were illegal substances, swapping with each other, giving each other pointers on where to get books..

There was a deep Philistine anti-intellectualism in Ireland at that time, where the artist was shunned, feared or censored..

Perhaps I am over-stating it, but when I think of the book clubs of today, the way we celebrate writers, the way we try to get our kids to read....

There was no public library near you? That's where I got all my reading matter as my family could not afford books.
My mother did not mind me reading as it kept me quiet and safe. She'd know where I was.