List of Coronation Street characters introduced in 2008

Barrington "Barry" Connor is the father of Paul (Sean Gallagher), Liam (Rob James-Collier) and Michelle Connor (Kym Marsh). Barry first appeared in February 2008 along with his wife, Helen, and nephew, Tom Kerrigan (Philip McGinley), to attend Liam's wedding to Maria Sutherland (Samia Ghadie). He returned to the street on 20 October after hearing news of Liam's death in a hit and run accident. He and Helen went home after apologising to Carla (Alison King) for telling her what to do. Barry and Helen returned on 24 November 2008 to celebrate their fortieth wedding anniversary.

Barry and Helen returned in July 2009 to meet their new grandson, Liam, but after clashing with Maria over Tony's involvement in baby Liam's life, they returned to Ireland. They returned in October for the first anniversary of Liam's death and they were horrified by Maria and Tony Gordon's (Gray O'Brien) relationship. They eventually accepted it, however, and attended baby Liam's christening and left Weatherfield on good terms with Maria and Tony. They returned again in November after Tony told the police and Maria that he did arrange for Liam to be killed. Michelle rang Barry and Helen to tell them the horrifying news. They booked a flight to Manchester immediately and comforted Maria. Deciding she needed to leave Weatherfield for a while, Maria and Liam went to Ireland to stay with Barry and Helen. In the end, he returns to Ireland after making a pass at Liz.

He returned on 4 October 2013, telling Michelle initially that her mother had gone on holiday with a friend from her book club. Suspicious, Michelle rang her parents' home to check and her mother was there but insisted that Michelle ask her father why they had separated. Michelle tried to insist that her father talk to her mother but that just led to more arguments. When Michelle caught a drunk Barry trying to seduce Liz, she was furious and insists that he return to Ireland to sort things out with Helen, but Barry tries to talk his way out of it. Eventually, he gave up and admits that Helen caught Barry sleeping with one of her friends, Aoife. Michelle was angry and booked two flights to Ireland with Barry to sort it out with Helen.

On 25 May 2015, Barry and Helen returned for Michelle's wedding to Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson), where he walked Michelle down the aisle.

On 27 January to 18 February 2017, Michelle and Steve stayed with Barry and Helen in Ireland following the loss of their stillborn son Ruairi. Provided by Wikipedia