Tag Archives: Belfast

In the back of a Belfast taxi

Posted on November 5, 2011 by

1. ‘City Hospital, the Cancer Center please” “Are you going for yourself or to see someone?” “Just visiting” “I’m only asking cos I’m being treated at the center in Dundonald.  I have this weird blood disease that means my blood … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture with the Crone, You can take the Crone out of Ireland | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Happy with the Silver

Posted on July 20, 2011 by

The last time I ran it was in the company of an Olympic Gold Medalist.  Mary Peters won the Pentathlon in Munich in 1972 and came home to Belfast, Northern Ireland to face the kind of adulation currently enveloping NI … Continue reading →

Posted in Blarney Family, Exercise, Fat Camp, friendship, Tales of a Belfast girlhood | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Tobacco Town

Posted on July 16, 2011 by

The Duke family made their money in tobacco and later in hydroelectric power and the local power company here is still called Duke Energy. Nearly a century ago the family bought naming rights to the university—it used to be known as … Continue reading →

Posted in Crone in America, Culture with the Crone, Entrepreneurial Flair, The Traveling Crone, You can take the Crone out of Ireland | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Cuban motion and holiday travel: the Crone takes action

Posted on November 18, 2010 by

So little of the outside world impinges on Itchy Ankle that I am rarely compelled to write of happenings beyond the charmed circle that is Peggoty’s fireplace, the Snug Harbor Inn, Grace’s Garage and Heavenly Ice-cream. This week however a couple … Continue reading →

Posted in Blarney Family, Crone as political commentator, Crone in America, Crone in the Nation's capital, Culture with the Crone, dancing, itchy ankle, Tales of a Belfast girlhood, The Crone as Television Critic | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I promise that I will do my best…

Posted on September 19, 2010 by

I go back a long way with the girl guide movement, spanning the years 1964-1979. I began as a Bunnie (now a Rainbow Guide) and swiftly progressed to the Brownies, where I became a sixer in the Sprites, and then to the guides, where … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture with the Crone, friendship, Tales of a Belfast girlhood, You can take the Crone out of Ireland | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Old friends–not friends who are old.

Posted on September 15, 2010 by

An evening out with three of my high school friends, all of whom chose to marry men we knew well when we were just seventeen. Then, the  girls took the view that, although there might be plenty more pebbles on the … Continue reading →

Posted in friendship, Tales of a Belfast girlhood, The Traveling Crone | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

On Being An Irish Work Of Art

Posted on September 14, 2010 by

To the newly refurbished Ulster Museum in Belfast to see an exhibition of contemporary Irish art.  The usual stuff–a windswept field from Basil Blackshaw, some abstract but distinctly boggy from T.P. Flanagan and women in shawls huddled on the back of … Continue reading →

Posted in Blarney Family, Crone as Casualty, Culture with the Crone, The Traveling Crone | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Segregation–A way of life in Norn Iron

Posted on September 13, 2010 by

Last night’s dinner was a fish supper–battered haddock and fat, greasy chips. Yum. We arrived at the chippie just in time to see the frymeister open a box of lard. Each box contains 4 briquettes, 4 inches deep by 4 inches … Continue reading →

Posted in Blarney Family, Cooking with the Crone, Culture with the Crone, diet, fat, food, overweight, You can take the Crone out of Ireland | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Goodbye Alex Higgins

Posted on July 24, 2010 by

So farewell then Alex Higgins Son of Belfast’s Sandy Row Stick thin even before the cancer sticks shrunk your weight to seven stone. Belfast’s only Hurricane, We give you Cue-dos Rest in Peace Read more about the death and final … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture with the Crone, You can take the Crone out of Ireland | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Not my favorite departure lounge

Posted on July 10, 2010 by

A tweet from Ireland’s most prolific journalist Eamonn Mallie set me thinking about death this week. “Roselawn: not my favorite departure lounge” he wrote, and I have to say I agree. The cemetery sits high above East Belfast and manages to combine … Continue reading →

Posted in Crone in America, Serious stuff | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments