Tag Archives: Belfast

Crocheted unmentionables and smelly sleep partners

Posted on February 23, 2013 by

For the last few nights, Peggoty has been sleeping curled up with an onion. She keeps it chopped up and in a Santa sock. She believes the onion will help her shake off the chest cold that has beset her since before Valentine’s Day. … Continue reading →

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

Belfast Flag Protest: Too Much Like Old Times and Old Troubles

Posted on January 8, 2013 by

January 9 –tomorrow–is Kate Middleton’s birthday and one of the 20 days of the year when the Union Jack will fly over the city hall in Belfast, and above all other municipal HQs in the UK. If you find it … Continue reading →

Posted in Crone as political commentator, Culture with the Crone, Dangerous Obsessions, You can take the Crone out of Ireland | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Putting the rot in erotica

Posted on July 20, 2012 by

I have had an enthusiastic response to my offer to pen the Irish version of Fifty Shades of Gray.  (See Forty Shades of Green). I am simply waiting for both the Catholic church and the Democratic Unionist Party to come … Continue reading →

Posted in great ideas for books, You can take the Crone out of Ireland | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

May the Lord in his Mercy be Kind to Belfast

Posted on July 5, 2012 by

I will never forgive them for what they took from me: the men with the guns and the sinister shades, and the women with bombs in prams where there should have been babies. It wasn’t just me of course. It … Continue reading →

Posted in Cooking with the Crone, Culture with the Crone, Customer service, food, friendship, Tales of a Belfast girlhood, The Traveling Crone | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Dean Swift, Napoleon’s nose and Lilliput Street: Are they by any chance related?

Posted on July 4, 2012 by

I thought I knew quite a lot about Dean Swift.  I have even read Gulliver’s Travels. In all the stuff about satire, and St Patrick’s Cathedral and so on, I have never been aware of any connection between the great … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture with the Crone, great ideas for books, Tales of a Belfast girlhood | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Bubbly, baps and Belfast Lough

Posted on July 2, 2012 by

I justified the pork and leek sausages, potato bread and soda farl because I started the day with a swim. At St. Georges market, I dodged all the temptation, including  Pie Tanic, a delicious sounding mixture of haddock, cider and … Continue reading →

Posted in Cooking with the Crone, Culture with the Crone, diet, Exercise, food, friendship, The Traveling Crone | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Have you no James Galway?

Posted on July 1, 2012 by

The rain started just about the same time as the show. Eighteen thousand people had been given free tickets. Only those of us who were related to someone involved in the production actually used them, turning out on a cold, … Continue reading →

Posted in Crone as art critic, Culture with the Crone, dancing, weather | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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 →

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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