Tag Archives: Northern Ireland

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

Better things are electric things

Posted on December 8, 2012 by

The decision to abandon electricity in favor of gas did not come easily. My father worked for more than thirty years for Northern Ireland’s one (then nationalized) electricity company and always took it as a personal affront when a customer … Continue reading →

Posted in Christmas with the Crone, Cooking with the Crone, Crone as political commentator, Crone in America, Culture with the Crone, Customer service, Tales of a Belfast girlhood | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Harsh words from Home

Posted on October 27, 2012 by

Spud Hughes is a hard man to get hold of in any hemisphere or timezone. That’s how it is with international entrepreneurs and media moguls. My appointment with him was at 7:30 this morning, Eastern time, and it is fair … Continue reading →

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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

A hedgerow makes the headline

Posted on July 9, 2012 by

I am debuting a new banner for the Blarney blog. The photo above replaces one of an Irish letter box taken in Navan, Co. Meath several years ago. The new banner features a hedgerow in Carnlough, Co. Antrim, snapped last week on a day-trip to the … Continue reading →

Posted in garden, The Traveling Crone, You can take the Crone out of Ireland | 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 →

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

Words for my father

Posted on October 30, 2011 by

This blog has lost its most steadfast reader. My father W.M. Barron, who died on Tuesday October 18, 2011, was not always a fan of everything featured here, but to his credit he never tried to censor the Blarney Crone … Continue reading →

Posted in Blarney Family, Serious stuff, Tales of a Belfast girlhood | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

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

A Yearning for the UK’s third largest snack manufacturer

Posted on April 9, 2011 by

I am thinking I need to go home to Northern Ireland. The reason? Well, of course I’d like to see my aged father, my aunt what brung me up and all my other friends and family but, as usual, my … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture with the Crone, Customer service, Dangerous Obsessions, fat, food, Tales of a Belfast girlhood, You can take the Crone out of Ireland | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Get on your marching shoes.

Posted on September 25, 2010 by

To Tom and Mike’s for Wednesday night dinner where the conversation turned to Stephen Colbert’s and Jon Stewart’s plan to hold rallies on Capitol Hill just before the mid-term elections. We all plan to go. The conversation turned to our own … Continue reading →

Posted in Crone as political commentator, Crone in America, Crone in the Nation's capital, Culture with the Crone | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment