Tag Archives: Northern Ireland

In the back of a Belfast taxi

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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Words for my father

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

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

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.

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

I promise that I will do my best…

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

Just A Rhinestone Cowgirl–But Much-Loved by Doris Brazil

The following is an excerpt from Doris’s latest letter, which was waiting for me when I stepped off the plane and back into wireless range. After spending the preceding week on a state of high alert (DBLW DefCon 1), at last the … Continue reading

Posted in Crone as fashion icon, Crone as Pen Pal, Culture with the Crone, dancing, food, friendship, itchy ankle, The Traveling Crone | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Co. Down Northern Ireland

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Old friends–not friends who are old.

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

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Segregation–A way of life in Norn Iron

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