U. Cronin's Blog, page 14

Stuck in a Teenage Rut

The last time we met was in a queue at the twenty-four-hour petrol station on St Stephen’s Day. I was gasping for a cigarette, and you were high and had the munchies. You hadn’t changed a bit — but not … Continue reading →

Big Hair

You were religious — we all knew, One of the few Holy Marys in our circle of friends. You wore a small gold cross around your neck, While the rest of us were trying to look like Ian Brown or … Continue reading →

August in Castile

Stand, stand statue-still, watch the clouds race from the south, Collide, collapse and spill their cargo onto Portugal. The hills and mountains where you hunted standing stones and passage tombs are Burren-black. The clouds are whale-like, blue and granite, and … Continue reading →

Bicycling on San Roque

Sweet sunflower smell, Heavy heads hanging, Soon-for-saving seeds, Pulling their gazes from the sun. I beat into the breeze on a battered BMX, As creaky and bone-rattled as its rugged rider. It hops me along on rutted roads, the rocky … Continue reading →

Blonds Have More Sun

This week I’m going to paddle along the dangerous shoreline of that sea known as “skin colour”. I’ll also write about hair and eye colour. Well aware of the undercurrents that could pull me under, as well as the potholes … Continue reading →

It’s Only Words?

Reading Joseph O’Connor’s excellent Star of the Sea, I came across one of the characters mentioning that the Irish language had over forty words for seaweed. This led me to recall that I had read somewhere else that Irish had … Continue reading →

“The Lady in Red”: the Worst Song Ever

All music lovers have a set of songs they hold dear to them, carry them with them as they move through life, and consider to be the best combinations of words and music ever put to vinyl, optical disk or … Continue reading →

Cider House Rules

I’ve written about cider before on this blog, but from a consumption point of view. While I’ve been home-brewing for years, I’ve stayed away from fabricating concoctions of an appley nature. This week, however, I finally joined the ranks of … Continue reading →

Smartphones, Mid-life Crises and Penis Envy

There exists a category of person I like to call a “phone person”. One of these will not only have the latest, slimmest, fastest smartphone on the market, and will not only spend inordinate amounts of time swiping the phone’s … Continue reading →

Happy New Year!

For many cultures, both past and present, the new year does not begin on January 1. The Celtic people’s new year kicked off with Samhain, a feast that subsequently became Christianised, mixed in with the feast of All Saints, and … Continue reading →