All posts tagged: donegal

The Glasgowist features The Mc Bride Guide

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A dear friend Paul Trainer left our Irish shores for his native Scotland and his latest Guide to the great and good of Glasgow is an absolute must for locals and if you are visiting. He kindly featured me on the website glasgowist.com By Paul Trainer Billy Connolly once said “if you ever want your flagging spirits lifted, go to Ireland” and thousands of Scots take that advice every year, hopping on one of the steady stream of cheap flights linking the two countries or taking the ferry. There is a particular connection between Donegal on Ireland’s wild west coast and Glasgow with cultural and work related links dating back generations. Caitriona McBride chronicles the finer things on the Emerald Isle at the McBride Guide. We caught up with her to talk about Irish restaurants, family ties and cheese. What was the idea behind the McBride Guide? It’s a celebration of the best of Irish food and beautiful things. I think we are living in one of the most exciting eras for Irish cuisine so …

Soulmates

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I was 16 and sitting in my art class. The boy I was madly in love with, in the way your 16 year old giddy heart can only love, leaned across the table and asked ‘So do you actually believe in “The One” Caitríona?’ I was delirious. My pupils dilated, I felt faint, churning sick, beautiful and achingly aware of my Hammerite braces. I wanted to run or else make a Bronte leap into his arms. This was it, he feels it, and he knows he is north-west Donegal’s Burton to my Taylor. He wants to take my hand as we step into my lobster-like vision of us sailing through a cotton cream life where we end up in the kind of home where our kids roll their eyes every time we dance around our grey-haired cosy kitchen to ‘Memories are made of this.’ And we laugh and remember when our joints didn’t hurt as much or when we made love like insatiable, insane creatures or wished we had started saving for our pensions earlier. …

Florrie-Jane’s Vintage – Donegal woman’s online vintage store success

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Laura Doherty returned home to Ireland in 2014 after a few years in Australia and New Zealand, and like many others, she had no plan for what was next. All she did know was that her collection of vintage clothing had grown so big, even her boyfriend was concerned. ‘I’ve always loved vintage clothing and would have sold bits and pieces over the years on eBay. While I was travelling in Australia and New Zealand I collected so many bits and pieces of vintage I had to ship a lot of it home.’ Laura (28) started her online vintage store ‘Florrie-Janes’ Vintage’ just over a year ago and she is now listed as a boutique with one of the world’s biggest online stores Asos.com and cannot keep up with the demand for her vintage pieces. She operates her store from her home in Dunfanaghy in north west Donegal. Surprisingly, the majority of her clothing goes to the UK and she’s only sold around 10 pieces in Ireland so far. She trained as a hairdresser initially and then worked for a …

The Donegal News features The Mc Bride Guide

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I was humbled and honoured by today’s piece about The Mc Bride Guide in The Donegal News. There is something about being from Donegal that only other Donegal people know about it, it’s in your heart wherever you might travel. I’m really looking forward to featuring more of its special people and places on the site. Mo mhíle buíochas, Caitríona x   BY CATHERINE COOK A PASSION for food and the pursuit of the best of what Ireland has to offer has led one Gweedore woman to create a definitive guide to the finer things in life. Caitríona McBride was born in Crolly but grew up in The Rosses. Now she is based in Ballsbridge, Dublin but makes regular visits home. This week she spoke to the Donegal News about how her previous work as a journalist, TV producer and cheese monger have enabled her to launch a new website – The McBride Guide. “I had qualified as a journalist in 2006, having spent four years at DCU. I freelanced for a lot of Irish …

Daring to dream again – An interview with Eamon McGee

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Irish Examiner – 01 August 2015 Caitríona McBride went to school with Eamon McGee, where she had to defend her pencil case from the future Donegal defender. They met recently to bring his story up to date.  By Caitríona Mc Bride RELIEF. That was the first thing Donegal defender Eamon McGee felt when the county won the All-Ireland final in 2012. There are no heartfelt tales of green and gold ticker tape parades, no recollections of ‘Jimmy’s Winning Matches’ renditions, nor stories of the copious amounts of champagne and other beverages consumed. Celebrations at achieving something the county had waited 20 years for were certainly jubilant. But mainly there was sheer relief. They had won. They had trained and worked like hell and then trained even more, but most importantly, Eamon says, they had believed. They believed in Jim McGuinness, the manager who had come along and taught them they could have Sam Maguire. The fight was over, they were mentally and physically exhausted but the work had paid off. Eamon, a defender on the …