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The Crios

June 19, 2007
09:52 AM

My daughter Dee wanted to get something as a present for a non Irish friend of hers so I suggested she should buy a crios.

To my amazement she hadn’t a clue what I was talking about.
A Crios is the Irish word for a belt and Crioses (Crioseanna?) were extremely fashionable in Ireland in the sixties.
They were woven multicoloured belts, a couple of inches wide, with fringed ends which one wore wrapped several times around the waist then tied roughly at the hip so that the fringed ends dangled down.
They were more or less compulsory for irish folk dancers and Gaelgoirí and not at all uncommon for them to be worn by normal members of the population, I might have even owned one myself at one time and I am sure there were several at home worn by my sisters.
I am very surprised to see that Google Images cannot come up with one single example of one, I wonder are they still being made at all.
My memory of them was that they were made on the Aran Islands and I can find references, but alas no pictures in Irish craft books.

They were attractive belts these, maybe someone should revive them.

Comments

  1. Paul

    on June 19, 2007

    I have one somewhere at home. If I find it, I’ll photograph it for you, Martin.

  2. Paul Deegan

    on June 19, 2007

    Well done on putting the upstarts in their place with the fish pie. Glad to see that the blogging urge has not diminished a jot.

  3. Declan Sheeran

    on October 31, 2008

    I looked for criosanna on Aran Mor last year to no avail. Doing a Google today – I found your site (great fish recipes) and the following link: http://www.irishclothing.ie/accessories/crios-belt/prod_7.html.
    It is strange that something so simple to make and probably easy to sell to “new age” tourists could have virtually disappeared.
    Regards,
    Declan

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