Blarney Stone
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The Blarney Stone is a block of bluestone built into the battlements of Blarney Castle, Blarney about 5 miles (8 km) from Cork, Ireland. According to legend, kissing the stone endows the kisser with the gift of gab (great eloquence or skill at flattery). The stone was set into a tower of the castle in 1446. The castle is a popular tourist site in Ireland, attracting visitors from all over the world to kiss the Stone and tour the castle and its gardens.
The word blarney has come to mean clever, flattering, or coaxing talk.
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[edit] Origins
The proprietors of Blarney Castle list several alternative explanations for the origins of the Stone and its supposed powers, many of which suppose that the Stone had previously been in Ireland but was then taken to Scotland and returned to Ireland in 1314.[1] The theories listed include those that the stone:
- was part of the wailing wall in Jerusalam brought to Ireland during the Crusades.
- was half of the original Stone of Scone - presented to Cormac McCarthy by Robert the Bruce in 1314 in recognition of his support in the Battle of Bannockburn.[1].
- was the stone that Jacob used as a pillow, and was brought to Ireland by the prophet Jeremiah.
- was the pillow used by St. Columba of Iona on his deathbed.
- was the Stone of Ezel, which David hid behind on Jonathan's advice, while fleeing from King Saul, and may have been brought back to Ireland during the Crusades.
- was the rock that Moses struck with his staff to produce water for the Israelites, during their flight from Egypt.
- was related to the stone was known as the Lia Fáil or "Stone of Destiny" - part of the king's throne, with mysterious powers.
However, it should be noted that none of these provenance stories account for a central question: why a stone of such significance and antiquity would be used in the construction of a fifteenth century castle, inconspicuously incorporated into an exterior wall and exposed to the elements. Apart from discoloration and wear caused by human contact, the stone is not readily distinguishable from its neighbors.
[edit] Ritual
The ritual of kissing the Blarney Stone, according to the castle's proprietors, has been performed by "millions of people", including "world statesmen, literary giants [and] legends of the silver screen." [1] The kiss, however, is not casually achieved. To touch the stone with one's lips, the participant must ascend to the castle's peak, then lean over, backwards, on the parapet's edge. This is traditionally achieved with the help of an assistant. Although the parapet is now fitted with wrought iron guide rails and protective crossbars, the ritual can still trigger attacks of acrophobia.
Tripadvisor.com recently ranked the Blarney Stone as the most unhygenic tourist attraction in the world. [2]
Prior to the installation of the safeguards, the kiss was performed with real risk to life and limb, as participants were grasped by the ankles and dangled bodily from the height.[3] In the Sherlock Holmes radio dramatization "The Adventure of the Blarney Stone" (first broadcast March 18, 1946), a man attempting to kiss the Blarney Stone falls to his death. Holmes' investigation reveals this as a murder; the man's boots having been surreptitiously greased before the attempt.
William Henry Hurlbert wrote in 1888 that the legend of the stone seemed to be less than a hundred years old at that time, suggesting the tradition began late in the 18th century, or early in the 19th.[4]
[edit] Legend
It is claimed that the synonymy of "Blarney" with "empty flattery" derives from a circumstance in which Queen Elizabeth I, while requesting an oath of loyalty to retain occupancy of land, received responses from Cormac Teige McCarthy, the Lord of Blarney, which amounted to subtle diplomacy, and promised loyalty to the Queen without "giving in". Elizabeth proclaimed that McCarthy was giving her "(a lot of) Blarney", thus apparently giving rise to the legend.[citation needed]
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'Tis there's the stone that whoever kisses
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Echoing the supposed power of the stone, an Irish bard of the early nineteenth century, Francis Sylvester Mahony, added a number of (humorous) lines to Richard Milliken's "The Groves of Blarney". (Right)
According to tradition at Texas Tech University, a stone fragment on display since 1939 outside the old Electrical Engineering Building is a missing piece of the Blarney Stone.[6] How this was determined is unknown.[7]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c "The Blarney Stone". Blarney Castle website. http://www.blarneycastle.ie/pages/stone. Retrieved on 2008-07-11.[unreliable source?]
- ^ "Blarney Stone named world's most unhygienic attraction". telegraph.co.uk. 2009-06-17. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5553820/Blarney-Stone-named-worlds-most-unhygienic-attraction.html. Retrieved on 2009-06-20.
- ^ Dunton, Larkin (1896). The World and Its People. Silver, Burdett. p. 84.
- ^ Hurlbert, William Henry (1888). Ireland Under Coercion: The Diary of an American (2nd ed. ed.). Houghton Mifflin. pp. 232. http://books.google.com/books?id=GQMwAAAAMAAJ.
- ^ "Fun stories". Blarney Castle website. http://www.blarneycastle.ie/stories. Retrieved on 2008-07-11.
- ^ Martin, Cindy (March/April 1987). "The Blarney Stone...at Texas Tech?" (pdf). Texas Techsan (Lubbock, Texas: Texas Tech Alumni Association): p. 25. http://www.swco.ttu.edu/University_Archive/pdf/1987.pdf., also cited in
"Blarney Stone". Texas Tech University. http://www.ttu.edu/traditions/blarney.php. Retrieved on 2008-07-10. - ^ Ritz, Jennifer. "This is Texas Tech" (PDF). Texas Techsan Magazine (Texas Tech Alumni Association): p. 7. http://www.depts.ttu.edu/centerforcampuslife/traditions/Traditions.pdf.
[edit] Further reading
- Samuel, Mark; Hamlyn, Kate (2007). Blarney Castle: Its History, Development and Purpose. Cork University. ISBN 9781859184110.
[edit] External links
Coordinates: 51°55′45″N 8°34′14″W / 51.929091°N 8.570564°W
