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Irish stone of eloquence may be just Blarney

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Thann Lowery
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« on: February 21, 2008, 10:03:48 pm »

Irish stone of eloquence may be just Blarney
Thu Feb 21, 2008 11:37am EST 

 
By Andras Gergely

DUBLIN (Reuters Life!) - The millions who have made the pilgrimage to Blarney Castle in southern Ireland to kiss its "stone of eloquence" have put their lips on the wrong stone, according to a new book on the medieval fortress.

The term "Blarney talk" is thought to stem from Queen Elizabeth I who lost patience with the insolent excuses of a chieftain who refused to hand the castle to English forces and said: "Blarney, Blarney, I will hear no more of this Blarney!"

Anyone can try to gain Chieftain Cormac MacDermot Mor MacCarthy's gift for persuasive speech by climbing up to the battlements of one of Ireland's top tourist attractions, bending backwards over a long drop and kissing the "Blarney Stone".

But archaeologist Mark Samuel, co-author of a new book on the castle, says the stone which attracts 400,000 visitors a year cannot be "The" Blarney stone.

"The first mention of the stone in its current position is from 1888," Samuel told Reuters, adding that earlier sources referred to it being elsewhere in the castle.

"Blarney Castle: Its History, Development and Purpose" describes possible locations for the original stone, which according to one myth was known as "Jacob's Pillow" and brought back by crusaders from the Holy Land.

Another tradition holds that it is part of the Stone of Scone on which Scottish monarchs are crowned and was a gift from the 14th century King of Scots, Robert the Bruce.

Samuel and co-author Kate Hamlyn say the original stone may have been confused with a date stone marking the building of the third castle on the site in 1446.  Continued...

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSL2047743820080221
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Thann Lowery
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« Reply #1 on: February 21, 2008, 10:05:16 pm »



Another 19th century commentator, however, said the then object of pilgrimages was a stone inscribed with the date 1703.

DRUIDS, WITCHES & FAIRIES

Yet the real stone may also have been a third one, which pilgrims could only reach by being lowered eight feet (2.4 meters) by rope, head downward from the top of the castle.

"It was only after 1800 that either they moved the stone or else simply declared another stone the Blarney stone," Samuel said in a telephone interview.

John Fogarty of the castle's sales and marketing department dismissed Samuel's doubts, however.

"Once upon a time, visitors had to be held by the ankles and lowered head first over the battlements," he said. "Today, we are rather more cautious of the safety of our visitors. The stone itself is still set in the wall below the battlements. So you are still kissing the same stone just from a safer side."

Samuel said the castle was "reinvented" as a tourist destination in the 1820s when the author Walter Scott visited and readers of his historical romances bought into a craze for the past and the imaginary world of druids, witches and fairies.

Samuel said he was not looking to debunk the Blarney stone's long history, only to establish which was the original.
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Thann Lowery
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« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2008, 10:06:12 pm »

"Blarney Castle is such an interesting place and so well worth visiting for other reasons it's a pity people just go there to kiss the stone," he added.

"It's of particular interest because it was built not by British knights or barons but by the Gaelic Irish."

But wherever the real stone may lie, kissing the 'wrong' one clearly did little harm to one visitor: former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, a Nobel prize winning author famed for his oratory and quick wit, visited the stone in 1912.

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

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Thann Lowery
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« Reply #3 on: February 21, 2008, 10:14:51 pm »

Doubts over Blarney Stone talked down

By Tom Peterkin, Ireland Correspondent
Last Updated: 4:11am GMT 21/02/2008


The custodians of the Blarney Stone yesterday disputed claims that pilgrims have been romancing the wrong stone.



   
Kissing the Blarney stone

 
For centuries, travellers including Winston Churchill and Sir Walter Scott, have gone to Blarney Castle, Co Cork, in the hope that the supposed magical properties of the ancient stone will bestow on them the gift of the gab. But a book launched last night raised questions about the authenticity of the lump of bluestone built into the castle battlements, which attracts 400,000 tourists a year. The book was dismissed as a "load of blarney" by Sir Charles Colthurst, the castle's aristocratic owner.

Blarney Castle, its History, Development and Purpose devotes a chapter to the provenance of the stone, which one legend suggests was a piece of Scotland's Stone of Scone.

Robert the Bruce is supposed to have given part of the stone to the Irish King Cormac MacCarthy in gratitude for the 4,000 soldiers who fought with the Scots when they defeated the English at Bannockburn.

In their efforts to uncover the mythology surrounding the Blarney Stone, authors Mark Samuel and Kate Hamlyn state: "True believers will be shocked to hear that the stone which is currently kissed is not the stone always believed to have been the stone."

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Having examined many antiquarian records and papers, the archaeological consultants from Ramsgate, Kent, suggest that the original stone was housed in an inaccessible turret. In order to kiss the stone, visitors had to perform a death-defying manoeuvre that saw them dangled by the ankles.

The theory was that those bold enough to reach it deserved their reward of eloquence or, as one 1789 source put it, "the privilege of telling lies for seven years".

According to the book, the first account to suggest that "reverence was transferred to the present stone" was in 1888. Back then, a writer described the current location while remarking: "The situation of the stone has shown a tendency to vary according to the predilections of the guides." Although today's visitors do not have to put their lives at risk, kissing the stone requires them to lie on their backs over a gap in the battlements while supported by someone else.

A theory examined by the authors is that the focus shifted to a more accessible stone to encourage the burgeoning Victorian tourist industry. Ms Hamlyn said that the change could have occurred when the then baronet leased Blarney to a group of local businessmen financing a railway from Cork to Blarney, who were keen to encourage trade at the castle.

"They wanted people to buy joint tickets for the railway and the castle, so perhaps they picked somewhere more suitable and less dangerous."

But Sir Charles disagreed. "I would like to assure the millions of people who have kissed the stone in the past, that this is the exact location and has been since as far back as all historical records show.

"To question the authenticity of the stone is simply a load of Blarney and should be treated as such," he said.
 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/21/wblarney121.xml
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