Our Days in Dublin: The Ninth Sunday

On our ninth Sunday we took the Zappa-Crandalls to acquire the gift of gab!

"'Tis there's the stone that whoever kisses

He never misses to grow eloquent;

'Tis he may clamber to a lady's chamber,

Or become a member of Parliament.

A noble spouter he'll sure turn out, or

An out and outer to be let alone;

Don't try to hinder him,

or to bewilder him,

For he is a pilgrim from the Blarney Stone."

--Francis Sylvester Mahony

As I posted earlier, we were there a few years ago and loved it. Plus they wanted to see a castle and we were near Cork, so what better castle to visit??

The weather was fairly dreadful. It rained the whole time we were there (and actually got quite cold yesterday and snowed, fairly significantly, in the Wicklows).

For those of you unfamiliar with the Blarney Stone (Cloch na Blarna), it is a block of bluestone built into the battlements of Blarney Castle. Those who kiss the stone are subsequently endowed with the "gift of gab."

From Wikipedia: "It is claimed that the synonymy of "blarney" with "empty flattery" or "beguiling talk" derives from one of two sources. One story involves the goddess Clíodhna and Cormac Laidir MacCarthy (see below). Another suggests that 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."

Of course there are loads of legends about how the stone came to be at Blarney and how/why it endows the smoochers with the powers of loquacity. An early story involves the goddess Cliodhna. Cormac Laidir MacCArthy, the builder of Blarney Castle was involved in a lawsuit and appealed to Cliodna for help. She told MacCarthy to kiss the first stone he found in the morning on his way to court, and he did so, with the result that he pleaded his case with great eloquence and won. Thus the Blarney Stone is said to impart "the ability to deceive without offending." MacCarthy then incorporated it into the parapet of the castle.

Another story claims that the stone had been in Ireland but was taken to Scotland and returned in 1314. Supposedly it was a piece of the Stone of Scone and was presented to Cormak McCarthy by Robert the Bruce in recognition of his support in the Battle of Bannockburn.