The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1908-07-24
THE BLARNEY STONE,
An Old Legend Tells How 1t
Found Its Way to Ireland.
THE MAGIC OF KISSING 1T.
Origin Of the Quaint Belief That It I'M
parts to the Lips That Touch 1t the
Power to Utter Honeyed, coaxins and
Delusive Speeches.

FoWer 10 Ottef ToneyeoJ Coa<InS ana
Delusive Speeches.
The barney stone takes its name
from the village of Blarney, in County
Cork. Ireland, near which stand the
ruins of the famous Barney castle.
dating back to the fifteenth century,
and the groves of Barney, which en-
joy an equally wide reputation. A riv-
ulet flowing through them bears the
same name. The name Barney is
from the Irish ''blairne," a little field,
the Gaelic form being blair or "blar."
q plain. The village is four miles north
west Of Cork and has a few hundred
inhabitants. In the groves of Barney
stands the ruined castle, in one tower
of which is the world famous stone,
the kissing Of which is reputed to
endow one with the gift of coaXing,
wheedling and 1attering.
The true stone is declared to be n
in the castle wall, a few feet below
the summit of the tower. To reach
and osculate it it is necessary for one
to be held over the parapet by the
heels. But so many persons travelling
in the Emerald Isle desire to report
that they have kissed the real blarney
stone that one in the top of the wall
is held to be sufficiently near the real
thing for the fiction to be maintained
that it is the true stone with all the
nnyXrprc nf thn nriOinol nd nyAn RI
aged and infirm persons one near the
castle entrance sis declared to be the
original. On the true stone, neal the
top of the tower, a half effaced in
scription reads, "Cormack Mccarthy
Forts Me Fieri Facit. a. D. 1446."
Of the barney stone Father Prout,
the Irish poet. deckEed that it was the
palladium of liberty for Erin. He de-
scribes the stone and relates a number
of legends regarding it, one that it
was brought to the island by the
Phoenicians, who are reputed to have
%colOnized the region, and that it had
long been in the custody of the Cartha-
ginians, who from it gained the rep
utation for insincerity which is trans
mitted in the phrase "Punic faith"
and that before that it belonged to the
Syrians, who were credited with
speaking with double tongues after
kissing it. According to the story,
some Carthaginian adventures be-
came enamored of the stone and ap-
propriated it. They set sail for Minor
ca, but, being overtaken by a storm,
were driven into the harbor of Cork
and left the stone in that vicinity I'M
til it was made use of in the cOnStruc-
ton of the donjon tower of Barney
castle.
AS to the origin of the belief in re-
gard to the qualities secured by kiss
ing the stone, Crofton Croker says
that in 1902, when the Spaniards were
urging the Irish chieftains to harass
the English, the owner of the castle,
Cormack McDermod Mccarthy. who
then occupied it, concluded an armis-
tice with the lord president on condi-
ton of surrendering it to an English
garrison. But he put him off from
day to day with specious statements,
fair promises and false rreteXtS until
the lord president became the laugh
of the ministers of Queen
and the honeyed and deIu-
sive speeches of the lord of the castle
known as mere "%blarney."
The word found its way into litera-
in the last century. In the Jour
nal" of Caroline Fox, which appeared
1885, there is this use of the word:
Nine. de Stael was regretting to Lord
.astlereagh that there was no word in
he English language which answered
their sentiment No he said,
there is no English word, but the ,
irish have one that corresponds exact
y-blarney.'" Samuel Lover wrote
The blarney's so great Il deceiver' in :
me of his Irish novels. President ,
lanes Buchanan wrote, 'The general
las yet to learn that my fathers coun- ,
rymen q have ever felt proud of my ,
from an Irishman), though
hey themselves do bIarney others. are ,
hard to be biarneyed themselves" ,
Washington Irving in The Traveller :
wrote. $50 he %blarneyed the landlord" :
lanes Russell Lowell in THE Fable
Tor Critics" says:
he cast clothes of Europe your states =,
manship tries !
md mumbles again the old blarneys and J
lies.
The name of the old time castle and
own has added a noun. a verb, an t
elective and a participle to the lam s
-uage. The most comprehensive deli
ition of the noun ''blarney" is EEK +
eeZlingly complimentary language; 0
smooth. wheedling talk; pleas
1g cajolery." AS to the origin of the
Tord, n photographer quotes Grote n
S crediting the derivation of it from
he phrase licking the barney
tone" applied to incredible stories
Did of climbing to a stone very diff d
ult of access in a castle of that name
l the county of Cork, Ireland" But
e added that DR.. Jameson derives it O.
rom the French "balwerne," "a lie; O.
rio olous talk" and defines it "gross 6,
unmeaning or vexatious dis
purse Uow)." But the word seems
, have %outgrown this restricted mean
lg since the latter part of the eight =