The Havre herald. [volume] (Havre, Mont.) 1904-1908, 1908-07-15
The BLARNEY STONE.
An Old Legend Tells How It
Found Its Way TO ireland.
THE MAGIC OF KISSING IT.

Origin Of the Quaint Belief That It Inn
parts to the Lips That Touch 1t tho
Power to Utter Honeyed, coaxins and
Delusive Speeches.
The blarney stone takes its name
from the village Of Barney, 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 Blarney Is
from the Irish "blairne,' little field,
the Gaelic form being "blair" or "blar,'
a plain. The village is four miles north.
west Of Cork and has few hundred
Inhabitants. In the groves OF Blarney
stands the ruined castle, in one tower
at which Is the world famous stone.
the kissing Of which is reputed to
endow one with the gift Of coaxing,
wheedling and fattering.
The true stone is declared to be one
in the castle wall, a few feet below
che 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
ss held to be sufficiently near the real
zhing for the fiction to be maintained
that it is the true stone with all the
powers Of the original And even to
aged and infirm persons one near the
castle entrance Is declared to be the
original. On the true stone, near the
xop of the tower, a half effaced In
scription reads, "Cormack Mccarthy
Rortis Me Fieri Facit, A. d. 1448."
OF the barney stone Father Prout,
the Irish poet, declared that it was the
palladium of liberty for Erin. He de-
scribes the stone and relates number
Of legends regarding 1t, one that 1t
;was brought to the island by the
Phoenicians. who are reputed to have
colonized the region, and that 1t had
dong been in the custody Of the Cartha-
.ginians. who from 1t gained the rep
utation for insineerity which is trans
mitted in the phrase "Punic faith
and that before that 1t 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 storm,
were driven into the harbor of Cork
and left the stone in that vicinity un-
Ill 1t was made use Of in the construc-
don 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,
Oormack McDermod Mccarthy. who
then occupied it, concluded an armis
dee with the lord president on condt
ton Of surrendering 1t to an English
garrison. But he put him Off from
day to day with specious statements
fair promises and false pretexts until
the lord president became the laugh
angstock of the ministers Of Queer
Elizabeth, and the honeyed and delu
ssve speeches Of the lord Of the castle
became known rs mere "blarney."
The word found its way into litera
ture in the last century. In the Jour
NAP Of Caroline Fox, which appeared
In 1885, there Is this use Of the word
''Mme. de Stael was regretting to Lore
Castlereagh that there was no word II
the English language which answered
to their sentiment No. he said
4there is no English word. but tn
Irish have one that corresponds exact
ly-blarney.'" Samuel Lover wrOt
s'The b!arney's so great deceiver" l
one Of his Irish novels. Presiden
James Buchanan wrote. 'sThe genera
has yet to learn that my fathers cour
trymen q have ever felt proud Of m
descent from an Irishman). thong
they themselves do blarney others. ar
yet hard to be blarneyed themselves.
Washington Irving in 1.-THE Traveller
wrote, 80 he blarneyed the landlord
James Russell Lowell in The Fab
For Critics" says:
The cast clothes of Europe your state
manship tries
And mumbles again the old blarneys ar
lies.
The name of the old time castle az
town has added a noun. verb, q
adjective and q particple to the la
guage The most comprehensive de
milton of the noun ''blarney" Is sc
ceedingly complimentary languag
battery; smooth, wheedling talk; plea
ang cajolery" AS to the origin Of t
word. one photographer quotes Gro
as crediting the derivation of 1t fro
ahe phrase clicking the blarn
stone" applied to incredible stori
told of climbing to a stone very dl
L,