The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1908-09-03
THE BLARNEY STONE,
An Old Legend Tells How 1t
Found Its Way to Ireland.
THE MAGIC OF KISSING IT,

Power to Utter H~oneyed, coaxins and
DeIusive 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,'
a plain. The village is four miles north
west Of Cork and has a few hundred
Inhabitants. In the groves Of Blarney
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.
w%heedling and fattering.
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 n
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
powers of the original. And eve to
aged and inflrm persons one near the
castle entrance Is declared to be the
original. On the true stone, near the
top Of the tower, a half effaced in
scription reads, "Cormack Mccarthy
Forts Me Fieri Facit, A. D. 1916"
OF the barney stone Father Prout,
the Irish poet, declared that 1t 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.
AoAk PiOLIAoCo anu AdiSC pIClCAtS uulll
the lord president became the laugh
ingstock Of the ministers Of Queen
Elizabeth, and the honeyed and delu-
sfve speeches of the lord Of the castle
became known as mere "blarney."
The word found its way into litera-
ture in the last century. In the "Jour-
nal" Of Caroline Fox. which appeared
In 1909 <Hor~ t. TIT " A. -
"Mme. de Stael was regretting to Lord
Castlereagh that there was no word In
the English language which answered
to their sentiment NO. he said,
there is no English word. but the
Irish have n that corresponds exact
ly-blarney.'" Samuel Lover wrote
1.-THE blarney's so great a deceiver" in
one Of his Irish novels. President
James Buchanan wrote, 1.-THE general
has yet to learn that my fathers coun-
trymen q have ever felt proud Of my
descent from an Irishman), though
they themselves do barney others, are
yet hard to be blarneyed themselves"
Washington Irving in "Tbe Traveller
wrote, $50 he blarneyed the landlord"
James Russell Lowell in 1.-THE Fable
For Critics" says:
The cast clothes of Europe your states
manship tries
And mumbles again the old blarneys and
lies.
The name of the old time castle and
town has added a noun, a verb, an
adjective and a participle to the Ian
guage. The most comprehensive def
milton of the noun "blarney" is Tex.
ceedingly complimentary language;
fattery; smooth, ~wheedling talk; pleas
Ing cajolery." AS to the origin Of the
word, one photographer quotes Grote
as crediting the derivation Of 1t from
the phrase Sticking the blarney
stone." "applied to incredible stories
told OF climbing to a stone very diff
cult OF access In a castle Of that name
In the county of Cork, Ireland" But
he added that DIR. Jameson derives It
from the French 'balwerne," "a lie;
friSoleus talk" and defines It "gross
fiattery; unmeaning or vexatious dis
course Uow)." But the word seems
to have outgrovn this restricted mean.