Blarney Stone

[8] The stories listed include one suggesting that the stone was presented to Cormac MacCarthy by Robert the Bruce in 1314 in recognition of his support in the Battle of Bannockburn.

[1] The ritual of kissing the Blarney Stone, according to the castle's proprietors, has been performed by "millions of people", including "world statesmen, literary giants [and] legends of the silver screen".

Before the safeguards were installed, the kiss was performed with real risk to life and limb, as participants were grasped by the ankles and dangled bodily from the height.

William Henry Hurlbert wrote in 1888 that the legend of the stone seemed to be less than a hundred years old at that time, suggesting the tradition began late in the 18th century.

Another legend suggests that Queen Elizabeth I requested Cormac MacDermot MacCarthy, the Lord of Blarney, be deprived of his traditional land rights.

[15] Echoing the supposed power of the stone, an Irish bard of the early 19th century, Francis Sylvester Mahony, added a number of (humorous) lines to Richard Alfred Millikin's "The Groves of Blarney" (right).

[17] The traditional Irish song "The Blarney Stone" (Roud 4800) has been recorded by artists including Tom Lenihan, Margaret Barry and Bob Davenport.

[21] To accompany a picture of the Castle by William Henry Bartlett in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1832, Letitia Elizabeth Landon gives a number of examples of blarney from historical personages.

[22] In Chuck Palahniuk's novel Fight Club (1996), the protagonist reminisces about urinating on the Blarney stone on a trip to Ireland after leaving college.