I kissed a stone and I liked it…

With the weather as bad as it had been, we were a bit worried that given everything in the country had been closed for two days, all the tourist attractions where going to remain closed.  We decided to chance heading down into Cork and Blarney Castle.

I have almost nothing on the history of the castle or its strategic meaning.  I can barely tell you about its star attraction : the Blarney Stone.

In the late 16^th century, Elizabeth I was trying to shore up the Irish island in their loyalty to the English crown.  In doing so she planted loyal English strategically in the middle of rebel areas of Ireland.  One such transplant was Cormac MacCarthy, Lord of Blarney Castle.  Lord MacCarthy was smart enough to never disagree with the Queen, rather he cleverly acquiesced to her demands and sent back to the Mother Country a never-ending stream of lengthy and deceptive excuses, disguised by flattery.  Frustrated by this, the Queen declared his endless words nothing but ‘blarney’.

I don't care how sunny it looks in the pictures, it was raining the entire time we were here.

The actual stone’s origin is blanketed by myths ranging from it being placed in the castle after being won in a Holy Land crusade to it being part of the Scottish royal Stone of Scone.  To be honest, I’m not entirely sure why tourist line up by the bus load to lean over backwards to kiss the stone.  One account I read talked about Lord MacCarthy first finding his eloquent speaking technique after finding the stone in a forest and kissing it.  He was so excited about his new gift that he used the stone in the building of his castle.

Not sure.  They now say that those who kiss the stone a bestowed with the ‘gift of gab.’  As my Dad pointed out when I told him, for some of us, this is just a booster shot.