The Blarney Stone a Load of Blarney?

There are some stories you simply cannot invent - like the "scandal" currently hitting that well-known source of eloquence, the Blarney Stone. Apparently all those singing its praises have been talking ... well ... a lot of Blarney! Or have they?

We all have been told for ages now that if you climb up the walls of Blarney Castle, bend over backwards (in the process exposing your midriff and maybe more to helpful onlookers) and then kiss a stone on the parapet you would become as eloquent as the best orators in the world. Then again my grandmother always told me that by touching frogs I would get warts. Having since touched the odd frog without growing lumps on my hands I am in doubts about the eloquence claims as well.

But to disprove the notion that the slobbering ritual is just an old wives' tale, promotors point to the fact that some famous men of letters and words actually went to Blarney and did the deed. Sir Walter Scott and Winston Churchill for instance. Who, for all we know, might have been shy, retiring man of few (and ill-chosen) words before they hung on for dear life above the Cork earth.

Archaeologist Mark Samuel and historian Kate Hamlyn beg to differ - their research shows, or so they claim, that the real Blarney Stone is not the one currently getting loads of oral attention.

Note that the pair does not dispute the reported origins of the stone - said to be a part of the legendary Stone of Scone and being given to Cormac MacCarthy as part-payment for Irish mercenaries by none other than Robert the Bruce after the victory at Bannockburn. They just state that the stone in use is not the original. For health and safety reasons - around 1888 the owners of Blarney Castle (one of the overrated attractions of Ireland) decided to guide tourists to a "safer" stone, fearing that the odd visitor might tumble to his death when kissing the real stone. Now this might have made for some great last words, but also would have meant bad press and a dwindling of income.

John Hogarty, marketing manager at Blarney Castle, immediately jumped into the breach and assured visitors that the claims by Hamlyn and Samuel are just Blarney and that the Blarney Stone is the one and only, the real McCoy, the Stone of Desitiny. It might be expected of him to to say so in well-chosen words. I just presume that any marketing manager hired to promote the castle would be made to kiss the real Blarney Stone on his first day of work ... health and safety be damned!