DAY 14a
BLARNEY CASTLE (County Cork, IRL)
Thursday September 11th, 2008
TODAYS MILEAGE – 223 miles or 359 kilometres
TRIP MILEAGE – 12514 miles or 20139 kilometres
I woke up the this morning in a sea of sweat, feeling like a dog’s breakfast and in no condition to operate a vehicle. Roscoe stepped up by agreeing to pilot the "Silver Dream Racer" with Jungle, as I was concerned about pranging the vehicle or worse, injuring any of my good mates.
So with me being of little use, other than a seat cover, I jumped in with Marie. Truth be told, it was good thing. Marie and I chatted the whole time about anything and everything and I thoroughly enjoyed myself the whole time. A highlight of the trip actually.
First stop of the day was Blarney Castle and the famous trait of "kissing the Blarney Stone". Now, history tells us that Blarney Castle, as viewed by the visitor today, is the third to have been erected on this site.
The first building in the tenth century was a wooden structure. Around 1210 A.D. this was replaced by a stone structure which had the entrance some twenty feet above the ground on the north face. This building was demolished for foundations. In 1446 the third castle was built by Dermot McCarthy, King of Munster of which the keep still remains standing.
Just how long the custom of "kissing the Blarney Stone" has been practiced or how it originated is not known. One local legend claims that an old women, saved from drowning by a king of Munster, rewarded him with a spell, that if he would kiss a stone on the castle's top, he would gain a speech that would win all to him.
It is known, however, when and how the word Blarney entered the English language and the dictionary. During the time of Queen Elizabeth I, Dermot McCarthy, the ruler of the castle, was required to surrender his fortress to the Queen as proof of his loyalty.
He said he would be delighted to do so, but something always happened at the last moment to prevent his surrender. His excuses became so frequent and indeed so plausible that the official who had been demanding the castle in the name of the Queen became a joke at the Court.
Once, when the eloquent excuses of McCarthy were repeated to the Queen, she said "Odds bodikins, more Blarney talk!" The term Blarney has thus come to mean "the ability to influence and coax with fair words and soft speech without giving offense".
