Pat Casey -- Hilarious, thanks for sharing! I concur, that must have been EXACTLY the way it happened! As a vintage postcard collector, though, I must defend postcards. Some of the photos Leitrim poetess, Mary Guckian, took, actually appeared on Irish postcards in the 1980s. Mary now works in Dublin and, if all works out as planned, I will meet her in Dublin. She has invited by sister and I to have an Irish lunch in her flat! Has anyone on the list kissed the blarney stone - without putting their back out? I think I will pass on this attraction on my summer trip, but I am sure visitors have great fun participating in his time-honored tradition. (I won't let my sister anywhere near it - she is already a compulsive talker and I am not far behind!! Jean xxx ----- Original Message ----- From: "Patrick Casey" <pcasey@compuserve.com> To: <IRISH-IN-UK-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 8:28 AM Subject: RE: [UK-Irish] Cork -- "Gift of Blarney" (MacCARTHY) > Jean, > > You write that ".....the (Blarney) stone's origin is shrouded in myth. > The tradition goes back to the late 16th century......... > > I recently came into possession of a centuries-old piece of parchment > which tells the amazing tale of how the Blarney Stone came to be. The > faded and weathered writing was very difficult to interpret. It appears > to be a kind of diary kept by a court scribe or medieval > fly-on-the-wall. I can best paraphrase the content of the document as > follows. > <snip>