Every book I have read about Ireland talks about the warm welcoming people that you meet there. That is the first page, second page is all about kissing the Blarney Stone. Now being an American and not knowing enough history I believed that the stone gave you the gift of the gab as in gossip. The truth is buried in fact that the Lord from Blarney was fool of baloney, and the Queen wished he would learn the gift of speaking eloquently.
I told my husband that we could skip the Blarney Stone when I found out about the 200 steep steps it takes to get there. My husband still was undaunted in this Irish folklore so imbedded into Irish culture that it would be like a foreigner coming to America and missing the Statue of Liberty. (Disney World takes a close second/ or maybe first can't be sure).
Luckily the debate ended peacefully. My friend who summered in Ireland several years warned me.
"There is just one thing not to do." she said. "Don't kiss the Blarney Stone."
Puzzled I asked why.
"It's a common saying in Ireland,"she continued. "That the Irish piss on the stone so that the tourists kiss it in the morning."
My husband and I scratched the Blarney Castle off our list.
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