Kerry Election.—This election took place in February of 1872. It was the first great flame kindled between the Home Rule party and the landlord classes in the county. The landlords were so irritated by the speeches delivered by the Blennerhassett supporters that they were determined to make their power felt and destroy the Home Rule party. The candidate chosen by the Home Rule party was a Protestant gentleman named Ponsby Blennerhassett from Kells. James A. Dease, a Roman Catholic gentleman from West Meath, was selected by the family of the Earl of Kenmare for the landlords. Dr. Moriarty, a Roman Catholic bishop, did all in his power to elect the nominee of the Kenmare family. In face of terror and landlord's oppression, in open voting the Home Rule candidate was elected by the Roman Catholics of Kerry. Many patriotic priests took sides with Blennerhassett. This gentleman remained true to the Home Rule party, but the Home Rule party, led by Sir Isaac Butt, was considered too mild. (See my "History of County Kerry" for a full account of this election.)
Kissing the Blarney Stone by the Silver Tongue of Kerry and Others.—There is a saying among some people that Counselor Hussey of Farnakilla, known as the "Silver Tongue" of Kerry, kissed the Blarney stone in Blarney Castle, County Cork, and thereby secured his sweet, fluent, silver-tongued speech. He is not the only person hereabouts who is said to have kissed the Blarney stone. Everyone from the South of Ireland who has secured a fluent or flattering speech is credited with visiting it. As some individuals will be found ignorant enough to ascribe such a virtue to the stone and tell others in foreign lands that it possesses such, I am going a little outside my province to remove it as far as possible. If you were forever rubbing your tongue to the Blarney stone, you would find no virtue in it whereby your speech will be improved, and I dare say Silver Tongue of Dingle never kissed the stone.
Thousands of legends and stories are woven about it, but these were written for amusement, and the circumstances connected with kissing the stone supplied good food for legends and diversion.
There is a castle called "Blarney Castle" about six miles on this (Kerry) side of the City of Cork, within the Village of Blarney in the County of Cork. This castle contains a stone bearing the following inscription:
Cormach McCarthy
Fortis me Fieri Facit
A. D. 1446.
or the like. In 1602 an Irish chieftain named Cormach McDermod Carthy, who held the castle against the English, when hard pressed, concluded a truce with the Lord President, kissed the Blarney stone which his forefathers placed there, thereby leaving the Lord President and the English under the impression (without promising) that the castle would be surrendered as soon as McCarthy would reason with his followers and remove some of his belongings. The Lord President sent messengers to the English officers, gladly informing them that he "got Blarney" from McCarthy without much trouble. McCarthy, who was only borrowing time and quietly strengthening his castle, then set about and with fair promises and false pretext day by day put off the Lord President until he was reinforced by the Spaniards. Even then the Lord President was firmly assuring his countrymen that he "got Blarney" for them.
However, when the English found that instead of the Lord President having Blarney Castle he had nothing but McCarthy's honey and flattering speeches and they then had a hard fight before them, the Lord President became the laughing stock of both English, Irish and Spaniards, who mockingly would say of him, "He got Blarney."
If you will ever visit Blarney for the purpose of kissing the Blarney stone, you may be prepared for all sorts of tricks. The more earnest you appear about kissing it, the more fables you will be told about it. If a man is too feeble looking to climb, those in the Village of Blarney will most likely point out another broken stone lying on the ground belonging to the castle, telling him that a drunken blackguard dug it out of its place for carrying it away to make money by improving people's speech, and let it fall down and it was smashed, and then it lost its virtue.
If you are young and active, they will point out to you another stone about one hundred feet from the ground and tell you you must go up to the top of the castle and be held by the heels and leave your head and body hang downwards outside the parapet wall of the castle. Of course, you will say that is impossible for you to do. Then you are told you must go home without improving your speech.
Land League and Irish National League.—On the 28th of April, 1879, the Land League was founded in Irishtown, West Mayo, by the late Michael Davitt. The object of this League was to abolish landlordism and make tenant farmers owners of their own holdings. Charles Stewart Parnell was placed at the head of this new organization, and on the 8th of June, Parnell and Davitt appeared at a monster meeting held at West Port. The Land League was suppressed by the Coercion Act, but the spirit was untouched. The name was changed to the Irish-National-League and Parnell chosen as its president. The Land League succeeded in its object.