Blarney

It is said that if you kiss the Blarney stone you get the gift of the blarney. Indeed it is even said that that if you merely kiss someone who has kissed the Blarney stone then you, too, get the gift. (The stuff the Irish come up with, i mean really ....).

The story is told of the giddy girl who challenged with this intelligence an irish priest who was said to have kissed the stone—hoping for a reaction—and got the reply

``I'm afraid not, my dear, for i have only sat on it''.

Well, it evidently worked for him. Or perhaps they learn that kind of mental agility at their seminaries... a catholic education must be good for something. I had a student once who came from Blarney but i would probably be in breach of my duty of confidentiality if i told you who she was. And i certainly never tried to kiss her, then or later .... but perhaps i should have done, or at least got her to sit on me.

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