BLARNEY  , a small

town of Co . Cork, Ireland, in the mid parliamentary division, 5 M . N.W. of the city of Cork on the Cork & Muskerry light railway . Pop . (1901) 928 . There is a large manufacture of tweed . The name " blarney " has passed into the language to denote a peculiar kind of persuasive eloquence, alleged to be characteristic of the natives of Ireland . The " Blarney Stone," the kissing of which is said to confer this faculty, is pointed out within the castle . The origin of this belief is not known . The castle, built c . 1446 by Cormac McCarthy, was of immense strength, and parts of its walls are as much as 18 ft. thick . To its founder is traced by some the origin of the term " blarney," since he delayed by persuasion and promises the surrender of the castle to the lord president .

Richard Millikin's song, " The Groves of Blarney " (c . 1798), contributed to the fame of the castle, which is also bound up with the civil history of the county and the War of the Great Rebellion .