BLARNEY. Extravagant eloquence that beguiles and flatters, impresses and deceives, often taken to be typically Irish. In 1602, Cormac Teige Macarthy unwillingly agreed to surrender Blarney Castle in County Cork, so as to have it returned to him as a loyal retainer of Elizabeth I. Afterwards he stalled and, tired of his glib equivocation, the queen is said to have shouted, ‘This is all Blarney—he never means what he says, he never does what he promises.’ In the wall of Blarney Castle is the Blarney Stone, said to bestow Macarthy's gift of eloquence on whoever kisses it. The ritual of kissing the stone appears to date from the 18c. Compare JIVE, PATTER
How to cite this entry:
"BLARNEY" Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. Ed. Tom McArthur. Oxford University Press, 1998. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. 10 August 2011
