Kiss Me, I’m Irish (sort of)

I’ve added another wet one to my watercolor kiss series as my annual March/ St. Patrick’s Celtic tribute.

The popular colloquialism actually stems from the legend of the Blarney stone.
The ‘Cloch na Blarnan’ is a stone built into the battlements of Castle Blarney in County Cork, Ireland. Kissing this stone is said to endow one with excellence in flattery and persuasiveness, a.k.a. the gift of gab.
The legends are varied and many regarding the stone’s origins, but one says that Cormac MacCarthy, the castle’s builder, asked the Irish goddess Clíodhna to help him win a lawsuit. She told him to kiss the first stone he found in the morning on his way to court. He did so, and won his case very successfully. He then placed the stone into the parapet of the Blarney castle. There are other legends that attribute the stone to the Holy Land, but the first legend has more of a Celtic flair, so that’s the one I’ll stick to. As a sidenote, the staff at Blarney castle believe a witch saved from drowning told the MacCarthy family about the stone’s power.

Kiss Me Watercolor
Kiss Me
Watercolor

Whatever the source of its power, heads of state, literary giants, and Hollywood stars have gone to Ireland to plant one on a rock with the hopes of being supernaturally blessed with great eloquence. Millions of people from around the world have traveled to Cork to kiss the famous stone. If someone mentioned wanting to kiss the legendary stone, an Irish person would jokingly say, “Kiss me, I’m Irish”.

That’s how the phrase, and its proliferation, began. Whether from the mouth of a full-blooded Irish citizen, or a tipsy lass whose great, great grandmother was from Ireland, <em>sort of</em>, those words are now part of our vernacular, and we love ’em. Even if you aren’t Irish, who could blame you for saying that bit of ‘blarney’ to get a kiss?

The colors of this kiss painting represent the national flag of Ireland;
Green represents the Gaelic tradition of Ireland, orange represents the protestant followers of William of Orange, and the white middle bar is the hope for peace between them.

The original painting is now in a private Georgia collection, but you can order a hand signed, archival watercolor print of Kiss Me, I’m Irish. Just visit my Etsy shop.

You can customize your own Kiss Me print on canvas, metal, acrylic, etc. by clicking here.

And since this particular painting is of such a social nature, I made sure to make it available in my Red BubbleCafe Press shop on apparel, decor, and gift items so you can show your love for Ireland, and maybe even get a few kisses out at the pub. 😉

 

Until next time~

Irish Blessing

 

1 thought on “Kiss Me, I’m Irish (sort of)”

  1. What a cool painting! I was actually in Ireland for St. Pat’s once as a kid. I had an Irish flag and this green nose to wear! It was obviously a pretty memorable experience since I can recall a lot of it even though it happened 26 years ago (yikes!).

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