An age-old Irish tradition has been reborn in a small Kilkenny village

There’s a patch of undulating hills in the south west corner of Kilkenny so incredibly rich in local folklore that a recent visit to the area sent my head spinning.

Last Sunday, I set off for the village of Owning in South Kilkenny, in search of an object that has recently been brought to my attention on social media.

That object: A stone. No ordinary stone, mind you, but a lifting stone — a 120kg goliath that has quickly earned its place in the village’s lore.

The stone came to my attention via David Keohan, also known as ‘Indiana Stones’, a Waterford man who is attempting to revive the ancient tradition of stone lifting across Ireland.

Stone lifting was a commonplace activity in Ireland before the Great Famine, particularly in the west of the country.

In many towns and villages, a stone would be selected that was unique to that place.

Those who could lift their local lifting stone confirmed their manhood, and the act itself brought bragging rights and societal status in often tight-knit communities.

Inishmore native and well-known novelist Liam O’Flaherty paints a magnificent picture of the activity in his short story, The Stone: “It was a great day in each young man’s life when he raised the stone from the ground and ‘gave it wind’ as they said. And if he raised it to his knees, he was a champion, the equal of the best. And if he raised it to his chest, he was a hero, a phenomenon of strength and the men talked of him. Whereas, he who failed to lift it from the ground became the butt of everybody’s scorn. It had always been so, from the time of the most remote ancestors of the people…”

As myself and a friend landed into Owning village to examine the stone we had heard about, a man out walking took interest.

“You’re here trying to lift the stone?,” he enquired, as we all stared at this mammoth object sitting atop a mound in the village called ‘The Bulk’.

The Bulk has sat there resolutely for centuries, unperturbed by the movement of society and unphased by the winds of change.

Situated between the local church and a pub, it was where politicians used to come and deliver speeches, where schoolyard scraps would be settled and where people from many generations gone by would arrange to meet.

Many a life has been bookmarked by encounters at The Bulk, and it is continuing to spring forth stories and traditions.

Interestingly, the Owning lifting stone was only recently freed from some mortar that had kept it in place on The Bulk.

Local historian Paddy O’Shea has since informed me that the lifting of the stone in Owning is only a recent phenomenon, and certainly does not date back to pre-Famine times.

When I first heard this news, I was slightly disappointed, but thinking about it further, that made this particular lifting stone incredibly unique.

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Even though the tradition of lifting stones began hundreds of years ago, there must still be something in the Irish psyche that draws us to feats of strength, ritual, and connection to the past.

The tradition of lifting this stone somehow managed to spring up organically, has taken root in the village, and is now slowly solidifying its own place in local lore.

There are musings that the tradition in Owning began just a few decades ago, when men leaving the local pub after a few 'lemonades' dared one another to lift the stone.

Eventually, the stone was unceremoniously mortared into the side of The Bulk, but now that it is free again, the act of lifting it as a show of strength is returning.

When the stone was brought to the attention of David Keohan (‘Indiana Stones’), he came to the village, lifted the stone, and walked it around The Bulk.

That feat was covered by Reuters, one of the world’s leading news agencies, and now David Keohan is one of many strongmen in recent times who have come to the village with the sole intention of raising the stone.

I wish I could report that my attempt to lift the stone was successful, but the 120kg beast refused to budge.

Yet, in that struggle, I felt connected to something deeper — a tradition not measured by success, but by the sheer act of trying.

I can only hope the people of Owning will be kinder than those referenced in O’Flaherty’s short story and spare me a lifetime of scorn.

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