THE STONE OF DESTINY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3149, 25 December 1922, Page 7

THE STONE OF DESTINY.

Among many antiques now in England which Irishmen say should be restored to Ireland by virtue of her new status is the "Stone of Destiny" in Westminster Abbey, upon which every English King since Edward I. was crowned. While Irish antiquarians are not unanimous on this point, one school holds that this stone is the original "Lia, Fail" from the hll of Tara, the ancient seat of the Irish kings. According to one English tradition the stone was carried to Ireland from Bethel as "Jacob's Pillow," upon which Jacob slept when he dreamed. In Ireland it became the pillow of St. Columba at lona, was removed to Scone, Scotland, by Kenneth IT. hi the ninth century, and then to Westminster by Edward I. Some antiquarians dispute this, however, alleging that Jbe stone was brought to Ireland by Tuathe de Densuiii and his colony from Germany, and subsequently placed upon the hill of Tara. The stone was supposed to have supernatural powers, making a (•leaking noise when a ligitimate king was being crowned, but maintaining a stony silence when a usurper sat upon it. The Irish high kings, who sat upon it during the Tuathe de Denann colony, came to Ireland! about 1896, 8.C.; andi the stone, according to this legend, remained till the fifth century A.D., and when Fergus Macero, then the high king, left Tara on a conquering expedition he bore the stone away to Scone for his coronation. Edward is said to have taken it away in the thirteenth century. A Scottish tradition, spun arouiut this stone has it that: "If the fates go aright, where this stone is found, The Scots shall moiiarobs of that realm be crowned," which prophecy is supposed to have been fulfilled when James VI, of Scotland became James I. of England. There are Irishmen, however, who say that the real Lia Fail still reposes on* the hill of Tara, and 1 that the mosti reliable Irish annals give no hiut that it ever was removed!. The stone which these persons assert is the original now crowns the great central mound' of tho hill Tara, where some 400 men were killed) by English troops in the revolt of 1798. The old Irish bards gave their native land the poetic name of "Innisfail," incorporating the name of the historic lock. One ancient verse, runs: "From this strange stone did Innisfail obtain Its name* a tract surrounded by the main."