http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.blarney/mb.ashx 2006-09-09 01:47:33Z http://c.ancestry.com/s/0/p/0/i/logo.gif http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.blarney/mb.ashx 175 38 http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.blarney/1/mb.ashx I thought I would pass this on to those researching the name BLARNEY. <br>In the Vol 29, issue 6 of Skeptical Inquirer, Joe Nickell, in his "Investigative Files" column writes about the legends of castles and keeps. He has travelled the world looking for the ghosts of these places and on his findings about Blarney Castle remarkes that "Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) coined the term "blarney" during the lengthy, tiresome negotiatons concerning control of the fortress. The titular owner, Carmac Mc Carthy, Earl of Blarney, dutifully following the protocols of sixteenth-century diplomatic prose, wrote grandious letters that praised the queen, without, however, relinquishin the land. Her regal feathers ruffled, Elizabeth was to have huffed, "This is all blarney - he never says what he means!"<br>Nickell quotes this as from ODwyer's writings in 2000, page 22. 2006-09-09 01:47:33Z jamespardee http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.blarney/1/mb.ashx