_Kerry Election._--This election took place in February of 1872. It was the first great flame kindled between the Home Rule party and the landlord classes in the county. The landlords were so irritated by the speeches delivered by the Blennerhassett supporters that they were determined to make their power felt and destroy the Home Rule party. The candidate chosen by the Home Rule party was a Protestant gentleman named Ponsby Blennerhassett from Kells. James A. Dease, a Roman Catholic gentleman from West Meath, was selected by the family of the Earl of Kenmare for the landlords. Dr. Moriarty, a Roman Catholic bishop, did all in his power to elect the nominee of the Kenmare family. In face of terror and landlord's oppression, in open voting the Home Rule candidate was elected by the Roman Catholics of Kerry. Many patriotic priests took sides with Blennerhassett. This gentleman remained true to the Home Rule party, but the Home Rule party, led by Sir Isaac Butt, was considered too mild. (See my "History of County Kerry" for a full account of this election.) _Kissing the Blarney Stone by the Silver Tongue of Kerry and Others._--There is a saying among some people that Counselor Hussey of Farnakilla, known as the "Silver Tongue" of Kerry, kissed the Blarney stone in Blarney Castle, County Cork, and thereby secured his sweet, fluent, silver-tongued speech. He is not the only person hereabouts who is said to have kissed the Blarney stone. Everyone from the South of Ireland who has secured a fluent or flattering speech is credited with visiting it. As some individuals will be found ignorant enough to ascribe such a virtue to the stone and tell others in foreign lands that it possesses such, I am going a little outside my province to remove it as far as possible. If you _were forever rubbing your tongue to the Blarney stone, you would find no virtue in it whereby your speech will be improved_, and I dare say Silver Tongue of Dingle never kissed the stone. Thousands of legends and stories are woven about it, but these were written for amusement, and the circumstances connected with kissing the stone supplied good food for legends and diversion. There is a castle called "Blarney Castle" about six miles on this (Kerry) side of the City of Cork, within the Village of Blarney in the County of Cork. This castle contains a stone bearing the following inscription: CORMACH MCCARTHY _Fortis me Fieri Facit_ A. D. 1446.