One of the biggest discoveries I've made in the last year or so was the rediscovery of St. Patricks fingers on a stone near a holy well in North Tipp. These carving may in fact relate to sword sharpening and this has been linked to inauguration ceremonies for local kings / chiefs.
For more information on sword sharpening stones see here
https://aran.library.nuigalway.ie/handle/10379/2041
I originally came across a reference to them via a facebook friend online in the Irish Folklore Commissions manuscripts. Last August I did a talk on Rock Art in Tipperary in Portroe in which I mentioned St Patrick's fingers and a local man came up to me afterwards saying that he knew where they were located. It was not till January of this year that we got a chance to look for them and he and another man kindly showed me where they were. (Thanks to these two men for their kind help) It has since been added to the SMR under the following description.
"Situated on W side of road 25m SW of St. Patrick's Well (TN020-056----). Large roughly rectangular-shaped stone (approx. dims. L 1.65m; H 0.5m) known locally as St. Patrick's Stone set on edge and incorporated into the roadside boundary hedge on W side of public road opposite St. Patrick's Well (TN020-056----). The exposed surface has numerous deep vertical lines (L 0.25m x D 0.03m) cut into the surface of the stone and along the edge of the rock at the top and at the bottom. This rock appears to have been used as a sharpening stone, the dating of which is uncertain. The cuts are similar to cut marks found on stones associated with megalithic monuments in France where they are referred to as 'Le Polissoir' (the polisher) and elsewhere as 'Grooves' and 'sword sharpening stones'. In 1938 the following folklore regarding this stone was recorded in Carrick National School; ’At St. Patrickswell in the townsland of Ballywilliam in the Parish of Youghlalarra is a stone on which there are marks. I (the writer) was always told as a young lad that the marks were those of St Patrick's fingers. The stone is from 5 to 6 ft [1.5-1.8m] in length & 2 to 3 ft [0.6-0.9m] high. I do not know how wide it is as it is built into the fence. The marks are somewhat like the following, all on the face but I could see without the ditch that there are some of top. They look like Bronze age markings’ (pers. comm. Joann Hinz; The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0535, Page 472; www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5162112/5155297)"
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