Tests of Manhood: Uncovering the History and Popularity of Stone Lifting in Ireland

The general public, both within Ireland and further abroad, has begun to take an interest in Irish lifting stones. A simple premise, lifting stones are historically significant stones which were typically lifted as tests of manhood within rural and fishing communities in Ireland. It is an Irish practice with global parallels in Europe and Asia. The popular history of this endeavour is currently being written with claims that this practice, once popular, was wiped out during the Great Famine. This article marks the first academic study of lifting stones in Ireland. It situates them in a domestic and global context, discusses the sources one can use in studying the topic and uses a combination of folklore, anthropology and fiction to evaluate known written sources on the topic. More importantly it highlights the multifaceted and gendered histories which can be told through this topic. The article thus seeks to do three things: first to raise awareness of the public histories being written on this topic, second to implore a more rigid groundwork for studying this practice and third to stress the value such an area has in the growing field of masculinity studies in Ireland.