Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Vandals Break Stone of Destiny, Sacred To High Kings Of Ireland
Ireland's famed Lia Fáil Standing Stone, better known as the "Stone of Destiny," has been vandalized.
The stone, which stands upon the Hill of Tara in County Meath, was smashed with a hammer on all four sides. Chips broke off from it but were not found, suggesting that the culprits took them.
The stone is the traditional coronation site for the ancient High Kings of Ireland, semi-mythical rulers about whom little is known for certain. The last king was supposed to have been crowned there around the year 500 A.D. The stone was said to be magical and when the rightful king touched it, the stone would roar in approval.
The stone is a menhir, or lone standing stone, dating back to the Neolithic some 5,500 years ago. Many megalithic monuments such as menhirs and stone circles were seen as magical by later cultures.
This is the latest of several acts of vandalism against ancient sites. Unrest in Syria has led to destruction and looting of archaeological sites. In Israel, a 1,600-year-old synagogue mosaic was wrecked by ultra-orthodox Jews. Then there are the oil pipelines passing through Babylon in Iraq.
At this rate of ignorance and greed, there won't be any ancient sites left for our grandkids to admire.
[Photo courtesy Andrew Dietz]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
viclas696 Jun 19th 2012 3:11PM
The thugs that committed this act will now hear the wail of the banshee and feel the cold hand of death on their spines. For the rest of their lives they will know no peace, prosperity or happiness. They are all dead men.
michael Jun 19th 2012 4:09PM
They will pay.
Blain Jun 19th 2012 5:14PM
I think I just hate all people. So many heartless acts around the globe.
J.E.B. Jun 20th 2012 2:12AM
Hats off to the little punks who desecrated this ancient monument. May all the evil demons and ghosts of Ireland descend upon your home and torment you and your ilk for a generation to come. You are LESS than trash.
Jo Jun 20th 2012 2:13AM
The only thing worse than people who abuse the helpless among us, are people who checked their souls at the door, who have no love of anything valuable, who despise sacred things, who disregard history as a waste of time, and who howl with delight when someone else weeps. Karma is now chasing these heathens.
JOANNA Jun 20th 2012 2:13AM
Nothing is respected any more.
Hope they enjoy their KARMA.
Donal O' Jun 27th 2012 5:40PM
Vandalism? There is a vibrant underground black market here in Ireland for archaeological artifacts with many if not most items stolen to order for the International Black Market for such goods.
The 'Official Agencies and the police ' spin' on these organized thefts is to present these as ' mindless vandalism' for news management since if the scale of the problem and the ineffective, underfunded and next to useless counter measures were appreciated there would be public uproar.
In Listowel, Co Kerry some months, a passing motorist disturbed some people at 2.30 AM with wire rope tied to the life sized bronze statue of a beloved town playwright, the late J B Keane in the final preparations for pulling the statue from its base to melt down as scrap. This is where the government and police inactivity to this market has led, thieves prepared to risk it in a town main st., then what chance for isolated monuments whether for the International black market or scrap value?.
Yes an appalling act but one that has all the indications of chips taken to order for someone who had a special need of these for occult or other purposes.