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 The "Lia Fáil", or Stone of Destiny, is said to have
been brought to Ireland by a race known as the
"Tuatha Dé Danaan",
(the people of the goddess Danú), from the city of Falias, in "Tír na n-Óg" (The Land of the Ever-Young),
sometime in the very distant past.
It originally stood on the northern side of the burial mound
known as "Dúmha na nGiall",
or the Mound of the Hostages,
which is the oldest structure at Tara, pre-dating the building of the
Great Pyramid of Egypt by nearly a thousand years. The phallus-shaped stone stands some five and a half feet
(1.7 metres) in height,
and it is thought that
approximately the same length exists underground as above.
According to legend, the magical stone
would roar
when
the rightful
claimant
to the kingship of Tara touched it, thereby conferring the approval of the ancient powers on his claim.
The "Lia Fáil", looking west at sunset.
The stone was moved
to its
present
location on top of the mound known as "Teach Cormac", or King Cormac's house, after the Battle of Tara in 1798, and marks
the burial site of those courageous and valiant "rebels" who died on this most symbolic and sacred Hill in the quest for freedom
for their beloved land, a struggle which was not to see fulfillment for another one hundred and twenty-four years, when Ireland
regained its independence as a free nation.
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