After emptying the pockets of his jeans in the backroom of the South Boston branch of the Boston Public Library last Thursday (March 19), David Keohan placed a hand on each side of The Cloch Bán, a 254-pound traditional Irish lifting stone from Annestown Beach in Ireland’s Co. Waterford, slowly squatted down, pushed with his legs, and lifted the rock first to his lap and then to his chest. 

Instead of reading and research, this day at the library was all about rocks and wrestling, featuring the Irish Cultural Revival: Stone Lifting and Collar & Elbow Wrestling event hosted by Keohan and No Fame Games founder Joshua Mackintosh. 

No Fame Games is a Boston-based organization that promotes Celtic culture, strength, heritage, and tradition with a mission of ensuring that the spirit of Celtic sports endures for generations to come. In hopes of doing just that, Keohan and Mackintosh have spent the last two weeks March traveling around the Boston area with The Cloch Bán. Their final stop: 646 E Broadway, South Boston. 

“It seems very unusual to some of you, but what you've got to remember about stone lifting, and strength culture in general, is that it runs deep to who we are as a people,” said Keohan, a Waterford native. “All you have to do is look back at the old mythologies. In these tales, you had feats of strength, you had stones that were lifted, you had battles, stick fighting, wrestling competitions.”

In stick fighting, competitors use shillelaghs, but Collar and Elbow Wrestling is characterized by a fixed grip where participants must hold the opponent's collar and elbow. Playing best two of three matches, winners force their opponents to the ground while they maintain upright stances. 

Though Mackintosh and Keohan briefly demonstrated stick fighting and wrestling, the main event was stone lifting. 

Keohan pointed to the 25,000 references to stone lifting in the Dúchas.ie, Ireland’s national folklore collection. He also shared the story of Oisín, who turned to dust after trying to pick up a boulder upon returning from Tír na nÓg, the land of eternal youth.  

“In all of those references,” he said, “maybe every 100 you would find a story of a man or woman lifting a stone. They were lifted at weddings as a celebration of life, and they were lifted at funerals as a celebration of death.” 

The stones at those events were big; around 240 pounds for women, and 400 pounds for men. They also were lifted at “rites of passage from boyhood to manhood,” explained the strongman. For example, on the island of Inishmore, to become a man you had to lift the Mullán Port bhéal an Dún. “What did that mean? It means you could marry and have your own land. Two very important things,” said Keohan. 

Over the last six years, Keohan’s involvement in this age-old tradition mostly rooted in social status and respect took a turn from the personal to the general. It was 2020, Covid time. The gyms were closed, and the former lifting champion and father of three was looking for a way to work out. Making the most of what he had at home, he headed out to his backyard, where he swapped kettlebells for stones. He then posted his workout method online and, in doing so, his admirers say, he spurred the revitalization of a lost part of Irish culture and identity. 

“Through the process of doing that workout and posting it online, I became aware of the culture of stone lifting, said the 46-year-old Keohan.

The sport includes three tiers of tests. “If you could get the wind under the stone (lift it off the ground), it was a great day in any young man's life,” explained Keohan, who has been nicknamed Indiana Stones. “If you could get it to your lap, stage two, then you were a champion, equal of the best. But if you could stand that from your lap to your chest, you were phenomenal and spoken of for generations to come. Everybody would know your name.”

He added, “I know it might seem a bit silly, but to be strong on the island was to be useful. Strength was worth back in those days.” 

The practice declined in the 18th and 19th centuries, Keohan says, due to the effects of colonization and famine. 

“If you were starving, the last thing you want to do is pick up a 300-400- pound stone [when] you can barely get yourself off the ground. A lot of these stories and cultures went from these areas,” said Keohan. “Our language, our law, our art, our strength, and our religion were taken away. We couldn’t practice anything, and what it meant to be Irish.” 

He continued, “I can feel it in the land. It’s coming up through the bones of the earth. We’re reclaiming ourselves; our strength and pride are back.” 

Keohan, who has more than 38,000 followers on Instagram, collaborated with filmmaker and director Will Hutchby to make the documentary “Made of Stone,” and he has a book, “The Wind Beneath the Stone,” being published this spring. 

Keohan is wearing a traditional Collar & Elbow Wrestling jacket while showing off his book, “The Wind Beneath the Stone,” which will be published this spring. 

Both the documentary and the book follow Keohan’s five-year journey to repopularize the famous stones from folklore. He relates his favorite story about that time:

“I found this story by Liam O’Flaherty, written in 1929, called ‘The Stone.’ In the story, it was the greatest day in this young man's life when he lifted the stone to his chest and kissed it three times. I found that exact stone on the island of Inishmore. I thought this was just a beautiful piece of fiction, but it turns out it was an actual stone from an actual story from an actual practice. 

“I had the greatest day of my life lifting that stone in front of four separate film crews and 250 islanders last year, with everybody singing in Irish around me.”  

He added, “It was this beautiful reclamation of culture, of language, of what it means to be Irish. To be at the forefront of bringing something back like this, as simple as it might sound, you’re bringing back a piece of your heritage. It was an important part of who we were.” 

Keohan said the practice brings him and others clarity and purpose. “It's such a simple thing, but I’ve seen young men come and weep. They ask, ‘David, why am I crying?’ They can’t understand, a young man, 19 or 20 years old. I said, ‘You're crying because you’re feeling the depth of it. It goes back to who we are. The granite runs through our bones.’”

Keohan hopes that many more people can experience that feeling on June 13 at the No Fame Games Celtic Strength Championships in Milford, where he and Mackintosh will be on site at Fino Field.

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit nofamegames.com