Inisfail

Inisfail, a poetical name for Ireland. It is derived from Faul or Lia-fail, the celebrated stone, identified in Irish legend with the stone on which the patriarch Jacob slept when he dreamed of the heavenly ladder. The Lia-fail was supposed to have been brought to Ireland by the Dedannans and set up at Tara as the “inauguration stone” of the Irish kings; it was subsequently removed to Scone where it became the coronation stone of the Scottish kings, until it was taken by James VI. of Scotland to Westminster and placed under the coronation chair in the Abbey, where it has since remained. Inisfail was thus the island of the Fail, the island whose monarchs were crowned at Tara on the sacred inauguration stone.

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