"Passing across an open court in the Midway Plaisance we come to Blarney Castle, built in the fifteenth century by one Cormack MacCarthy, a brave man and a strong one, on a site where Druids held their mystic rites long before Saint Patrick and his white-robed disciples set foot in the land of Erin. Its counterpart at Jackson Park is a three-story building, set apart for the village workers; but for visitors there is a winding staircase, from the top of which one may creep to the battlements at risk of life and limb and there kiss the magic stone and obtain a view of Ireland in the form of a large relief map." -- The Book of the Fair 838.
This most conspicuous feature on the street east of the Ferris Wheel was under the patronage of the Earl and Countess of Aberdeen, who, since 1886, have endeared themselves to the advocates of home rule for Ireland. Blarney Castle was opened on the 11th of May, and was visited during the Fair by nearly every prominent Irishman in the world. -- The Dream City.