Mementos, Notes, and Fragments

Scattered across Ireland are dozens of massive stones of such important historic and cultural significance you might say they belong in a museum. A man named David Keohan, from Waterford, Ireland, researches these stones, then seeks them out in graveyards, abandoned farmlands, and weed patches behind neighborhood pubs. But when he locates his quarry, the man they call Indiana Stones doesn’t pack it off to a museum. He squats down, wraps the rock in a bear hug, and tries to lift it.

Keohan, who holds a kettlebell lifting world record, began stone lifting when his gym closed during the pandemic. He eventually discovered stone lifting was deeply important to ancient Ireland as a test of strength and character. In the eighteenth century, English colonial rulers halted the practice in an attempt to squash Irish cultural traditions. Keohan wants to revive it.

Many of the stones