David Keohan – The Man Bringing Ireland’s Lost Stone-Lifting Culture Back to Life

Centuries ago, young men in Celtic villages proved their strength and identity not in gyms but by lifting stones older than memory — rites of passage where pride, community, culture, and strength were one.

That tradition vanished… until David Keohan rediscovered it.

In this conversation, David reveals how the ancient Irish stones — some untouched for generations — are reawakening national pride, reconnecting people with ancestry, and giving young men and women a pathway back to meaningful challenge.

From kettlebell world champion to cultural archaeologist of strength, David’s story shows how one person with a spark of curiosity can ignite a global movement.

“The stones don’t care about who you are — they only want to be lifted.” — David Keohan

📌 Based on our conversation recording — source: 

🔥 Key Episode Themes

• Reviving ancient rites of passage — what lifting stones meant in Irish villages for thousands of years
• COVID as the unlikely catalyst that led to the rediscovery of a forgotten strength culture
• Ireland's lost cultural roots — and how colonialism wiped many of them from memory
• Why people weep when they lift these stones
• The moment David lifted Ireland’s most sacred stone — and a crowd sang him into history
• How stone lifting is now spreading worldwide, including Australia and the USA
• The powerful message for young people craving purpose and meaning

🏋️ Who is David Keohan?

• Two-time World Champion in kettlebell sport
• Founder of the movement restoring Ireland’s stone-lifting traditions
• Cultural advocate working with archaeologists, historians and local communities
• Creator of the documentary Made of Stone
• Currently writing a book on the history, mythology and revival of stone lifting

📍Episode Chapters

TimeChapter00:00 | The myth, the stones, and the revival begins
07:00 | From overweight dad to world champion
10:00 | The pandemic and a spark in the garden
14:00 | Lifting the legendary Fianna Stone in Scotland
18:00 | First discovery on the Aran Islands
26:00 | The moment that brought an entire island to tears
39:00 | Ancient strength on mountaintops
46:00 | What villages gain when stones are rediscovered
53:00 | A movement that’s now circling the world
59:00 | Why young people are craving real challenge
1:05:00 | A call to action: “Don’t overthink it — just start”

🎧 Listen + Watch

📸 Featured Stone Locations in This Episode

• Inis Mór — Mór na Port Véal an Dúin
• The Seafin Stone, County Derry
• Wakes & Harvest stones in County Clare
• …and many more emerging from the earth once again

🧭 Connect with David Keohan

Instagram: @indianastones
Documentary: Made of Stone – RTE (global release pending)

🚀 Ready to Find (and Lift) Your Impossible?

David reclaimed a national tradition.

You have your own stone to lift.

If you’re a business owner who wants to build a company that runs without you — and one day sells for a life-changing exit — let’s work together.

👉 Work with Sam 1-on-1
https://sampenny.com/action

Or explore all coaching & programs:
 https://sampenny.com

Let’s make your impossible… inevitable.

Creators and Guests

Host

Sam Penny

Sam Penny is an adventurer, entrepreneur, and keynote speaker who lives by the mantra “Say YES! to the Impossible.” From swimming the English Channel in winter to building and selling multi-million-dollar companies, Sam thrives on pushing boundaries in both business and life. As host of Why’d You Think You Could Do That?, he sits down with ordinary people who have done extraordinary things, uncovering the mindset, resilience, and bold decisions that made it possible — and showing listeners why their own impossible is closer than they think.

Guest

David Keohan

Stone Lifter, Documentary Maker

What is Why'd You Think You Could Do That??

They’ve swum oceans, scaled mountains, launched empires, and shattered expectations. But before they did any of it, someone, maybe even themselves, thought: “You can’t do that.”

Hosted by Sam Penny, Why’d You Think You Could Do That? dives into the minds of people who said “screw it” and went for it anyway. From adventurers and elite athletes to wildcard entrepreneurs and creative renegades, each episode unpacks the one question they all have in common:

“Why'd you think you could do that?”

If you’re wired for more, haunted by big ideas, or just sick of playing it safe, this is your show.

Sam Penny (00:00)
For more than a thousand years, Ireland's sons proved their strength, not in gyms, but on village greens, lifting stones older than memory to mark their passage into adulthood. These stones held more than weight. They held meaning, but over time, through colonisation, famine and forgetfulness,

The rituals faded, the stones lay buried. Then came one man who asked not just, can I lift it, but why did we ever stop? David Keohan isn't just reviving a tradition, he's helping a country remember it. I'm Sam Penny, and this is Why Do Think You Can Do That? David, welcome to the show.

David Keohan (00:36)
So I'm delighted to be here man, thanks for having me on.

Sam Penny (00:39)
This whole story, I first came across this. I'm on the Sunshine Coast in Australia. And one of my colleagues one day was scrolling through Instagram and he came across this video of this man in Ireland lifting stones. And he said, Sam, check this out. And his name's Ben. And he's, check this out. Yeah, how cool is this? And I thought, damn, that is super cool what you're doing with these lifting stones. And it's amazing that a man in Ireland is having influence right around the world.

This is going to be a cool story, David.

David Keohan (01:12)
man, it's, but to think that it's gone that viral and that worldwide in a very, very short space of time. mean, really it's only been four years, you know, that I've started looking for these at all. ⁓ think COVID sparked the whole thing off through the culture of boredom that was here through COVID. We couldn't do anything. So it was a matter of just going looking for doing something, but to see that it's traveled that far, that quickly, it's kind of mind blowing. mean, sometimes I have to sit back and wonder.

How has it become so big so quick? But I've thought about this a lot, Sam. I suppose we delve into the podcast, but I think there was such a yearning for a reclamation of a culture. And I think COVID made a lot of us kind of sit back and kind of wonder why we were doing anything, you know, especially here, we were sitting down and we couldn't go outside two kilometers of our house. We were like, you know, what am I doing? What am I doing here?

Why was I doing this job? I was working two jobs at the time. Why am I working two jobs for? You you kind of got to think of why you were doing things. And then that kind of led you down the path of a little bit of self, I suppose, rediscovery. And through that, I suppose, kind of wondering why you're doing something. Then you're kind of looking at your own culture and kind of figuring that out. So, yeah, it's been such an amazing journey, man. It's been a total reclamation of culture and of self and of identity over the past couple of years. And to be able to share that now with people.

Sam Penny (02:37)
So I think, ⁓

so David, I think before we jump into the lifting stones, I want to go quite a way back. So what did strength, before your lifting stones, what did strength actually mean to you?

David Keohan (02:52)
I mean, all the way through my 20s, I was just into music and art. I was someone who loved, and I still play music all the time, I play in bands. But I was in no way and anything to do with strength of sport, pretty much my whole life until I hit about 32. So when it got to the age of 32, at that stage I had two young children and my health was really bad. I was overweight, I was obese. I could barely walk up the stairs. I was in a bad place, very bad place mentally, physically.

physically bad, but also that affects your health, affects your mental health. You know, I can't do this, I can't do that, I can't run after my kids. So one day I saw myself in the mirror and I was like, that's it, know, fuck this, you're only in your early 30s, you have to do something. You know what mean? So I went to the doctor and I just said, look, I need to give it a help. Doctor gave me all this medication. said, look, you need to take this asthma inhaler, you need to take blood pressure tablets, need take X, Y and Z. Gave me a tray of medication and said, here you are for the rest of your life.

And I was like, no, no, I'm too young to be on that kind of stuff. know, so I bought myself a pair of runners, a pair of trainers the next day and some gym gear. And I went out running and made it 100 yards to the top of my estate. I had to turn around to come home because I was so unfit. I thought I had asthma. I didn't have asthma. I was just really fucking unfit. And really bad. man. I thought I had asthma. like, no, I just I'd never done any exercise in my life. But I went out in the morning, Sam, every morning.

Sam Penny (04:11)
Hahaha

David Keohan (04:19)
6 o'clock in the morning before work and that one kilometer turned to five kilometers, that five kilometers turned to 10 kilometers. You're losing weight, you're feeling better, you're eating healthier and all of a sudden the blood pressure is gone. You know, the blood pressure is down to normal level. Your asthma is gone. It wasn't asthma, you were really unfit and you're just in a really, really good place mentally and physically, you know. So I started off just doing running. I was to stop myself being on all this medication and

From there, then I booked my first marathon. think it was about 12 months later, I ran my first marathon. I ran about six half marathons after that. yeah, I just got into the running, really enjoyed it. And was down to nothing. was down to like, what was it, about 12 stone weight, whatever that is in pounds. But it was something about 12 stone weight. It was really, really light. I didn't have much strength. I was just doing a lot of So just from a chance encounter, then in work, I met a guy who had a gym, kettlebell gym. And he was like,

Sam Penny (04:57)
Well.

David Keohan (05:20)
He came in with a really cool t-shirt with a kettlebell logo on it. I was like, you know, what's that? says a kettlebell. I said, you know, don't know what that is. He said, don't come out and have a try of it. You know, I do classes. So then started doing kettlebell classes. And within six months, starting to feel stronger. And I saw that there was a kettlebell sports gym attached to this place too. So I was like, what's kettlebell sport? But he said, it's lifting two kettlebells for time. Clean a jerk. I was like, that sounds interesting. You know, I have an endurance background from running. Let's see, can I do some of this? So I got into kettlebell sport and got absolutely fucking obsessed with it.

went out to the gym four nights a week, trained my ass off, got absolutely fascinated with the minutiae of the sport, really got into the actual depths of it, ended up making the Irish team two years later and won the European Championships in 2014, which was absolutely amazing, in Russia, in the home of kettlebell sport, in St. Petersburg. So it was like, and I came fourth that year in the world. So it was like, oh shit, I'm actually quite good at this.

I didn't think, because mean, like, there's nobody really does it in Ireland, you know. And there was a small enough niche sport. So like you're just chugging away at home and you think, you know, I'm doing OK, I got decent numbers. But then you get to the Europeans and the world, you're like, shit, I got decent numbers, you know, I can put it up against the kind of the best that's out there. And this is on the amateur vision. But then from there, then the next year was like, OK, I came fourth in the world, I think I could get a medal in this. So the world's the next year was in Dublin in Ireland. So I was like, I'm going to train my ass off for this. So train like an absolute demon for 12 months.

was running 40 to 60K a week, training five nights a week in the gym. And I ended up winning the Worlds in 2015 in Ireland, in Dublin. First place, world champion. And to think like four years or three or four years before that, I couldn't run 100 yards or compare to what got me stares. You know, just cause they show you what you can do, you're pretty wide and so on.

Sam Penny (06:56)
Huh.

It's...

What... David, what was the real spark that motivated you to keep turning up every single day? What was that real driving passion? Was it your kids? Was it you just sort of seeing change and feeling change in yourself? What was it? Why did you just keep going?

David Keohan (07:27)
I fell in love with, I think I fell in love with the process. I fell in love with the training. I absolutely loved the training. I loved how I felt after it. I loved how I felt. I the way my body felt. I loved how fit I was getting. I mean, was never fit. I never knew what being fit was like. I never knew what I felt like to feel good. You know what mean? I felt bad my whole life, but I never knew because I was just used to it. So then you're like, this is what feeling good feels like.

I like this, you know? And I'm also, I'm after making the Irish team. I'm representing my country in a sport. I'm standing up with a green jersey on me, you know? And I'm representing my country in foreign lands. I mean, I travel all over the world with this. So there was a huge pride to that as well. There was a massive amount of pride to that for my family, for myself, all my extended family. Everyone was so proud, you know? I mean, you're doing so well. I mean, we're so proud of you. And that makes you feel good too, you know? You're doing something good. And then, of course, like I was competing really well. mean,

I never really enjoyed competing. I loved the training and I loved the process, but I never really enjoyed competing. Turns out I was actually really good at competing, but I never really enjoyed it. wasn't what gave me the, I wasn't all about the medals. It was like, I just love representing my country. Turns out I was actually pretty damn good at it and like won a couple of world championships, European championships and traveled, like I said, traveled the world with it. But it was just that, I think it was the pride of representing Ireland and the pride of your family was a lovely thing to have.

Sam Penny (08:55)
Yeah, fantastic. I'll tell you what, when I turn up to the gym, the kettlebell is my enemy. ⁓ kudos to you. I don't know. I did not know kettlebell was a sport, and I can't think of a tougher sport considering my mental anguish when I turn up and I see those things sitting on the ground. Now, like, no, no.

David Keohan (09:15)
Yeah, think about it, 224

is an amateur. Crazy.

Sam Penny (09:19)
Unbelievable.

all of my guests have done something absolutely remarkable. You they've got heaps of world records, they're world champions, they've climbed every peak over 8000 meters, they've skied to the South Pole, all these kinds of things. Here I am with kettlebell world champion. However, that's not what we're really talking about today. Because I think that what you have moved into post

kettlebell world champion is something far greater and far more ⁓ amazing. So firstly, how did the pandemic really ⁓ open something ancient for you? It really opened a door that was quite unexpected.

David Keohan (10:01)
Oh, I mean, I think it opened the door for a lot of people, but like I was saying at the start there, you we were, we were in a 2k lockdown, so everything was shut down. So like I was competing and training in the gym, you know, I was training in the gym for five nights a week and all of a sudden it's taken away from me, Sam. So like, what am going to do now? You know, training is part of my life. It's my mental health. It keeps me right. It keeps me on an even keel. I'm happy when I'm training. I like, I have no equipment, you know, cause all my equipment was in the gym. You know, I didn't need to have equipment. I went to the gym all the time.

So all I had in the back garden was three stones, two of which were stone carvings by my wife. So I just started picking those up as just using them as weights because I was like, I need to do something, do some resistance training. I'm fucking cracking up here. Sitting down watching TV isn't my thing. I need to be doing something. So just started picking up these stones in the back garden and I fell in love with the actual process, the physicality of

the lifting of these stones. know, there's something very primal about this. I'm out the back garden. I'm out in all the weathers. You know what I mean? I'm outside. I'm lifting stone. I feel connected to something greater than me. I love the feeling that is. This feels great. And then as I'm doing that, friends of mine online, you know, because we're all connected online, friends of mine online is like, Dave, I'm digging up the back garden here at Chukova just to do something. Or I'm building a wall. I have a couple of spade rocks. Do you want them? So all of a sudden there's lads rocking up in vans and just throwing stones into me back garden.

and I'm using these just as training tools, you know? So that was how it started. Then because of that, I got aware of Rogue Fitness made three unbelievable documentaries on stone lifting. One on stone lifting in the Basque region in Spain, one on stone lifting in Iceland and one on stone lifting in Scotland. And it was about the actual culture behind the lifting of stone. It wasn't just man pick up rock, you know? It was, was a whole cultural attachment to these things.

Sam Penny (11:54)
You

David Keohan (11:58)
Like the Scottish ones were the manhood stones, the clock with fur, they were the manhood stones. to become a boy, sorry, to become a man from a boy, the rite of passage of becoming a man, had to lift this stone up into a plinth or pick it up to your chest. And I just thought this was absolutely incredible. I was like, there's a culture attached to this. There's a whole depth attached to this. You become a man when you these stones, you know? All of a sudden.

you can marry, can own land. I just thought this was amazing. I was like, but the one that blew my fucking mind wide open was the Fianna Stone in Scotland. So as an Irish man, I was raised on stories of Fionn Macoelan the Fianna. I mean, he's just like what Achilles is, you know what I mean? It's to the Greeks. He's the warrior elite. He's an absolutely amazing mythological figure. And his tribe was the Fianna tribe. So in Scotland, there's a Fianna Stone that

mythology and through folklore that it to become a member of the Fianna you had to lift this stone you know so it's like you're telling me that there's a Fianna stone attached to Fionn Macaul that you can pick up that's sitting in the fucking field in Glenline in Scotland and I can go and pick this thing up like I've said this before but it's like telling the fucking Norseman that Tar's hammer sitting out in the field in Trondheim go pick it up like you know what I mean it's like why are you fucking I was so like I have to go see this

So I just, I hop into a campervan between me mates and say, we're going to Scotland in three weeks time. I'm what? I don't give a fuck. I'll tell you on the way. So we ended up going to Scotland in the campervan, lifting a load of these manhood stones and leaving the Fianna stone until last. Got to the Fianna stone. I got to put my hands on that and lift that. And it was probably one of the most spiritual moments of my life. It was absolutely unbelievable. It's 127 kilos of dollar rice, but you know.

You think that this stone possibly could have been lifted for a thousand years. have had tens and tens of thousands of men have put their hands on this particular fucking stone to become a member of this mythological clan that you've been reading about since I've been told about since you were a kid. So that to me was an unbelievable moment. And that was the catalyst then for me to start looking for the culture in Ireland because the culture in Ireland hadn't been discovered. We didn't even know if there was a culture of stone lifting in Ireland. We knew there was a very, very alive and prevalent one in Scotland.

and we're very much like the same Celtic route. It'd be more unusual if there wasn't something here. So that started me looking for the ones in Ireland then.

Sam Penny (14:24)
with lifting the Fianna Stone was it a sense of a connection to the thousands of people of the past, or was it a great sense of the strength and that feeling that you are now part of the tribe, so to speak?

David Keohan (14:43)
It was a bit of both. me, the stories about these things mean more to me than the actual physicality of the lift. To some people it's different. Some people just love conquering the stone. They love lifting the stone and feeling that they've conquered this particular milestone for themselves. To me, it's all about the story and the history and the depth of the roots of this. The seam of this kind of runs deep through who we are as a people here. We are the Dini Clihe, we're the people of stone. We've been moving and lifting stone in Ireland and Scotland.

Wales, you know, in all these places for for millennia, we have the dolmens, the cromlechs, the standing stones, know, stone circles. We have all of this here. We've been moving and lifting stone for millennia and millennia. And to me, you're becoming a part of that root deep part of the culture by lifting these things, you know, especially with a stone attached to an ancient, an ancient clan like that. It's it was it's to me, it was that that's the most powerful part of this. It's.

you'll be coming just the next link in a very, very, very long chain, you know?

Sam Penny (15:45)
So you weren't aware of stone lifting or a tradition of it in Ireland. How did you go about trying to determine if there was one?

David Keohan (15:48)
Thank

So how do you look for a lost culture? Where do you start? Where do you start looking for a culture that you don't even know is there? ⁓ So it just started as everybody does, I'm researching online. And I came across one, I took an Irish stone lifting, I came across one reference. ⁓ Like if you type in Irish stone lifting now, it's viral, it's everywhere. Pictures of my fucking head everywhere. Pictures of people stone lifting all over the place, documentaries, TV shows. But.

Sam Penny (16:19)
Ha ⁓

David Keohan (16:23)
Four or five years ago, was nothing. was one reference by a man called Dr. Conor Heffernan. And Dr. Conor Heffernan had written a treatise called 19th Century Strength in Ireland. And in that, he had heavily referenced stone lifting and a story written by a man called Lemo Flaherty. So Lemo Flaherty is a very, very famous Irish writer and essayist. And he wrote a beautiful story called The Stone. He lived on an Ireland's called Inishmore, which is one of the Aran Islands off the west coast of Galway.

And he wrote a story called The Stone about an old man lamenting his lost strength in youth. And he thinking the greatest day in his life was picking up of this particular stone on the Ireland's. That was the testing stone of the Ireland's. So I thought that was a beautiful story. Conor had heavily referenced it in his piece. So I then started looking online for references to stone lifting on the Aran Islands. Found in very old Reddit thread with a man called Peter Martin, who brought stone lifting back pretty much in Scotland.

talking to a woman on the Ireland's called Fiona. And she said that the stone that Limo Flaherty wrote about is an actual stone based on an actual practice of an actual culture that has been here for thousands and thousands of years. The stone is on this particular pathway going down towards Garton Macopper, an old village on the Aran Islands. She said, I think the stone is still there. I hope this helps somebody. And that was written about 15 years ago now. So I was like, how?

second, you're telling me that this isn't fiction, it's not a fictional story, it's a story that's based on reality, based on a culture that was actually there. So was like, right off the Aran Islands, which is like a four and a half hour drive from here, 45 minutes on a ferry, 25 minutes on a bike, because there's no fucking car around the Ireland's, it's a cycle to this place. And then I walked down, I walked down this pathway where she said it was, now the Aran Islands is just rocks, it's just rocks and rocks and rocks, it's all it is, it's glacial karst landscape, there's nothing, no trees.

very very little grass is just rocks. So it's like there's 10 000 rocks here how the fuck am I going to know which rock is the rock? So I'm like how am going to know which one? There's rocks everywhere it's just a field of boulders you know but it says in the book that it was a round block of granite and a sparkle as a sunshine shone upon the particles of meek in the surface and it lay in little hollow with bruised stones all around it and then it said that it was a practice of the young men to test their strength by lifting it so that was the line in the story.

Sam Penny (18:23)
Ha

David Keohan (18:44)
So was thinking a round block of granite, that's probably a different colour. So I'm walking down this pathway, she's where she said it was, and this round pink fucking granite boulder in the field of grey stands out like an absolute beacon, you know, with bruised stones all around it, a couple of little warm up stones beside it. I'm like, that's it, that's it, you know. I didn't, for a certain old, it then, was it, but I mean, I took a good guess, I was like, I think that there has to be that. You know, you can feel an energy of it, so I'm like, that's it. So I tried to pick it up, couldn't lift it.

But as I'm walking back I meet an old man giving a walking tour for some Americans and I was like, Gamal Eisgall, excuse me, do you know what happened about the stone down there? He's like, yeah, the Mulholland portfolio I'm doing, he said, the pink one down there, the patch of grass. See, that's it, that's it. But he said, look, it's a shame it didn't come here six months earlier, he said, because there's an old man who used to live in that house there. He said he died at 92 years old and he knew everything about the stone, he knew all the story, the lineage, the genealogy, the history of it, he knew everything, all the stories. But he's dead and the stories are gone now. But I know the name of it.

I know people have been lifting that for generations and generations here. And it's called the Mulan Port Vail on Dhuim. Which literally Mulan means round granite boulder and Port Vail on Dhuim means the mouth of the port of the fort. And the fort is Dunaingus, is sitting on the hill. that's the oldest, the second oldest fort in Europe. So it's from the Bronze Age. So I mean, you're talking that this thing could be attached to a Bronze Age fort, which is what, three and a half thousand BC. So this thing is here a long, long, long time. How long has people been lifting this? I don't know.

But to me it's the jewel in the crown of Irish stone lifting. It was the first one I found, but I think the story behind it is amazing with Limo Flaherty, with the actual finding of it, the verification of it, the name of it, and the place where it is is just absolutely magic. It's 171 kilos, it's a damn big rock to lift as well. ⁓ It took me seven attempts to get back there and lift that stone up the chest, because Limo gave the three levels of manual. So if you could get the gway fwy, the wind under the stone, it was a great day in any young man's life.

If you could get it to your lap, you're a champion, equal of the best. But if you can stand up with that stone to your chest and kiss it three times, you were a phenomenal strength to be spoken about for generations. So I was like, that's just the coolest title ever. I have to see if I can get that title. So it took three years of training and seven visits to the Iron Islands to finally get that that stone to my chest. And that was me done. Then I'm happy after that. could die happy after that. But just what an amazing find.

What an amazing full circle moment,

Sam Penny (21:12)
Tell me about the two moments. The first one recognising that you've found your first Irish lifting stone and the second moment of lifting it, kissing it three times.

David Keohan (21:24)
⁓ So the first time I it, was like, I can't believe it. know, because there's a website dedicated to stone lifting around the world called Old Man of the Stones. And it's dedicated to Peter Martin, who brought the culture back in Scotland about 15 years ago. And Scotland is a plume of dots and blue markers are where all these stones are. Iceland is the same. There's about seven or eight in Wales. Faroe Islands has loads all the way across this longitudinal line. And we were the broken link. We had nothing in Ireland, none, you know?

So to find that and have us as part of this culture worldwide ⁓ was a massive moment. It was a very emotional moment. I couldn't believe it. We finally got that little blue dot, one little blue dot off the coast. That's our one, but we have one now. And I think, and I'm always thinking to myself, where there's one, there's more. So first of all, just to get that verified and have it on the map was a huge, huge moment for the culture.

Worldwide, really, you know what I mean? Because of course for Ireland it's amazing, but to have it, to continue that line I thought was beautiful. But then, oh sure, like the first time I tried to lift it, Sam, I couldn't budge it, I couldn't get it off the ground at all, I couldn't get any wind on it. I just come back from Scotland, the heaviest stone I lifted in Scotland I think was 130, 171 felt like, it felt like trying to lift a mountain. It was a big, big percentage more than when I'd lifted it in Scotland.

But I said, I want to do this. This is just a personal quest. I want to see, I do this? So sure enough, what happened then was the Limo Flaherty Society on the Ireland's who celebrated his work because he's from Ingemoor, say, look, next year, next summer, we want to have you over as part of the Society Day to lift the stone in front of the islanders and the Limo Flaherty Society, because we can't believe you found the stone that he wrote about. We didn't know about this stone. You know, we knew about the story, but we didn't know where the stone was. So we can't believe you found it. So we want you to lift it in front of the society.

all the islanders and we're going to get this, we're going to get media present as well. I can't even pick this fucking thing up. You know what mean? You've got like 12 months to train, you know? So we trained like a demon. I mean, I put my kettlebell sport mentality into training for for stone lifting. So I just started lifting heavier and heavier and heavier, eating more, eating more, eating more, heavier, putting on weight. I when I was doing kettlebells, was 77, 76 kilos. Now I'm now 96 kilos. You know what mean?

Sam Penny (23:29)
Ha ha ha ha!

David Keohan (23:51)
And it's just putting on muscle, putting on weight, lifting heavier, eating more. And I go back out to this place 12 months later. And it turns out that there's actually three film crews come. Got a big TV station called Nationwide ⁓ in Ireland. The news came out, TG Cather news came out and a documentary team came out. So three boom mics, three cameras, about 150 islanders and the Lima, Florida society, you know? No pressure, lad. You know what mean?

Sam Penny (24:20)
Ha ha.

David Keohan (24:20)
So I

was like, gonna go get this fucking thing up. So I go out, but I have confidence in my training. I go out, they read the story of the stone, they're not the stone itself. Very, very emotional. They read it in Irish and in English. And then I was like, David, lift the stone. So I managed that time to pick the stone up and get it up onto my lap, which meant you were a champion, equally the best. I couldn't stand up on it at that time. But even just to get that lap.

was amazing. know, that was the first time Irish stone lifting was ever shown on the TV. And it got a lot of traction. It got a lot of traction because it was just such a beautiful thing. It such a beautiful area. Inishmore is unbelievably beautiful. know, barren, rocky, but just majestic, majestic. And you had all these people cheering you on. And, know, you had the lifting of this heavy, beautiful pink ground boulder. It got a lot of attention online. It got a lot of attention social media wise. And it was a wonderful moment. But the real

Sorry, I talk a lot, but the real full circle moment for me was I went back six months ago with an Irish speaking ⁓ festival on the Ireland's that was held for a week. there's a wonderful woman called Molly Godere. Molly was hosting it. She said, David, I love the story. Would you come back and lift a stone for me? And for all these people who want to speak, we want to bring the language back and bring our culture back. Will you be a part of that festival? said, I'd be honored to. So again, I've been training like a mad eegish.

And I go back out and I meet these people off the boat and there's 75 people on bikes and they're all cheering you. They're like, you know, what you're doing and thank you so much. all that's Gaeilge, you know what I mean? raibh míle maith agat. you know, tam miadal go raibh míle maith agat, we're going down to the stone. So then we go and I had, I was giving a talk about the story and the finding of it, like I'm telling you now. I was giving this talk and there must have been at least 150, 200 people there. And they all came around me then in a circle.

So I was in the middle and they were all around me in a circle, you know? And I feeling a little bit nervous. So was like, well, someone put on some music or some put on some in-a-pipes or something, know? Give me a fucking pause. Give me a lift here. And they all started singing in Irish. can't fucking share what I'm thinking about. So they all started singing, Oh, oh, shit about Hawaii, which means, Oh, oh, you're welcome home. It's a very, very ancient Irish song. With me in the middle. So it was like all this concentrated energy was coming in and I managed to pick that stone up.

Sam Penny (26:24)
you

wow.

David Keohan (26:44)
and torn it and bring it up to my chest and kiss it three times and put it down and I broke down in tears. All the people came in and a big group hug around me in a circle, you know? And it was just one of those unbelievable Disney moments that you could never, ever, ever try and do again. just, everything was just perfect. It was a perfect moment. We don't get many perfect moments, but I pinned it on my stories. If anyone wants to look at it, it's the first pin on my stories on Instagram. It's that moment, you know?

Sam Penny (26:47)
wow.

David Keohan (27:13)
And it's just beautiful. can't watch it because it fucking breaks down watches. I can't watch it. was just the most unbelievable experience of my life. You know, I'll never be able to top that. To me, like, you know, if I never do anything ever again, that's it. That was just the moment, you know?

Sam Penny (27:29)
Absolutely amazing now just like Indiana Jones you set out on a quest because now you you start to think Hang on lifting stones is something that could be across Ireland How did you then start to go? All right, let's go out and try and find some more

David Keohan (27:46)
So the first one I found, now I don't know how spiritual they are but I'm very, very spiritual. I wouldn't call myself religious but I'm extremely spiritual. So I was coming back from the Whorestone and the very, very first time I found it and I went to a holy water well, which is like the freshwater well on the Ireland's. And in Irish, in ancient Irish mythologies and culture and folklore, all wells are connected and they're all connected to the underworld. So the other world I should say.

So I asked the land's permission at that well to find more. There was a stone there and I picked it up, a beautiful round blue stone. I picked it up and put it on top of the well and I asked the land's permission to bring this back. And I truly believe that that small act of humility and asking permission gave me the right to then go looking for these things because two days later I get a phone call from a guy on another Ireland's, an English man, the Ireland's next door. And he was like,

Sam Penny (28:33)
Be the best person

David Keohan (28:43)
Just to let you know that there's a lifting stone on this Ireland's too. Go to that Ireland's, meet this guy. Sure enough, there's lifting stones there in the graveyard. Beautiful lifting stone. As I'm back from there, a guy shouts over a wall, we have a stone called the Stone Mace's Test on my land, said. I saw you walking up and it was literally just next, next, next, next. And it just fell into my lap. It literally just, I mean, I literally just pulled at fucking thread of this and the whole thing just unraveled.

because people wanted to tell you their stories. What I found was amazing about the Samoans, like all these people in these little local areas knew of these stories. But just the people in the area, just that little village, you know, might have known about it. But the greater public didn't know anything about it. So all I'd done was give you a shining light on it and say, look at what we have here, you know, and sure enough, there is fucking loads of it here. So many stories, an unbelievable amount of stories.

Sam Penny (29:37)
So what

did these lifting stones mean to our society?

David Keohan (29:42)
Yeah, so like a lot of them, I wouldn't say a lot of them, probably about a third of them were just feats of strength to be lifted on Sundays just as a form of diversion, of doing something on a Sunday. They were lifted at crossroads, they were lifted at funerals and they were lifted kind of before or after mass comes up a hell of a lot for Irish lifting stones because the only time people I suppose would get together in times before there's any telephones or anything like that would be at

at events. either at funerals or at mass on a Sunday. And all the men would gather and there'd be a bit of craic as men do, you know. The stone has been there for thousands of years or hundreds of years and it's like, who can pick it up? And lads go around, they have a few bits, they have a few drinks, they have a bit of crack. So there was that part of it was a small part of it. But to lift them at funeral games, like in these graveyards was a huge thing in Ireland too. So we had funeral games or wake games.

So funerals were like three day events here, pre-famine, pre-1840 times. And funerals for well-known or well-respected people could gone on for days and days and days. So like, again, as a form of diversion at the games, or I think as a form of celebration of life, you maybe because it's the opposite of death, we had funeral games. So, part of that was stone lifting, but there was like collar and elbow wrestling, there was like feats of endurance, running, know, horse racing. I these were events, you know, they were celebrations as opposed to...

what they are now. know, they were the total opposite of what they are now. They were actually celebrations of people's lives. But then you had these lifting stones, specific lifting stones in the graveyards that were lifted on these days. So they were lifted at funerals to honor the dead, you know. They were also lifted at weddings to honor the living. They were lifted as harvest festivals to honor the harvest. There's a few of those that are coming up in Ireland too. They were lifted as rites of passage from boyhood to manhood. I mean, there's so many different aspects of this.

in Ireland, it's amazing. You know, it's not just pick up a stone. It's a very, very intertwined what we call fíte fúgit. It's fíte fúgit to the culture here, you know. The lifting and moving of stone is very much kind of entrenched in who we are as a people.

Sam Penny (31:48)
So then David, why did ⁓ this whole tradition leave the collective memory of Ireland?

David Keohan (31:56)
Well, I suppose there's the one big reason for that would be ⁓ colonialism. mean, there was like we were an occupied country for a long, long time. We still are in the North. We had our culture deliberately stripped. You know, people don't understand that. In the 16th and 17th centuries here, we had the penal laws and the penal laws meant you couldn't speak your own language. We couldn't speak Irish. You couldn't practice your own religion. You couldn't practice your own culture and you couldn't play your own music.

or you were fined, heavily fined or jailed or killed. So we used to have what they call hedge priests and hedge schools who literally teaching children our culture and our language in ditches, in hedges, under trees. We couldn't do it inside, just to keep the language and our folklore and our customs alive. But mean, a lot of that was stripped. A lot of it was stripped. then it was like you can only speak English, you can't speak Irish, you can't do your customs.

We had that taken away from us. then of course, culminating in the famine of the 1840s, which wasn't a famine, it was a genocide. And our people were killed, half the country died or emigrated in a couple of years, you know. Food was withheld from the Irish people. And we were forced to live on the margins and to live on the one crop that we could grow, which was potatoes, which then got a blight. And once that, when they got a blight, the English were still taking all the food out of the country. You know what mean? We were a very rich, very arable country.

The food was still going out, but we weren't given any of it. So people were forced to emigrate, forced to leave. People then were trying to steal food or get food for their families. They got jailed, sent to America, sent to Australia, sent to Van Diemen's land, you know. So that happened. mean...

Sam Penny (33:40)
⁓

David Keohan (33:42)
That happened, know, and it was very, very, such a deep cultural wound here. Very, very deep cultural wound. So we had a lot of things taken away from us. And I mean, so was the last thing you want to do when you're starving is to try and pick up a stone. You can barely pick yourself up off the fucking ground. So the last thing you want to do is lift these heavy stones. Stories got forgotten. People left the areas, left the villages. Stones got forgotten about stories. People left and that was it. You know, I mean, it wasn't just this. I mean, there was a lot of our culture. This was just one part of

Sam Penny (34:11)
So, you know, the British obviously coming in and bringing colonialism to Ireland really destroyed much of the culture of what was Ireland. Now, finding these stones and bringing back a tradition, how does that make you feel in terms of turning back time?

David Keohan (34:34)
I mean, the strength is back, ta' náirch dair as, you know? You know, the strength is back, the pride is back, you know? Brought a bit of strength and a bit of pride back to your nation. We were the fucking strong people, we always were, you know, very, very strong in character. Very, very strong in physicality, very, very renowned for being strong, hardy people. Our stonemasons, our fishermen, you know, all these hardworking men of the land. And we had that taken away from us.

But now it's back and you're giving the country a little bit of its pride back. And what an honor, know, what a fucking honor to be able to do that. And I'm just literally just showing people like, this is what we had. Look at how strong we were. You know, look at what we could do. Look at the size of these stones that these men and women were lifting. You know, I just think that's a beautiful thing. I think it's beautiful to be able to give that back to the people and see it come alive again. You know, I mean, people are coming every day and get photographs and videos of people visiting these stones now, lifting them.

And feeling the fucking energy from it and feeling how good that feels, you know? I mean, I've seen lads break down crying at these stones. mean, I have as well myself because you're touching something ancient. It's something deep inside you. You're putting your hands where people put their hands for hundreds, if not thousands of years. You're feeling the depth of this, you know, in a very, very shallow society that we live in now. We in a very, very fucking shallow, very shallow society, very narcissistic. But you are putting your hands on something that's the total opposite. You know, it's bone deep.

you know, marred and there's something powerful about that and it's just wonderful to be to give that back to the people.

Sam Penny (36:09)
I think David, one of the absolutely fascinating things is that the stone doesn't give a shit who you are.

David Keohan (36:16)
Stone don't care, stone don't give a fuck. The stone is there. The stone only wants to be lifted. So doesn't care about your age, your race, your gender, whatever, your religion. It doesn't matter. The stone is there. I mean, we've had, like I said, men and women lift these stones. And there's some wonderful stories in our national folklore collection, which I'll have to get into a little bit you, about women lifting these stones too and outlifting the men sometimes. And they've been so famous that then they get their story written down and remembered forever.

But mean, the stones don't care. mean, we have specific female lifting stones here too, which I think is wonderful, which you don't get in many other societies. Like we have the Cluchnumann down in County Clare, which is the woman's lifting stone, you know? Literally means the woman's lifting stone. It's 112 kilos. It's a big fucking stone, you know? But the big stone, you know what I mean? So the woman's lifting stone is 112 and the man's lifting stone, Cluchnumann, is 162. And these were lifted at the funeral games down in County Clare.

Sam Penny (37:01)
That's a big stone.

David Keohan (37:12)
And I think it's one because there's women come to lift that stone. I think there's been five or six women lift that stone already. And Aisí Ó La, who will be Ireland's strongest woman five times over, recently lifted it there in a documentary that we shot for RTE, lifted it up to her chest. So I think she's the first woman, possibly in 150 years, maybe more, who has lifted that stone to the chest. And she also lifted a manstone off the ground, which was incredible. So like I said, the stone don't care. They're just, in Ireland we just call them the Clough Nirt. They're the stones of strength.

Sam Penny (37:35)
below.

David Keohan (37:40)
They're not specifically attached to gender, to man or to woman. They're just there to be lifted. So anybody, everybody is welcome.

Sam Penny (37:48)
Tell me about a couple of moments that has really given you goosebumps, because I'm sure that there must be a few.

David Keohan (37:54)
well, mean, like I said, I'm never going to top the one on the Iron Islands. I'm never going to top that with the singing. I mean, how in the name of God can you top that? I mean, it was like the most, the most unbelievable moment probably of my life, you know, bar my children being born. ⁓ But I mean, like watching Aishia do that for the first time, watching the woman's lifting the stone be lifted, because I've seen men struggle lifting that stone. It's a big stone, you know? ⁓

And it's another thing to get into, it's much harder to lift a stone than it is to lift a barbell. You know, it's not made to be lifted. You have to figure out the weight, you're outside, it's Ireland, it's always piss and rain, there's weight, there's mud, there's no traction, your grip becomes an issue. So it's all that grip strength, you know? But just to see her lift that stone was absolutely, just truly wonderful. There's been some great lifts of these stones, but mean, one that really stands out to me is the...

the Seafin stone up in the north, up in County Derry, up in the north of Ireland. A stone that was thrown by Fiona MacCool through mythology. And it was an old chieftain's coronation stone. So you had to ascend to a hilltop and put your hand on the stone to announce your right to rule as a chieftain in this area. And you had to be able to lift this stone too, you know. It's 257 kilos. It's a pillar. You just had to be able to hug it and get it off the ground.

Sam Penny (39:12)
BOW

David Keohan (39:16)
So you're lifting a stone that was achieved in the Ascension Stone. It was thrown by one of the greatest figures in Irish mythology, Fionn Macoel. And you're lifting it on a mountaintop. And there's something very, very powerful about that. So I done that. I remember doing that. I've it twice now. And both times you're feeling a power come through you that you can't quite comprehend because it's over a quarter of a ton. It's a big, big way to be lifting, you know. But there's a power in that area.

Sam Penny (39:27)
Hmph. Hmph.

David Keohan (39:45)
that you just can't quantify, you know? And I was lifting it at sunset and like the sun like coming down and golden beams and the stone is a schist of silver and it's glowing amber as you're lifting it. There's some magic here. So there's been some powerful moments I've had, some powerful, powerful moments I've had myself and watch other people. To me now is watching other people have these moments too is very, very rewarding, you know, to see the people.

take it to their hearts and say, look, isn't this amazing? Isn't this a wonderful part of the culture? And people now travel all over the world, Sam, people come from everywhere. And I see people getting inspired. There's a gentleman now in Australia lifting, and he's on Australian stone lifting. And he's around setting up lifting stones in Australia, going around the whole nation, setting them up. in 20, 30 years time, they're going to be, they're going to be historic lifting stones. I mean, he's starting the story and just full credit to him and respect because the story has to start somewhere.

But to see people in their own country look for it now and go out and ask in their local areas, know, that's why I'm loving it. People are now thinking it's not just me doing it. There's a whole hive network of people going out doing it now in Ireland. And not just in Ireland, have friend, have a guy in Brittany doing it in France. There's Callum Stott has started in England. you've lit the fire in people, I suppose, you know, to go look for these things in their own countries as well. So just unbelievable.

Sam Penny (41:10)
David, some of the stones haven't been lifted for perhaps hundreds of years and you've found them through folklore to really track them down and quite often they might be overgrown. They might be buried under a couple of hundred years of weather. Do you feel when you find those stones that they're just sitting there waiting for the next person to lift them?

David Keohan (41:26)
Yeah.

They were waiting. The stones are always there. It's just the story was forgotten, you know? So the stones are just waiting for the story to be refound again so they can become alive again. And that's what it's been. There has been some I've literally had to dig out of the ground, you know? I've literally had to dig them out with hit ditches or hedges or undergrowth. You know, I've had to do that with my bail hook and go looking for these things. I mean, we went, we shot a documentary, a one hour documentary with RGE and we went looking for a stone called the the Mote Stone down in County Wexford.

And it was on an old Norman Motten Bailey around Mote where a timber palisade would be built, like a timber fort. So the whole thing is overgrown with weeds and nettles and briars. But I was told, and in Dukas it said that there's an old, there's a stone that the men used to live down here as a test of strength called the Mote Stone. So we went down looking for it just through pure chance, just through pure hope for this documentary.

The thing is 150 fucking feet around with an eight foot moat covered in weeds and birds. I'm like, I could be here a month cutting with a fucking billhook and I'll never find it. I'm in 15 minutes of cutting, managed to find it. Which are pure fluke. But I don't think, I don't believe in fluke anymore. I believe these things want to be filmed now. You know? I've had, I've asked the permission, I've been given the permission to find them. They want to be filmed.

I like I said, I could have been there a month, honest to God, because the size of this place, the amount of overgrowth here, and it was the middle of the summer, like there's no hope I could find this. You know, we went down just in expectation and within 15 fucking minutes of cutting, found this massive stone that was the exact same shape and size that they said in the story. And there it is found again, you know, it's been that, but that's the way it's been. mean, anytime I've gone looking for these things, I tend to find them, you know? I mean, it's...

The chances of finding them is so slim. You're following a 90-year-old story written by a school kid back in the 1930s in a folklore collection. The story is 90 years old. There's lots of changes in 90 years, but you still manage to find these things.

Sam Penny (43:38)
How do you see younger generations really responding to what you're doing?

David Keohan (43:42)
The one that stands out to me was I was given a talk down at the European Powerlifting Convention, which has been held in County Limerick last year. And we had top powerlifters in Europe ⁓ come over, give demonstrations and give talks. So I was asked to give a talk about stone lifting, I did on a panel discussion. And the next day we go down to County Clare, because it's the closest stone to where we were. Because people were like, I think this is fucking fascinating. Can I go look at these stones?

So had two Irish lads as well come with us who were on the Irish powerlifting team, two young lads, 19 or 20. And they went down and this lad who was incredibly strong, you he couldn't get this manstone off the ground. was trying and trying and trying. But then he took stock. He went away for a while. came back and he got it about two or three inches off the ground and he broke down a flood of tears, floods of tears. And he asked, was like, why am I crying?

Why am I crying? I don't understand. don't understand. know, he was like, was, he didn't know what to do. It was like, you're feeling it, you know, you're feeling the marrow of this. You're feeling the depth of it. And I think it's given a lot of purpose and clarity and meaning to me. But I know I've seen it given a lot of purpose and clarity and meaning to the younger generations because everyone is on screens, right? We're all on screens. Everybody is. I'm as guilty as anybody. But when you go to these places, first of all, it's a pilgrimage to get to these places.

A lot of these places are in the West of Ireland. They're in old, old graveyards. They're off the beaten track. You're getting out, Sam, into the wilds, the wild, fiending landscape of Ireland, and you're seeing how beautiful it is. You're like, first of all, as a young man or young woman, to go and see the beauty of your own country is a wonderful thing to give someone. It's like, it's an excuse to visit a place like this, the West of Galway, the West of Mayo, out to the islands. It's given them an adventure. So first of all, they feel like they're on an adventure. That's a wonderful thing to give anybody, right?

You're not living vicariously through somebody else online. You're fucking doing it yourself. And then you're going to the stone. You're going to the stone and you put your hands on something that people have been lifting for millennia, possibly. You're giving them depth. You give them appreciation of their own culture and you're giving them clarity and purpose in their training. You give them a lot of very, very good things. You're giving them purpose. You're giving them clarity. You're giving them meaning. You're giving them back their culture.

and you're giving them a way to get off screens and get out and do something real. So it's not a wonderful thing to give any...

Sam Penny (46:12)
What...

It's amazing. What is the discovery of each of these stones given to the villages that they're found in?

David Keohan (46:21)
Oh, there's some pride there. The pride. I mean, this Gaelic tribalism that it's a part of who we are, you know? Is there someone in my village? Is there someone in my county? You know, everyone. I get phone calls like, there was one lad that like, there wasn't any family in County Kerry, which is a huge county. Is there any in County Kerry? No, fuck. Okay, I've got to go looking for one of these. So like, it's just, we got to find one in our county. I got to find one in my village. And then when you find one in our county or our village, is it the heaviest one in Ireland? Is it the heaviest one? No.

Fuck, what's the heaviest one? Everyone's that, they want to have one, they want to have the biggest one, they want to have the best story. know, people, it's just that old Gaelic tribalism that, you know, we have it with the GAA, we have it with the Harlem and football here, you know. People are so proud. And even like, you're meeting, because you have to tail end of this, but you can still meet some people who have lifted these things before. I'm meeting some old men in their 80s and 90s, who maybe 50, 60 years ago were the last person to lift that stone, you know.

Sam Penny (46:51)
You

David Keohan (47:18)
they're coming out to watch you lift it. That happened to me three or four times, especially on the islands. This old lad comes out, you know, he spots me lifting the stone on Inosier. He talked to us down the road, it takes him about 10 minutes to walk about 100 yards with a cane. And he was like, sorry to interrupt you, said, but I just wanted to watch you lift. I said, no problem at all. He said, by name is such and such, I'm the last man who lifted that stone on this Ireland's. So I want to, you know, lift it up son and keep the culture going. know, unbelievable.

Sam Penny (47:46)
Wow.

David Keohan (47:48)
on the lead, you know.

Sam Penny (47:49)
You took one of these stones over to Boston in the US for the Celtic Games and gave Irish Americans the opportunity to lift something that is deeply rooted in Irish tradition. How did that make them feel?

David Keohan (48:01)
Thank

It wasn't a historic lifting stone. It was just one that I'd lifted. I mean, been lifting it on the beach here in Benvai. And it's the stone that kind of started kind of the whole journey for me to go looking for stone lifting, you know. to me, meant a lot. So was like, I'm giving you a part of the story of the recovery of this culture here. And I'm giving you a part of literally a piece of Ireland. I'm giving you a piece of the homeland. I couldn't believe how well it got. It just got so much respect over there. It got so much love and attention.

We inaugurated it at the No Fame Games in Boston. ⁓ Those wonderful people invited me over, Joshua and Jen, and got to go over there and in this huge Highland Festival, like a massive World Championship Festival, managed to unwrap that stone and lift it for the first time on American soil. But there must have been 150 people come to lift it on the day. People who were competing in the festival, the people in the crowd, men and women. We had the first woman.

Sam Penny (49:00)
Wow.

David Keohan (49:04)
First two women actually lifted the chest on that day too. Two incredible women over there. I mean, just the, cause people were literally coming up to put their fucking hands on the sand. know, the little kids, you know, and their dads and moms were say, there's Ireland, you know, and they're like, there it is, you know, and picking photographs and stuff. And that's exactly what I wanted it to be. I wanted it to have this kind of cultural significance and it has had, and it's been brought around at all these Celtic festivals now in America. It was at the Worcester festival there about two months ago.

And again, people just coming over just to pick it up or to put their hands on it. You know what I mean? Old men, old women, you know, they might not have gotten to Ireland in their lifetimes, but there's a piece of it, you know, you can put your hand on it. So yeah, what a thing to do. Just a mad idea that kind of took off. I'm hopefully going to do the same thing now in Nova Scotia and Canada.

Sam Penny (49:52)
There must be so many moving moments throughout all of this David. Did you expect it to become a national, even an international movement?

David Keohan (50:00)
Look, I went looking for this because I was inspired by the documentaries that Rob made. Very innocently, just to see what the culture here, I thought it was a really cool idea. My main goal, what I wanted from it was, first of all, to see what's fucking here at all, and if it was, to get respect. And it's gone beyond wildest dreams territory now, because I'm in the process of applying for a PhD, to write a PhD on it. It's gotten...

I can tell you papers written on it. We've just made it, finished making a documentary. We've been on the TV for the last month called Made of Stone about the culture of it here. been on national TV five or six times. ⁓ Literally, their book is written. I'm going out after this to announce that I'm writing a book with Bloomsbury International. So that's the you're getting the worldwide on that. And that's coming out next. And it's gone to a level. That I never thought possible.

Sam Penny (50:51)
Ha

David Keohan (51:00)
But the most important part of it all, besides all the personal amazing things that happened to me, is the culture is alive and well. And it will be, please God, forever. And that's it. And you will always be the person who's synonymous with the act of being at the spearhead of bringing it back. Because I didn't bring it back. The Irish people brought it back. I just shone a light on it. But I think, again, you're kind of intertwined with that now going forward.

Sam Penny (51:24)
David, many of the guests on my show who have done absolutely amazing things, Locky Smart, the youngest person to fly solo around the world, Erden Eruc the first person to circumnavigate the planet only using human power, Aaron Lindsdau skied to the South Pole, Andrew Locke climbed every peak over 8,000 meters. All of these people, their spark started from someone giving a slideshow in a pub or seeing a show or a documentary on TV. And you mentioned that this whole spark started with a documentary where

David Keohan (51:33)
Mm hmm.

Sam Penny (51:54)
you saw something about the lifting stones. How important, because you just mentioned just before that you've created a documentary. How important is the documentary making to inspiring the next generation?

David Keohan (52:09)
To me, I was very, very cognizant of that because I was like, want to the e-dot, e-dot of this out, that I wanted it, that is not just man-lived stone, it's we're lifting our culture up, you know.

And the documentary was very, very much centered on that. So I'm very, very proud of it. think it comes across, it comes across really, really well. It's like, no, it's not about the weight of the stone. It's not about how high you lifted. It's about keeping the culture alive, you know? And we deliberately didn't even put the weight to the stones when I was lifting them on the screen or anything. You know, that was a deliberate, it doesn't matter. You know, it doesn't matter about the weight. It just matters about the process of going to these things and lifting them.

So I'm extremely proud of the documentary. We've just got it back. was on, it was 30 days on the Irish RTE player. I think we're going to try and extend this worldwide too. I hope it does because like I said, I've already seen this journey inspire people worldwide. Like you said, even, caught wind of me in Queensland, you know what I mean? But I've seen people actually actively looking for their own cultures through this. And I really think the documentary is themed around that. So that's it.

That's something I'm most proud of.

Sam Penny (53:18)
Let's talk about that, David. People searching for their own cultures that have perhaps been lost through the last couple of hundred years, particularly the last 50 years with technology advances and people just too bored basically and they just sit on the couch doom scrolling. How have you seen the work that you're doing, but also people around the world in search of forgotten cultures?

David Keohan (53:45)
I mean, I was inspired by a lot of people here, not just the stone lifters, I was inspired by the likes of the now deceased, know, may he rest in peace, Mancon McGahn, who was at the forefront of bringing back the Irish language and the Irish culture here, people like Eddie Lenahan, or Shanna Keys, or storytellers. So to me, it's like I said, it's about the culture coming back more than anything and following in the footsteps of these giants, you know, ⁓ people who are respected for

decades I'm now getting to meet these people. I mean, I was literally talking at an archaeologist convention, Ireland archaeologists convention last weekend, you know, I'm not a fucking archaeologist, but I was invited up to give a talk. And I thought I'd get a bit of pushback because I'm not, I don't have an education in this, but everyone was so respectful and so happy and Ireland's eminent top archaeologist, man called Michael Gibbons, our top field archaeologist who's done all the work on the Skellig Islands, all the work on all our ancient sites, stood up at the end and said, I think you're a national treasure.

I said, I just want to say thank you so much for the work you're doing. I mean, that to me was just dream come true, Mom, because I've been following Michael for 20 years. He's done some of most important research work in Ireland. To me, he is the Indiana Jones of Ireland. know, so for someone at that level to say thank you for your work and well done. ⁓ man, what a moment, what a moment, you know. So like I said, it's then it's about bringing your own culture back. And I was so happy that I see Calum in England doing it, you know.

And because of, isn't it amazing that like we had this taken away from us through colonisation from the English, but they also had the culture there and they'd forgotten about it. threw it to the side, suppose, ⁓ generations ago as well. But now the English people are bringing it back as well. And the Irish person who has culture taken away has given the English person the impetus to go looking for it in their own country. And there's a bit of healing in that as well, you know.

Sam Penny (55:43)
Where do you see this leading?

David Keohan (55:47)
I mean, at this stage, who the fuck knows? Joe Rogan next? I I don't fucking know. But I mean, if you ask me that, if someone asked me that four years ago, I'd be like, I hope it's here. It'd be great. But now you're like, I've had a beer named after me. All this mad shit go on, right? Now, for me, the most important part, is the education. So I want to educate people on this. So I've applied and please God, I'll get it ⁓ to write a PhD, a doctorate on this.

Sam Penny (55:52)
Ha ha ha ha!

David Keohan (56:17)
starting from next year. So for now it's about education, it's about keeping the stories alive, it's about being respectful to the actual stones themselves, getting them recognised, getting them protected and through the process of that, hopefully inspiring people to get more in touch with their own culture, but who they are as an Irish person, but who are they are as a person in general worldwide, to get off screens, to look out and see what's out there, you know, the whole world is out there.

And you can do whatever the fuck you want to do and don't tell nobody tell you that you can't because I put myself forward as that. I'm just an ordinary working man, you know? I work a 40 hour week still, but in my spare time I managed to unearth and bring back an entire last culture of my own country just through a bit of passion and a bit of getting up off my ass and going home and forth. So anybody can do it. If I can do it, anybody can do it.

Sam Penny (57:06)
You mentioned earlier the Australian man who's setting up lifting stones around the country. How do you communicate with those kinds of people? How do you encourage them? And what does that mean to you that they're going out and doing this now?

David Keohan (57:21)
⁓ I mean, I'm very sorry. I can't remember his first name, but ⁓ you know, the Instagram handles, know, people only through Instagram handles sometimes. But he said, look, through listening to you and listening to guys in Scotland like Jamie Garian and Martin Jantzis and all these wonderful people. He said, I fell in love with it. I fell in love with the idea of it. I fell in love with the culture of it.

So I want to start that here now too. And I've seen the guys in Canada do the same thing. The guys at the Edmonton Stones of Strength in Canada. The people that think the guys are like New England stone lifting in America. They're starting the culture in their own land. So I just contact, they contact me or I contact them through Instagram. ⁓ Just give a private message and they're like, look, I love what you're doing. I really respect you. Then like, very give them my time because I know what it's like. I was that way with the guys in Scotland. I looked up so much of these guys.

they were so giving of their time. I'm going to do the same now to everybody else. It's like, know, would you mind having a chat sometime? You get on with me, we might do a private message or like a video call. You know, just tell them, look, if you need any help, you need any promotion, I can do that because I've got a big following now on Instagram. I'll help you out in any way I can. You know, let's push this forward together, you know, and maybe meet up someday and do a bit of lifting together. You know, but I mean, it's wonderful that now that you have a platform that you can help other people out.

know, of course, start in their journey because I mean it's commendable. It's like the old man planting an acorn. He's never going to see the oak tree, you know, but he's planting it anyway. know, and in 20, 30, 50, 100 years time these stones will have, they will gather their own stories and there'll be historic lifting stones in Australia, in America, in Canada, know, wonderful.

Sam Penny (58:59)
Hopefully our Wallabies, our Australian rugby team can start lifting these and get a little bit stronger considering the walloping we copped from the Irish last weekend. ⁓ that was atrocious.

David Keohan (59:06)
⁓ Yeah, that was great. ⁓

man, yeah, look it's not after we get to do it so we take any win we can get off you guys, you know. ⁓

Sam Penny (59:20)
Ha

In terms of young people these days and being stuck on their screens, what's your message to those people who feel like they, you know, there is just no rite of passage anymore. Our rite of passage is we turn 18 or we get our driver's licence, that's it. There is no test of physical strength, of mental strength or anything these days.

David Keohan (59:36)
Hmm.

There's not, and it's something that we're sorely lacking, know? ⁓ All of these indigenous cultures, ourselves included, had a right of passage, you know, to become an adult. And it's a very, very, it's a very important thing. It's a very, very important thing that we'd forgotten about. You have to train for it mentally and physically. You have to train for it. You have to achieve something difficult to become a man or to become a woman, you know? You have to do something difficult.

And the process of that helps mentally helps you so much in becoming an adult that I really think it's something that we've forgotten about. So I mean, like I say to people, most of these indigenous cultures worldwide and I've dug deep into stone lifting over the past couple of years, there's a stone lifting culture pretty much everywhere. know, so if you do want to physically feel like you're becoming something, you know, go out and try them, train for it. You know, there's nothing like training, discipline.

Train, you know, discipline. Train three, four days a week. Give yourself some mental clarity. Give yourself some purpose. Ain't nothing like having a purpose, you know, having a goal. And then when you go achieve that goal, you go do it. Brilliant. What's the next goal? And it gives you a hunger to go to do the next thing and the next thing. I suppose it just like I said, sitting down and doom scroll them. Ain't nothing like clarity or purpose, you know, to give you a meaning in your life. Everybody needs meaning. And thankfully, I found my meaning through this.

and they can pass that meaning on. And that's an incredible thing to be able to say.

Sam Penny (1:01:19)
think one of the important things here, David, is that these stones are bloody heavy. It takes years to train for them. And, you know, as the adage goes, good things come to those who wait. You put the effort in over years and years and years, you build up the ability to go out and do this. And now in a society where we're being trapped in 15 second videos, just quick flicks, quick flicks, quick flicks, having that goal, like you say, and...

David Keohan (1:01:31)
Yes.

Yeah.

Sam Penny (1:01:47)
having the spark of people going out to watch your documentary and many of the other great stories of amazing people around the world, what do you say to someone who's wanting to start their own journey of reconnection? What would you say?

David Keohan (1:02:02)
I say to people and I always say this don't overthink it don't overthink it just go do it just do it like there's never a perfect time to do anything there's never a perfect time to start anything just go do it and mean literally doing it and figuring it out as I'm going has worked so well for me over the past 12 years I can't recommend it enough whether it be running whether it be kettlebell sport becoming a world champion European champion a world record holder

bringing back a culture. It was only a matter of just jumping in feed first and doing it and figuring it out as you go. But if you overthink and overanalyze, because people do now, I get it all the time. When should I start? What should I do? What should I lift? What should I eat? Just go fucking do it. Just do it. You know what mean? And build it and build it. Build it nice and slowly. Don't it's not going to happen overnight. know, give yourself time. Give yourself 12 months. Give yourself 18 months.

And like I said, in a world of instant gratification, it's tough for people to hear that. I want it now. I want to be able to do it now. No. The good thing about something like this is it's a goal to strive for and just go, go strive and go start now. What's stopping you?

Sam Penny (1:03:16)
Brilliant words David. Now obviously the show is called Why Do Think You Could Do That? You're not just lifting stones, you're really lifting silence, history, identity. So why do think you could do that?

David Keohan (1:03:27)
I cannot say this to you, why not? know, who's to say you can't? ⁓

As a man who's not educated in any of this stuff, I've managed to do all of this stuff through passion. Passion works. ⁓ The ability to be able to do something with passion and with integrity is everything. Because if you've got integrity, if you're doing it for the right reasons, egalitarian reasons, and you're doing it because you love it, you can do anything you want to do.

And don't listen to the doubters. There'll always be doubters. There'll always be haters, especially now online. You're available everywhere. But let the haters hate, man, and just go do your thing. And don't worry about it. You know what mean? Just go do it. And if you're passionate enough and you believe in it, and you believe in yourself enough, you can do anything in this world. And I put myself forward as an example of that. You can do whatever the fuck you want. Just go and do it.

Sam Penny (1:04:26)
Now David, we're coming towards the end of this amazing conversation. I'd like to finish off with the Brave Five. It's the Rapid Fire Five questions. So don't expect one to lead on to the other. You ready?

David Keohan (1:04:34)
Sure.

Okay, go for it.

Sam Penny (1:04:39)
Alright, what's the most unexpected lesson you've learned from lifting a stone?

David Keohan (1:04:44)
humility and patience and discipline can take you a long way.

Sam Penny (1:04:52)
location you'll never forget.

David Keohan (1:04:55)
Inish Mòir, Ireland.

Sam Penny (1:04:57)
⁓

Alright, someone living or gone you'd love to lift a stone with.

David Keohan (1:05:05)
Peter Martin from Scotland, the man who brought the culture back and kind of pretty much started everybody looking for the culture of stone lifting worldwide, I think in the last 20 years.

Sam Penny (1:05:14)
tradition from another culture that inspires your work.

David Keohan (1:05:17)
Ooh, I've been so deep in my own culture over the past five years, I've kind of been blinkered. But I suppose this culture is worldwide. So I'll just say stone lifting in Scotland and Iceland and Netherlands, pretty much everywhere.

Sam Penny (1:05:29)
Yeah

All right, if you could carve one word into a stone, what would that be?

David Keohan (1:05:38)
One word.

Persevere.

Sam Penny (1:05:45)
Brilliant, absolutely fantastic. There you go, you got through the Brave Five, well done. All right, I wanna ask you just before we close, what does bravery mean to you?

David Keohan (1:05:54)
bravery means

Bravery, what does bravery mean? Bravery means...

showing up. means having the belief in yourself that when you have the doubters and you will, like I said already, you will have people who say you can't, you won't, you shouldn't. It's to push all that to the side and go do it anyway. And I've had to be brave for the past couple of years because I've been thrown into the line right with this now. I've become de facto, I suppose, PR agent for this. I've had to stand in front of

people who have respected for my whole life and sell this almost and talk about it on TV, on documentaries, ⁓ at lectures. And it's having that belief and knowing that you're doing something for the right reasons that will give you the bravery to do this and not just to do it to bring it back again, you know.

Sam Penny (1:06:58)
Culture doesn't die all at once, it fades quietly, generation by generation, until one day, the stories stop being told and the stones stay down. But every once in a while, someone remembers, someone bends down, grips the weight, and lifts not just a stone, but a people. David Keohan showed us that tradition doesn't belong in museums.

It belongs in callisted hands on misty coasts in village greens where children watch and elders remember. And maybe, just maybe, these stones aren't about proving anything. Maybe they're about remembering, putting our stories back together. Now David, for anyone listening who wants to lift a stone, find their story or be part of this heritage, where can they find you?

David Keohan (1:07:46)
Well, you can find me, suppose my handle has gotten kind of a bit of notoriety lately. I'm down as Indiana Stones on Instagram. So, but at this stage, if you just type in David Keohan or Irish Stone Lifting into Google, ⁓ you'll get all the news and information and stuff, videos, documentaries, and books that are coming out on what I'm doing. So just type me into Google, at this stage, David Keohan or Irish Stone Lifting, or give me a follow ⁓ as Indiana Stones on Instagram.

Sam Penny (1:08:12)
Fantastic, and I'll tell you what, I need to see this documentary go worldwide because it has been such a fascinating story. And I'll make sure I put all of those links into the show notes. And if this conversation reconnected you to something deeper, share it. Because when we lift the past, we carry the future. I'm Sam Penny, and this is Why Do Think You Could Do That? Until next time, stay strong enough to care about where you come from.