A person would have to be made of stone to be immune to the enthusiasm of folklorist and amateur strongman David Keohan – better known to the internet as “Indiana Stones”.
Having discovered the Celtic tradition of stone-lifting during the pandemic, the Co Waterford native has become an unlikely influencer via a social media feed in which he roves Ireland in a quest to revive an ancient custom involving bulging biceps and baffling boulders.
The practice of demonstrating physical might by hefting a rock anointed for that purpose extends back centuries, he reveals in the endearing documentary Made of Stone (RTÉ One, Monday, 9.35pm).
The custom was erased by colonisation and by the belief that all things ancient and Irish were somehow backwards. Determined to revive it, Keohan sets off to test his muscles against stones once celebrated far and wide as the ultimate measure of strength and fortitude.
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Keohan wears his heart-on-his-sleeve tattoos and isn’t afraid to show his emotions. He breaks down crying after conquering a stone on Inis Mór, which is mentioned in the writings of early 20th-century author Liam O’Flaherty. “That’s the last time ... that’s the last time,” he sobs to the stone. “Thank you for the memories.”
The engaging documentary begins with Keohan explaining that the practice of stone lifting was once extensive across Europe, from Iceland to the Basque Country.
In Ireland, rocks such as the Moate Stone in Wexford have languished in obscurity – but Keohan has made it his mission to bring them back. He reveals how he is “trying to tell the story of a culture that is almost dead ... It’s burning low, but now the fire is alive again.”
Keohan has become popular on social media – thanks, in part, to his wry Indiana Stones handle. “Indiana Jones ... we’re stealing other people’s culture,” he says of the swashbuckling archaeologist film character with a penchant for plundering Inca temples. “Indiana Stones ... we’re bringing back our own culture.”
Made of Stone has a shaggy, digressive quality that reflects both the subject matter and Keohan’s raconteur personality.
“I thought he may have had a few screws loose,” says Conor Heffernan, an expert in the history of “physical culture in Ireland” at the University of Ulster. He soon came to understand Keohan was trying to make a point about the importance of holding on to traditions in a fast-changing Ireland.
The actual stone-lifting element of the documentary is, to be honest, slightly underwhelming. Keohan’s preference is to bring the stone up to his waist, breathe sharply and then return it to the ground. It is no doubt an impressive feat, but on camera it falls short of epic.
Yet that’s a mere wrinkle in a film that tells you a lot about a subject about which many of us will have known little and which has the important message that Ireland’s physical environment contains as much history as its songs and stories. You just have to know where – and how – to look.
“All these mountains and these stones,” Keohan says, a statement that epitomises his outlook on the connection between stone-lifting and our sense of ourselves as Irish people. “There has to be more stories out here. I know they’re here. Please God, we’ll get more stones and more stories.”
