³³McGowan, Joe. Inishmurray, Island Voices. Mullaghmore, Co. Sligo: Aeolus, 2004. 145-47.
The author relates the story of an RUC constable stationed on the island who expressed his contempt for the native beliefs by taking one of the cursing stones and concealing in his barracks. He was forced to return the stone when, for no logical explanation, the building began shaking so that "'the roof was nearly caving in by the trembling of the building.'"
Wakeman offered a suggested use for the mysterious "bottle" stones: "... stones of most singular and mysterious character, unlike, indeed, any remains hitherto noticed as appertaining to rites or usages of the ancient Irish Church...It consists of a block of sandstone—the prevailing stone of the island—measuring about two feet in extreme length; the upper portion is somewhat cube-shaped; the lower consists of a sort of stem, or shaft, gradually narrowing as it descends, and evidently intended for insertion in a base of some kind. The latter, if it consisted of a single stone, unfortunately cannot now be found; but it is not unlikely that the shaft may originally have been socketed in the masonry of the altar. A small hollow, circular in plan, descends vertically into the body of the stone, to a distance which, owing to the presence of decayed matter, probably vegetable, within it, I could not ascertain with accuracy. A cover, formed of a flag, and having a stopper, like what we see in modern glass ware, of a size exactly fitting the neck of the boring, usually surmounts the stone, but is sometimes laid beside it...Tradition, on the island, as far as I am aware, has nothing to say concerning the purpose to which this unique object was anciently applied. Could it have been a primitive chrismatory [container for holy anointing oil]?" (Wakeman, W. F., and James Mills. A Survey of the Antiquarian Remains on the Island of Inismurray. London: Williams & Norgate, 1893. 68-70.)