Although the Hong Kong Sevens tournament was first played in 1976, seven-a-side rugby in Hong Kong goes back much further.
After reading about the building called Blarney Stone, Dave Inglis wrote in to ask if the HK Football Club's "Blarney Stone Shield" was connected to it in any way. He's heard that Blarney Stone was a ‘mess’ for young single employees of one or more of the big hongs, and it was the members of the mess who started the sevens competition pre-ww2.
A search for Blarney Stone in the local newspapers finds plenty of matches. Looking down the list of results, the earliest mention of it with a rugby connection is from 1935, with the headline "CLUB WINS BLARNEY STONE SHIELD". However the text says that the "holders of the trophy" were beaten, suggesting that the competition had already been held in 1934, and possibly before that.
If anyone has more information about how the competition got started, and how the shield got its name, please let us know in the comments below.