⁹Cambrensis, Giraldus. The Topography of Ireland. (originally written in 1187) in The Historical Works of Giraldus Cambrensis, Thomas Wright, ed. London: George Bell and Sons, 1882. 134.
The text may be read in its entirely here.
According to Michael Carroll, much of what Giraldus Cambrensis reported from Ireland was derived from stories told to him by others. (Carroll, Michael P. Irish Pilgrimage: Holy Wells and Popular Catholic Devotion. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UP, 1999. 76.)
Estyn Evans says that Cambrensis "served as a guide and a gospel to those who sought to prove the Irish unworthy and incapable of self-government and to justify their conquest by England. Geoffrey Keating describes him as 'the bull of the herd for writing the false history of Ireland, wherefore they have no choice of guide.'" (Evans, E. Estyn. Irish Folk Ways. New York: Devin-Adair, 1957. 4.)