¹Keogh, Gerald. "Creevykeel Court Tomb." Personal interview. 12 July 1979.

²Hencken, H. O'Neill. "A Long Cairn at Creevykeel, Co. Sligo." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 2 (1939): 96-97.
According to Anthony Weir, the Irish name for the site (Caisleán Bhaoisgin) may derive from the mountain behind Creevykeel, called (in transliteration) "Benwiskin," which seems to mean something like "Make-you-Mad Mountain."  Baois = folly, rage, madness, impropriety, lust, silliness...The suffix -gin in Irish is cognate with gen- in Greek (genesis, gene, etc. meaning producer or producing), so the mountain—or more likely the cairn—was that which made people a bit mad (as in faerie enchantment).

³Ó, Nualláin Seán. Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. County Sligo ed. Vol. V. Dublin: Stationery Office, 1989. 9-10.

⁴Hencken 96.
Commenting on the prophecy that the lintel stone would be thrown down by three brothers, the author (and excavator) stated "Though the story that this stone over the entrance from the court into the Chamber once stood erect sounds very improbable, it is generally believed in the district, and it was also told by Mr. John Hannon of Creevykeel. Mr. Connelly said that "the prophecy of the stone," which he had heard since he was a boy long before it fell, was that it would be thrown down "by three brothers of the one name." About thirty years ago three brothers upset the stone. It is incidentally worth mentioning that, had the stone ever stood erect, it could have been pushed over by three men, but certainly not if it lay flat as we replaced it."

⁵Byrne, Martin. "Court Cairns." An Introduction to Irish Megalithic Monuments | Sacred Island Guided Tours.Web. 29 June 2013. <http://carrowkeel.com/sites/sligo/creeveykeel.html>.
Weir, Anthony. "Creevykeel." Some Spared Stones of Ireland. Web. 28 June 2013. <http://www.irishmegaliths.org.uk/zCreevykeel.htm>.
The tomb was excavated and reassembled in 1935.

⁶Jones, Carleton. Temples of Stone: Exploring the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Cork: Collins, 2007. 104-110.
According to the author the additions to Creevykeel, with their added complexity, plus the extension of the court arms to conceal its interior might be "...evidence for increasing control over the esoteric knowledge the monuments contained by a small segment of the population and the corresponding exclusion of the majority of the population from that knowledge."
Peter Harbison called Creevykeel "one of the finest court tombs in the country." (Harbison, Peter. Guide to the National and Historic Monuments of Ireland. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1992. 291.)
The excavation of Creevykeel was undertaken by the Fourth Harvard Archaeological Expedition in Ireland between July 25 and September 4, 1935. There were twenty-seven men engaged in the excavation, (Hencken, H. O'Neill. "A Long Cairn at Creevykeel, Co. Sligo." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 2 (1939): 56-58.)

⁷Hencken 98.
In addition to the evidence of hearths and smelting in the court, the front chamber of the gallery also contained debris from this occupation and was found to be associated with the kiln in the north-western sector of the court. (9-10.)

⁸Jones 237-38.
The Creevykeel excavator observed "Traces of iron smelting have been observed at similar sites in Ireland, and the analogy of the Berkshire long barrow called Wayland's Smithy leads one to speculate on the association in early times between tombs of a forgotten epoch and the magic craft of the smith." (Hencken, H. O'Neill. "A Long Cairn at Creevykeel, Co. Sligo." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 2 (1939): 54.)
In 1937 Arensberg wrote: "So, when the good people strike, the countryman who still follows the old folklore is not unprepared. If butter fails to come, for instance, he can take a hearth-coal and sear the bottom of the churn. He can apply iron in a variety of forms; for 'there is great power in iron.'" (Arensberg, Conrad M. The Irish Countryman: An Anthropological Study. New York: Peter Smith, 1937. 196.)

⁹Hencken 68-70.

¹⁰Hencken 96-97.
Mr. Connelly also said that at seventeen he cut a cane from a bush near the cairn but then left it in the road. When he looked up again the cane was gone, and he finally had to go to the fair without it. The next morning he passed by the same way and saw his cane lying in the middle of the road exactly where he had left it. After that he decided not to cut bushes near the cairn. He asked what was going to be done with the stones and was pleased when told they would be replaced. He said that "anyone who touched them meaning no harm would not be harmed, but if anyone touched them meaning harm, "they" might take some form of vengeance." Mr. Connelly did not think of Creevykeel as a grave "but as a dwelling inhabited at the present time. In this regard it takes its place with forts, raths and ruins of all ages, which are the regular abode of 'the other people.'"

¹¹Hencken 56.
The authors described the two (destroyed) tombs near Creevykeel: "Two hundred metres N.E. there remained recently enough to be marked on the same [6-inch Ordnance Survey map of Sligo, Sheet 3] Ordnance sheet another 'Giant's Grave,' but this has now been removed. Six hundred metres W.S.W. is shown a third 'Giant's Grave,' now represented by traces of a mound and two upright stones."
In 1888 Wood-Martin may have described what occurred with one of these tombs; "Near the village of Cliffoney, and in the townland of Creevykeel, the remains of another 'Giant's Grave' presents no feature of interest; it is, in all probability, merely a small portion of a more extensive arrangement of cists. No inducement could prevail on the tenant to make an excavation; he and his father before him, he stated, refused to do so, although 'untold gold' had been offered. However, some few days afterwards, having occasion to verify the compass bearings, a return to the spot was needful, when it became evident that in the interval the grave had been dug out to the depth of four or five feet. In short, the suspicious yokel, imagining that the contemplated search was for a 'crock of goold [sic],' had determine to retain the treasure for himself. The debris thrown out by the would-be gold digger was carefully sifted, but nothing was found save numerous fragments of charcoal, no trace of bones being apparent. A man who was with the treasure-seeker during a portion of his excavation, stated that the floor of the cist was flagged, and on it rested a thick layer of charcoal, but nothing else. The flagstones that had formed the flooring were pointed out; one of them bore a cup pattern: this specimen was 20 inches in length by 14 inches in breadth, and 2.5 inches in thickness; but being too heavy to carry off with comfort at the time, it was unfortunately left behind, and the next day, when sought for, it had disappeared, and cannot since be traced." (Wood-Martin, W.G., The Rude Stone Monuments of Ireland: Co. Sligo and Achill Island. Dublin: Hodges, Figges and Co., 1888. 150-51.)

¹²O'Driscoll, Dennis. "Song." The Poetry Ireland Review 50 (1996): 21.