¹Lawlor, H.C. "Some Tentative Deductions Arising from the Study of Three Ancient Monuments in Northern Ireland. 1. The Holestone." The Irish Naturalists' Journal 3.5 (1930): 107-08.
This author's prize-winning essay cites as evidence for the Holestone's ancient importance the fact that the builders of the nearby souterrains did not attempt to use the Holestone in their construction.

²Dexter, T.F.G. The Sacred Stone. Cornwall: New Knowledge, 1929. 24.
A holed stone at Castledermot, Co. Kildare, is known as the Swearing Stone. Two holed stones in the monastic enclosure on Inishmurray have associations with women in childbirth.

³"Doagh Holestone." Irish Antiquities. Web. 29 July 2011. <http://irishantiquities.bravehost.com/antrim/holestone/holestone.html>.

⁴Lawlor 108-09.

⁵"Sketch of a Ramble to Antrim, Taken July 10th, 1808." The Belfast Monthly Magazine 2.11 (1809): 424.

⁶Wood-Martin, W.G. "The Rude Stone Monuments of Ireland (Continued)." The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland Fourth 8.70 (1887): 78-79.

⁷Zucchelli, Christine. Stones of Adoration Sacred Stones and Mystic Megaliths of Ireland. Doughcloyne, Wilton, Cork: Collins, 2007. 126.
Does the continuing practice cause undue wear on the ancient monument? According to Claire Foley of the Northern Ireland Environment Service, "We wouldn't discourage the wear because the symbolic use of the stone is very important." (An Irishwoman's Diary. The Irish Times. 12 February 1996. Quoted in "Spoil Heap," Archaeology Ireland, 10:1 (Spring, 1996) 36.
While researching the Doagh site in July of 2011 I found, in the Wikipedia entry for the town of Doagh, the following purported story of the Holestone: "There is a legend regarding a black horse that inhabits the field in which the holestone is situated. According to this legend a young couple were married at the stone, but the groom committed an act of adultery on their wedding night. For this act he was cursed by the stone to spend eternity as a horse, never dying, and never able to leave that field." Because I did not hear this story when I was doing the media fieldwork in Doagh, and because I've not seen this story repeated elsewhere, I sent an email query to the local town council. On August 4th I received this response: "I have asked various members of our local Historical Society and farmers who live in the area around the Holestone and no-one has heard this story. Good luck with your research. (signed) Lindy Reid (Secretary Ballyclare & District Historical Society)." I subsequently edited the Wikipedia page to delete the ersatz bit of folklore lest it be repeated enough to eventually become bound into the authentic lore of the site.

⁸"Doagh Holestone."

⁹Wood-Martin, W. G. Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland. Vol. 2. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. 1902. 237-39.

¹⁰Weir, Anthony. "Potency and Sin: Ireland and the Phallic Continuum." Archaeology Ireland 4.2 (1990): 54-55.
"Doagh Holed Stone." The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map. Web. 30 July 2011. <http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=6333462>.
Aubrrey Burl cites instances of primitive people affecting the fertility of the land and crop harvest by performing sexual intercourse with animals and each other, within the megalithic enclosures. "Much early religion was naturalistic, concerned with nature and its effects, sometimes requiring a shaman to intercede with nature on behalf of the community, less a witch-doctor than a medium who would dance himself into a drum-beaten ecstasy before passing into a trance." (Burl, Aubrey. The Stone Circles of the British Isles. New Haven: Yale UP, 1976. 87-88.)

¹¹M'S, S., and P. "The Holestone : County of Antrim." The Dublin Penny Journal 20 Apr. 1833: 340-41.

¹²Agnew, Hessie, and Elizabeth Wilson. "Doagh Holestone." Personal interview. 11 June 1998.