¹Paterson, T. G. F. Country Cracks; Old Tales from the County of Armagh. Dundalk: W. Tempest, Dundalgan, 1939. Note, p. 44.

²Gribben, Arthur. "Táin Bó Cuailnge: A Place on the Map, A Place in the Mind." Western Folklore 49.3 (1990): 285
The author describes interviewing a native to the area when a British military helicopter came into sight just a few miles away above The Gap of the North. As the aircraft flew along toward the British garrison the local said that "the nationalist community could do with a modern Cuchulainn equipped with a bazooka. Clearly, he saw Cuchulainn as a symbol of resistance to the British presence in Northern Ireland."

³Killanin, Michael Morris, and Michael V. Duignan. The Shell Guide to Ireland. London: Ebury P. in Association with George Rainbird, 1967. 423.

⁴Collins, A.E.P., and B.C.S. Wilson. "The Slieve Gullion Cairns." Ulster Journal of Archaeology Third 26 (1963): 35.
The large destroyed cairn on Slieve Donard (852 m or 2,796 ft) in the Mourne Mountains of Co. Down probably contained a passage grave.

⁵Brooke, Charlotte. Reliques of Irish Poetry: Consisting of Heroic Poems, Odes, Elegies, and Songs, Translated into English Verse: with Notes Explanatory and Historical; and the Originals in the Irish Character. To Which Is Subjoined an Irish Tale. By Miss Brooke. [Dublin]: George Bonham, Printer, South Great George's-Street, Dublin, 1789. 88.
"During excavations in 1961 it was discovered that the burial deposits had been badly disturbed by treasure-seekers..." (Cunningham, Noreen, and Pat McGinn. The Gap of the North: the Archaeology & Folklore of Armagh, Down, Louth, and Monaghan. Dublin: O'Brien, 2001. 41-43.)

⁶Ross, Anne. "The Divine Hag of the Pagan Celts." The Witch Figure. Ed. Venetia Newhall. London and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978. 155-56.

⁷Gregory, Isabell Augusta (Persse). Gods and Fighting Men. London: J. Murray, 1904. 306-09.
This book may be read in its entirety here.
This story is not one of the earlier elements of the Fenian Cycle; it is likely of late medieval origin. However Fionn's ability to use his magical powers to recover treasure is mentioned in an eighth century text. In another version of this story the antidote, in addition to restoring Fionn's youth, also gives him wisdom. (Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí. Fionn Mac Cumhaill: Images of the Gaelic Hero. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1988. 23, 134.)

⁸MacCana, Proinsias. Celtic Mythology. London: Hamlyn, 1970. 111.
Ó hÓgáin lists three basic late medieval sources for Fionn: Acallamh na Senorach (the Colloquy of the Old Men) was written around 1175, but is best known from an early thirteenth century copy. More material was added in the thirteenth century, in which Oisin is the narrator. A second source is the body of narrative poems about the Fianna written from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. The third source is Feis Tighe Chondin (the Feast at Conan's House), written around the fifteenth century. (Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí. Fionn Mac Cumhaill: Images of the Gaelic Hero. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1988. 114-15.)

⁹Murphy, Gerard. The Ossianic Lore and Romantic Tales of Medieval Ireland. Dublin: Three Candles, 1961. 5.

¹⁰Zucchelli, Christine. Stones of Adoration Sacred Stones and Mystic Megaliths of Ireland. Doughcloyne, Wilton, Cork: Collins, 2007. 53.

¹¹Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí. Fionn Mac Cumhaill: Images of the Gaelic Hero. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1988. 12-13.
When Fionn was grown he avenged the death of his father by challenging his grandfather to “single combat,” or demanding compensation. The grandfather surrendered his fortress (Aimhu) to Fionn, who used it for his principal residence thereafter.

¹²Ó hÓgáin 22.

¹³Ó hÓgáin 3-4.
The action of Fionn is sometimes described as "biting" rather than "sucking" the thumb to gain his special knowledge. According to Ó hÓgáin (p. 52), "The magical knowledge of seers and poets was known as fios, which is the root used to designate Fionn's gift, as well as to describe his celebrated 'thumb of knowledge.'"

¹⁴Ó hÓgáin 52-3.

¹⁵Ó hÓgáin 9.

¹⁶Ó hÓgáin 104-05.
The list of feats required of a warrior who wished to join the Fianna included a number of elements. Nine warriors would together toss their spears at the candidate while he was in a hole in the ground up to his waist, with only a hazel rod for defense. If he suffered any wound, he was disqualified. While running through the woods with braided hair, if a branch of wood disturbed his braid he could not be accepted. If, while running, he found a thorn in his foot he must be able to draw it out without slackening his pace. In addition, he had to memorize “the twelve books of poetry.”

¹⁷Ó hÓgáin 34.
The Church denounced these groups of “pagan brigands” as outlaws and “desperate men who preyed on society and who organised themselves into groups in order to pursue their purposes."

¹⁸Ross, Neil. Heroic Poetry from the Book of the Dean of Lismore. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd for the Scottish Gaelic Texts Society, 1939.190-92.
Cited in Ó hÓgáin 34.

¹⁹Ó hÓgáin 120.
Cited as "Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, 3, 453. Celtica, 8, 72."

²⁰Collins 24.

²¹"The Cairn on Slieve Gullion." Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society 5.3 (1923): 165. Extracted from Statistical Survey of Co. Armagh, by Sir Charles Coote, 1804.

²²Collins 19.

²³Collins 26-30.

²⁴Collins, A.E.P. "The Slieve Gullion Passage-Grave Cairn." Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society 5.1 (1969): 180-82.

²⁵Waddell, John. The Prehistoric Archaeology of Ireland. Bray: Wordwell, 2005. 77.

²⁶Collins 31, 33.
In all, 172 pottery sherds were collected in the north tomb. Most were tiny crumbs, but the few base sherds had outer pot surfaces with continuous decoration. These may be seen here in a drawing by the excavators.

²⁷Paterson 33.
From p. 31: “Often I started up the mountain to see the lake but I cud never head the whole road I wus so afeared for ye know a wedding party went into the Cally Berry's house once, and they were turned to stone. Her house goes down an’ down, an’ in the bottom chamber sits Cally Berry herself till this very day. Ay, and will, to the end of time. But where Finn is I know not, or if I do I disremember.”

²⁸Paterson 45.
The text of this quotation has been altered to eliminate some of the author's pidgin-Irish-English renderings of dialogue.

²⁹Ó hÓgáin 108-09.

³⁰Ó hÓgáin 316.

³¹Ó hÓgáin 315.

³²In 1999 former "Riverdance" lead Tony Kemp portrayed Fionn in "Dancing on Dangerous Ground,” a modernized version of "The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne." A punk-rock musical “Finn McCool” debuted in 2010 in Washington, D.C. at the Capitol Fringe Festival. There is a band named “Finn McCool." And there are many local examples of “Finn McCool’s Irish Pub.

³³Ó hÓgáin 322.