¹⁰²Petrie, George. "On the History and Antiquities of Tara Hill." The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. 18, 1839, p. 159.

Petrie quotes from a poem of Cuan O'Lochain (d. 1024): "'King Cormac made a visitation of Ireland thrice, and brought a hostage from every fortress, which he exhibited at Temur, and that to these hostages he gave Dumha na n Giall.'"

T.J. Westropp wrote that the Mound of the Hostages was "...traditionally the basement of the house given by King Cormac to the hostages brought to him from all Ireland..." (Murphy, Denis, and Thomas J. Westropp. "Notes on the Antiquities of Tara (Teamhair Na Rig)." The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. 4, no. 3, 1894, p. 241.)

Due to the traditional name of this tomb, and also due to the thick metal bars on on the locked gate to the passage, many "...generations of Irish schoolchildren (and tourists) came away from brief tours of the hill erroneously assuming that this was a prison mound." (Rennicks, Rich. "Tara: The Mound of the Hostages." A Trip to Ireland, 19 July 2014, atriptoireland.com/2013/06/27/tara-the-mound-of-the-hostages/.)