⁴¹Hutton, Ronald. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy. Oxford, UK: B. Blackwell, 1991, pp. 147-48.

John Waddell quotes Geoffrey Keating [Foras Feasa ar Eirinn, II, 250] with this description of Tara's Banquet Hall:

".. The banquet-halls they had were narrow and long, with tables along the side-walls. Along each of these side-walls there was placed a beam in which there were numerous hooks above the seats on which the company used to sit, with only the breadth of a shield between each two of the hooks, and on these hooks the seancha hung the shields of the nobles and of the warriors before they sat down, each under his own shield, both nobles and warriors. But the territorial lords had the choice of a side, and the leaders of warriors had the other side; the upper end of the hall was occupied by the ollamhs, and the other end by the attendants who waited on the company. It was their custom also not to have women in the banquet-halls, but they were given a separate apartment in which they were served. It was, moreover, their custom, before the company were served, to clear out or empty the banquet-hall, so that only three remained in it, namely a seancha, a bollsaire, that is a marshal of the house, and a trumpeter who had a trumpet or horn to call all the guests to the banquet- hall. He sounded his trumpet three times. The first time he sounded it, the shield-bearers of the nobles assembled at the door of the banquet-hall; and the bollsaire took the shield of each noble according to his title, and placed, according to the direction of the seancha, each of the shields in its own appointed place. The trumpeter sounded his trumpet a second time, and the shield- bearers of the leaders of warriors assembled at the door of the banquet-hall; and the bollsaire took the shields from them and placed each shield, according to the direction of the seancha, at the other side of the house, over the warriors' table. Then the trumpeter sounded his trumpet the third time; and thereupon the nobles and warriors assembled in the banquet-hall, and each of them sat beneath his own shield, so that there was no contention between them."