⁷³Harbison, Peter. The Archeology of Ireland. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1976, pp. 62-3.

It should be noted at Harbison's assertion that "...two of the three Irishmen who permitted this 'excavation' were to suffer untimely deaths..." was not known to Mairéad Carew, who authored the book on the British Israelites at Tara. (Carew, Mairéad. 15 March 2019. E-mail.)

Even some of the British Israelites believed in the dangerous supernatural forces protecting the site and its supposed treasure. A contributor to their publication "Covenant People" wrote of the Ark that "...no unconsecrated hand could touch it in the past and live." (Sheehy, J. The rediscovery of Ireland’s past: the Celtic Revival 1830-1930. London, 1980, p. 20.)

Quoting from an OPW document, Mairéad Carew wrote: "...the landlord at Tara, Gustavus Villiers Briscoe, stated that 'if he had not directed it to be done, no labourer in the locality would have touched it [Tara], so much is it disliked and dreaded by the people, who hold the place in evident veneration.'" (Carew, Mairéad. Tara and the Ark of the Covenant: A Search for the Ark of the Covenant by British Israelites on the Hill of Tara (1899-1902). Dublin: Discovery Programme/Royal Irish Academy, 2003, p. 47.)