First of January on Thursday. One thousand five hundred three score and two years was the age of the Lord when there died that tree of victory, that thicket of shelter, that fruitful branch, that hand which governed and supported the children of Conn Cetchathach, namely Brian son of Eogan son of Tigernan son of Tadc son of Tigernan Mor O Ruairc, the man who most compelled the neighbouring territories to yield him rents and tributes, who offered the best hospitality and the greatest gifts to musicians and entertainers and men of art, who of all the seed of Adam bought most poems and earned most praise, who had the greatest number of Irish gentlemen and nobles in receipt of payment and wages from him, and who acquired the most charter-land and sword-land on every side. This was the man who bought more wine than any other man in Ireland, and drank it without stay or stint, the best man in the land. The one to be most honourably remembered for his famous achievements, who was never beaten in fight or fray, who broke through every gap and every pass in spite of his enemies, who possessed the most gold and silver and wealth, horns and cups and goblets, arms and armour and ordnance, flocks and herds and goodly cattle; for, as the proverb says, he who scatters gathers.
- There are fifty and twelve years
And one thousand and five hundred
From the coming of Christ in Bethlehem
To the taking of Brian from the Brefnians.