Part 76 of The Metrical Dindshenchas

Ard na Riag

Ard na Riag — declare to us its origin
if you can gauge it aright!
how came it to be so christened to after-times?
how came this name upon the tongues of men?
5] Tell us a while of the gibbets
whence comes the name perpetually:
its fruit is no beauty without increase,
since its produce began to multiply.
From four gibbets is it called
10] by this name, when it comes to mind;
reprobates fierce as bears were they,
the four foster-brothers of Cellach.
Cellach son of Eogan of Eig,
his henchmen were they,
15] a kindred that deserved not to be fettered,
virtuous foster-brothers all four.
Their names were Maelcroin, Maelsenaid
and Maeldalua, lover of ale,
and Maelteoraid of the throng:
20] a chieftain who gave crooked guidance to our noble clan.
Guaire corrupted the band of warriors —
it was not hard — by his constant urging:
he gave them all they asked to murder Cellach;
this was the condition of the beheading.
25] For the slaying of Cellach
by the wicked deed of his own people,
for the sake of a bribe that profited not,
Guaire was deprived of lasting profit.

Cuchoingelt put fetters
30] on the base wicked hand:
he succeeded in carrying them off captive:
there was no ban upon his seizing them.
He brought the heathens to Port Rig
to gibbet and to torture them:
35] there they were hung all four:
a muddy death for them was a fair requital.
From that time forth Ard na Riag
is the name in vogue among the Gaels:
it is the wont of every bard to visit
40] their graves, their lofty abodes.