"The Hill of Howth" (from Irish Miscellany - Penguin Press anthology)

Collected and edited/translated by Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson

"Delightful to be on the Hill of Howth, very sweet to be above its white sea; the perfect fertile hill, home of ships, the vine-grown pleasant warlike peak.

The peak where Finn and the Fianna used to be, the peak where were drinking-horns and cups, the peak where bold O' Duinn brought Grainne one day in stress of pursuit.

The peak bright-knolled beyond all hills, with its hill-top round and green and rugged; the hill full of swordsmen, full of wild garlic and trees, the many-coloured peak, full of beasts, wooded.

The peak that is loveliest throughout the land of Ireland, the bright peak above the sea of Gulls, it is a hard step for me to leave it, lovely Hill of delightful Howth."   -- Irish; unknown author (14th century).