 The name memorializes a plague said to have occurred in Ireland in A.M. 2820, a plague so vast that 9,000 persons in Parthálon’s colony are said to have died in one week, all the dead being buried in one mass grave covered over with stones.The existence of ancient tumuli in the vicinity are sometimes offered as evidence of the truth of the legend, though archaeologists have yet to discover any evidence of a mass grave.Máel Ruin’s companions at Tallaght included the Ulsterman Oengus and Máel Dithruib, two well-known figures in the Culdee movement.