the native names by which the planets were known, the names of the stars that played so central a part in people’s lives, continued as a taboo on the population. Therefore, when scribes began to write in Irish and Welsh, they eagerly accepted the foreign loan-words as euphemisms for their own proscribed names, and thus these names have been lost. Or have they?

Only in Manx Gaelic do we have the survival of the native names of two planets. In Manx, which developed away from Old Irish from the fifth and sixth centuries but did not emerge as its own developed written language until the seventeenth century, words for Mercury and Venus occur. There are two names for Mercury—Yn Curain and Yn Crean. Likewise, there are two names for Venus—Yn Vadlag and Yn Vaytnag. These survivals confirm the existence of earlier native names for the planets, which have now been lost because of the proscription against their use.

Tadhg

[I] Son of Cian of Munster. Cormac Mac Art promised to reward Tadhg’s alliance against Ulster with any land that he could circumnavigate in his chariot after the battle. Cormac knew that Tadhg wanted Temuir (Tara) and the High Kingship itself, so he bribed Tadhg’s charioteer to make a circumnavigation in the shape of an “L,” which excluded Temuir. The story of “The Adventures of Tadhg, son of Cian, son of Ailill Olum” is thought to date back to the third century a.d., and in this voyage tale the goddess Cliodhna appears to him.

There is a second Tadhg who appears, the son of Nuada. He was a druid and father of Murna of the White Neck, mother of Fionn Mac Cumhail. He opposed the marriage of his daughter to Cumal and persuaded Conn, the High King, to send warriors after them when they eloped. Cumal was killed, but not before Murna became pregnant with Fionn.

Tailltinn, Battle of

[I] A great battle between the Dé Danaan and the Milesians in which three kings and three queens of the Dé Danaan were slain.

Tailtu

[I] Daughter of the Firbolg king of the Great Plain, she became foster mother to Lugh Lámhfada and gave her name to Tailltinn (Anglicised as Teltown). She cleared the forest of Breg and died as a result of her labours. Lugh decreed a feast in her honour, which became known as Lughnasadh (August 1). At the feast, official games that correspond to the Olympics of ancient Greece were