Taig - History

History

The use of the term as an insult may originate in the 17th century plantations of Ireland. Early written accounts coincide with the Williamite War.

In the late 1680s, the term appears in the satirical Williamite ballad Lilliburlero which includes the line "Ho brother Taig hast thou heard the decree?" In 1698, John Dunton wrote a mocking account of Ireland titled Teague Land - or A Ramble with the Wild Irish. Thereafter the derogatory use of the term was frequent.

However, there is also evidence from this era of the word being used as a self-identifier by rebellious Irish Catholics. An Irish language Jacobite poem written in the 1690s includes the following lines:

"You Popish rogue", ní leomhaid a labhairt sinn
acht "Cromwellian dog" is focal faire againn
nó "cia sud thall" go teann gan eagla
"Mise Tadhg" géadh teinn an t-agallamh

Translation:

"You Popish rogue" is not spoken
but "Cromwellian dog" is our watchword,
"Who goes there" does not provoke fear,
"I am Tadhg" is the answer given

Although the term has rarely been used in North America, a notable example of such use was when John Adams successfully defended the British Army soldiers responsible for the 1770 Boston Massacre by pleading to the jury that the soldiers were acting in self-defence against:

"a motley rabble of saucy boys, negros and molattoes, Irish Teagues and outlandish jack tarrs"