Taig, and (primarily formerly) alsoTeague, areanglicisations of theIrish-language male given nameTadhg, used asethnic slurs for astage Irishman.Taig inNorthern Ireland and the west ofScotland is most commonly used as a derogatory term byloyalists to refer toIrish Catholics.
Tadhg was once so common as an Irish name that it became synonymous withthe typical person, with phrases likeTadhg an mhargaidh ("Tadhg of the market") akin to "the man on the Clapham omnibus" or "average Joe". In the late 1680s, thesatiricalWilliamite balladLillibullero includes the line: "Ho brother Taig hast thou heard the decree?" Conversely, the Irish-language name is used defiantly in aJacobite poem written in the 1690s:"Who goes there" does not provoke fear / "I am Tadhg" is the answer given.[1] In 1698,John Dunton wrote a mocking account of Ireland, titledTeague Land – or A Ramble with the Wild Irish.
Although the term has rarely been used inNorth America, a notable example of such use was when futureFounding Father and lawyerJohn Adams successfully defended the soldiers responsible for the 1770Boston Massacre by pleading to the jury that they were being attacked by:
... most probably amotley rabble of saucy boys,negros andmolattoes, Irish Teagues and outlandishjack tarrs. —And why we should scruple to call such a set of people a mob, I can't conceive, unless the name is too respectable for them?[2]
In the context ofsegregation in Northern Ireland andsectarianism in Glasgow, the term "Taig" is used as a derogatory term for aRoman Catholic, used byNorthern IrishProtestants andUlster loyalists.[3][4] In this sense, it is used in a similar way to the wordFenian, but is more ethnic in terms of abuse against people of Gaelic descent than "Fenian", which more commonly signifiesIrish republican. Extremist loyalists have also used slogans such as "Kill All Taigs" (KAT) and "All Taigs Are Targets" in graffiti.[4]
In Scotland, "Tim" is sometimes used as an alternative to "Taig" ("Tadhg" is usually translated as "Timothy" and shortened to "Tim" in English).