Taig

Uncommon card · No. 198635

Taig, and (primarily formerly) also Teague, are anglicisations of the Irish-language male given name Tadhg, used as ethnic slurs for a stage Irishman. Taig in Northern Ireland and the west of Scotland is most commonly used as a derogatory term by loyalists to refer to Irish Catholics. Tadhg was once so common as an Irish name that it became synonymous with the typical person, with phrases like Tadhg an mhargaidh ("Tadhg of the market") akin to "the man on the Clapham omnibus" or "average Joe". In the late 1680s, the satirical Williamite ballad Lillibullero includes the line: "Ho brother Taig hast thou heard the decree?" Conversely, the Irish-language name is used defiantly in a Jacobite poem written in the 1690s: "Who goes there" does not provoke fear / "I am Tadhg" is the answer given. In 1698, John Dunton wrote a mocking account of Ireland, titled Teague Land – or A Ramble with the Wild Irish. Although the term has rarely been used in North America, a notable example of such use was...

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