tuath

plural tuaths · plural tuatha

1. historicalA tribe or group of people in Ireland, having a loose voluntary system of governance entered into through contracts by all members.

   There was nothing fixed or enduring about many tuatha, and reflecting the itinerant character of much of Irish society, the Church developed the peculiar phenomenon of roving ecclesiastic families [...].

   2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 331