In Celtic mythology, a race inhabiting Ireland before the arrival of the Milesians, the ancestors of the modern Irish.
Skilled in magic, they were banished from heaven because of their knowledge and descended on Ireland in a cloud of mist. They were thought to have disappeared into the hills when overcome by the Milesians. They were regarded as actual people by native historians up to the 17th century. Representative of the Celtic pantheon, they have become associated in popular legend with the numerous fairies still said to inhabit the Irish landscape.