Nemed

thumb|"Tuan watches Nemed", an illustration of Tuan mac Cairill|Tuán watching the Nemedians arriving in Ireland, by Stephen Reid in T. W. Rolleston's Myths & Legends of the Celtic Race, 1911 Nemed or Nimeth () is a character in medieval Irish legend. According to the Lebor Gabála Érenn (compiled in the 11th century), he was the leader of the third group of people to settle in Ireland: the Muintir Nemid (or Muintir Neimhidh, "people of Nemed"), Clann Nemid (Clann Neimhidh, "offspring of Nemed") or "Nemedians". They arrived thirty years after the Muintir Partholóin, their predecessors, had died out. Nemed eventually dies of plague and his people are oppressed by the Fomorians. They rise up against the Fomorians, attacking their tower out at sea, but most are killed and the survivors leave Ireland. Their descendants become the Fir Bolg.

==Etymology== The word nemed means "privileged" or "holy" in Old Irish, and "seems to have been a designation of a druid". The reconstructed Proto-Celtic language root nemos means "sky" or "heaven". In the ancient Celtic religions a nemeton was a place of worship (which included temples, shrines and sacred natural places). Similar roots are found in place names across Celtic culture. For example, there was a Nemetes tribe of the central Rhine area, who had a goddess Nemetona.