(Irish mythology) The foremost tragic heroine in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. Daughter of Fedlimid mac Daill. At birth, Cathbad foretold that she would be very beautiful, but that kings and lords would go to war over her. She committed suicide.
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1885 Frances Mabel Robinson, Mr. Butler's Ward, Vizetelly, page 95:Deirdre, it seemed to him, was the most beautiful name in the world. But Mrs. Stanley had different views on nomenclature. She had never, she declared, heard so utterly preposterous a name. - - -"Theatre and saltpetre are both spelt that way, Arthur; depend upon it, it is Deirder - a sort of peasant name like Darby and Biddy, a corruption of something else."
