 Tallaght was founded in AD 744 by Máel Ruain, a leader in the Culdee movement in Ireland.The monastery included Round Towers, which served as bell towers and/or a repository for the relics Mael Ruian had brought with him, reportedly relics of Saints Paul and Peter and hair of the Virgin Mary.The word "tallaght" is a variant of the Irish word "Tamlachta", which originates in the
combination of the words "tam" (plague) and "lecht" (stone monument).