To speak the truth, I think it's impossible to confirm whether the Tuatha de Danann really lived or not. Since their "time" was so long ago, much of what we know about them was passed on through oral traditions. Each bard/poet traveled from hall to hall and keep to keep, telling his stories, and depending on his audience, he would tell them slightly differently. For example, I'm sure that he would simplify them for children, and for an adult audience, go into all the little details.
All myths are like that. I will use the Hindu epic The Mahabharata as an example since I'm Indian, and I am most familiar with it. I hope at least one person out there has heard of it. We have no real way of telling whether or not the Kauravas and Pandavas really existed. There have been some archaeological excavations recently that show that the Battle of Kurukshetra might have actually occurred, and that an island civilization sank of the coast of Gujarat (which would correspond to Dwaraka, the home of Lord Krishna).
It's very hard to tell whether or not these myths are "true" considering the amount of poetic license that bards and poets were given in ancient times. It would be rather immature to insist on either viewpoint, rather than accepting a little bit of both.
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But Melkor also was there, and he came to the house of Fëanor, and there he slew Finwë King of the Noldor before his doors, and spilled the first blood in the Blessed Realm; for Finwë alone had not fled from the horror of the Dark.
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