The existence of periodic solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations in function spaces based upon (L p(Ω))nis proved. The paper has three parts, (a) A proof of the existence of strong solutions of the evolution equation with initial data in a solenoidal subspace of (L p(Ω))n. (b) The evolution equation is restricted to a space of time periodic functions and a Fredholm integral equation on this space is formed. The Lyapunov-Schmidt method is applied to prove the existence of bifurcating time periodic solutions in the presence of symmetry. (c) The theory is applied to the bifurcation of periodic solutions from planar Poiseuille flow in the presence of symmetry (SO(2) x O(2) x S 1) yielding new results for this classic problem. The O(2) invariance is in the spanwise direction. With the periodicity in time and in the streamwise direction we find that generically there is a bifurcation to both oblique travelling waves and to travelling waves that are stationary in the spanwise direction. There are however points of degeneracy on the neutral surface. A numerical method is used to identify these points and an analysis in the neighborhood of the degenerate points yields more complex periodic solutions as well as branches of quasi-periodic solutions.