4/24/2023 0 Comments Peig sayers blasket cemetery![]() Peig was mandatory reading for every Irish high school student in the latter part of the 20th century. It presents evocative word pictures and imagery of her life on the Blasket Islands off the coast of Kerry. Sayers is best known for her autobiography Peig, written in the Irish language. Seán Ó Súilleabháin, the former archivist for the Irish Folklore Commission, described her as “one of the greatest woman storytellers of recent times”. She and Pádraig had eleven children, of whom six survived. Peig moved to the Great Blasket Island after marrying Pádraig Ó Guithín, a fisherman and native of the island. She had expected to join her best friend, Cáit Boland, in America, but Cáit wrote that she had had an accident and could not forward the cost of the fare. She spent the next few years as a domestic servant working for members of the growing middle class produced by the Land War. She spent two years there before returning home due to illness. At age 12, she was taken out of school and went to work as a servant for the Curran family in the nearby town of Dingle, where she said she was well treated. Her father Tomás Sayers was a renowned storyteller who passed on many of his tales to Peig. ![]() She was called Peig after her mother, Margaret “Peig” Brosnan, from Castleisland. Born Máiréad Sayers in the townland of Vicarstown, Dunquinn, Co Kerry, the youngest child of the family.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |