Peig: The Autobiography of Peig Sayers of the Great Blasket Island - Softcover

Peig Sayers

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0854520864 ISBN 13: 9780854520862

Publisher: Talbot Press, 1974

Synopsis

Peig Sayers (1873-1958) was born in Dún Chaoin, County Kerry, Ireland. Seán Ó Súilleabháin, the former archivist for the Irish Folklore Commission, described her as "one of the greatest woman storytellers of recent times."

She spent much of her early life as a domestic servant working for members of the growing middle class produced by the Land War. She moved to the Great Blasket Island after marrying Pádraig Ó Guithín, a fisherman and native of the island. She continued to live on the island until 1953, when the island was abandoned due to declining population. She was moved to a hospital in An Daingean, Co. Kerry, where she died in 1958. She is buried in the Dún Chaoin Burial Ground, Corca Dhuibhne, Ireland.

Sayers is most famous for her autobiography, 'Peig;' she also recounted folklore and other stories which were recorded in Machnamh Seanmhná: An Old Woman's Reflections. Sayers's autobiography was dictated to her son Micheál and published in 1936. 'Peig' is among the most famous expressions of a late Gaelic Revival genre of personal histories by and about inhabitants of the Blasket Islands and other remote Irish locations.

About this title

Language Notes:

Text: English (translation)

About this edition

• Publisher: Talbot Press
• Publication date: 1974
• ISBN 10: 0854520864
• ISBN 13: 9780854520862
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 212
• Illustrator: Catriona O'Connor