Later in life a match was made for Peig with a young man who had a farm on the Great Blasket island off Kerry she saw the lad when he was brought to her house as a guest but it would have been considered too forward for her to get to know him. Peig had a friend called Cait Jim (short for Catherine, Jim's daughter) who went to America and promised to send back money so Peig could join her. Peig had to do the milking and so on, hard physical work in the cold. Peig was a girl from a simple household and when she was old enough to be sent out to work, her mother found a place for her as a servant - the pay was rubbish but it saved her family feeding her. My view of the book is coloured by the fact that we had to read it in Irish in school, and many outdated terms as well as rural terms that were unfamiliar were used.Ī friend says her teacher told the class to read Peig in translation and then go through selected passages in Irish. The 7 Blasket Island books published by OUP contain memoirs and reminiscences from within this literary tradition, evoking a way of life which has now vanished. A rich oral tradition of story-telling, poetry, and folktales kept alive the legends and history of the islands, and has made their literature famous throughout the world. Until their evacuation just after the Second World War, the lives of the 150 or so Blasket Islanders had remained unchanged for centuries. The Blasket Islands are three miles off Irelands Dingle Peninsula. There were 'clouds of sorrow', but helping to lift them was the friendship she found in the community, which 'was like a little rose in the wilderness'. Such everyday tasks as collecting turf for roots, catching and eating seals, and preparing for a wake are depicted alongside such momentous events as drownings at sea, pilgrimages, and the spread of the news of the Easter uprising in 1916. ![]() She recalls the events of her life and her simple philosophy in a moving poetic style. ![]() ![]() In her old age, Peig Sayers, recounted her life to her son who recorded the tale in this book. Storytelling kept alive the myths, legends and history of the Blasket Islands.
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