Peig Sayers (1873 - 1958) was an Irish author. 1873 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calaber). ... 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Life

Peig Sayers was born in Dunquin (Dún Chaoin), a small town in County Kerry, Ireland. She moved to the Blasket Islands after marrying Pádraig Ó Gaoithín, a native of the island. Peig was illiterate, but dictated many of her stories to Seosamh Ó Dálaigh of the Irish Folklore Commission. Peig Sayers continued to live on the island until 1953, when the island was abandoned due to declining population. She was moved to a hospital in Dingle, Co. Kerry where she died in 1958. She is buried in the Dunquin Burial Ground, Dingle Peninsula, Ireland. Dunquin, (Irish Dún Chaoin) is a village in the West Kerry Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking area). ... Statistics Province: Munster County Town: Tralee Code: KY Area: 4,746 km² Population (2002) 132,527 Website: www. ... Categories: Ireland-place stubs | Islands of Ireland | County Kerry ... Literacy is the ability to use text to communicate across space and time. ... Folklore is the body of verbal expressive culture, including tales, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs current among a particular population, comprising the oral tradition of that culture, subculture, or group. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1953 calendar). ... Dingle (in Irish, An Daingean or Daingean Uí Chúis) is a growing town in County Kerry in the Republic of Ireland, on the Atlantic coast some 50 km west-south-west of Tralee and 80 km west-north-west of Killarney. ... Dingle Peninsula as viewed from Banna Strand The Dingle Peninsula (Irish: Corca Dhuibhne) is located in County Kerry and is the most westerly point of the Republic of Ireland. ...

Peig

Sayers is most famous for her autobiography, Peig, ISBN 0815602588, which she dictated to her son Micheál. Published in 1936, Peig is perhaps the most famous expression of a late Gaelic Revival genre of personal histories by and about inhabitants of the Blasket Islands and other remote Irish locations. Tómas Ó Criomhthain's autobiography An tOileannach ("The Islander", 1929) and Robert J. Flaherty's documentary Man of Aran address similar subjects. The movement swiftly found itself the object of some derision and mockery -- especially among the more cosmopolitan city dwellers of Ireland -- for its seemingly relentless depictions of rural hardship. Parody of the type reached its zenith with Dubliner Flann O'Brien's merciless reinterpretation of An tOileannach' as An Béal Bocht ("The Poor Mouth"). The Gaelic Revival of the Irish language was mainly promoted by the Gaelic League and Douglas Hyde for much of the late 19th century and early 20th century. ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Robert Joseph Flaherty (February 16, 1884, Iron Mountain, Michigan, United States - July 23, 1951, Dummerston, Vermont) was a filmmaker who directed and produced the first commercially successful feature length documentary film (Nanook of the North) in 1922. ... Man Of Aran is a documentary film on life on the Aran Islands by Robert J. Flaherty (1934). ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Myles na gCopaleen. ...

Peig depicts the declining years of a traditional, Irish-speaking way of life characterised by poverty, piety, and folk memory of the Famine and the Penal Laws. The often bleak tone of the book is established from its opening words: World map showing percentage of people living under national poverty lines. ... Piety; To show honour and respect. ... Bridget ODonnell and her two children during the famine The Great Famine or the Great Hunger (Irish: An Gorta Mór or An Drochshaol), known more commonly outside of Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine, is the name given to a famine in Ireland between 1845 and 1849. ... The Penal laws in Ireland refers to a series of laws imposed under British rule that sought to discriminate against the majority native Catholic population but also against Protestant dissenters in favour of the established Church of Ireland. ...

"I am an old woman now, with one foot in the grave and the other on its edge. I have experienced much ease and much hardship from the day I was born until this very day. Had I known in advance half, or even one-third, of what the future had in store for me, my heart wouldn't have been as gay or as courageous it was in the beginning of my days."

The book is well known to anyone who studied the Irish language for the Leaving Certificate examination. Studying Peig in Irish (Gaelic) was mandatory for the vast majority of Irish secondary school students for generations and the book is most closely associated with that experience today, to the point of overshadowing the importance of the book as a historical and cultural document. Irish (Gaeilge), a Goidelic language spoken in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Canada, and the United States, is constitutionally recognised as the first official language of the Republic of Ireland. ... The Leaving Certificate (Irish: An Ardteistiméireacht) (commonly referred to as the Leaving Cert) is the final course in the Irish secondary school system and culminates with the Leaving Certificate Examination. ...