Some critics believe that Mícheál's personality and style had a significant influence on both texts. Both works provide important insights into the social and cultural life on the Great Blasket Island. This was translated into English by Séamus Ennis (qv) under the title An old woman's reflections (1962) and Peig was translated into English by Bryan MacMahon (qv) in 1970. A further work, Machtnamh seana-mhná, dictated to Mícheál and also edited by Ní Chinnéide, was published in 1939. Peig was awarded the prize on the island on 15 August 1937 and she was also crowned queen of the island on the same occasion. The work won the Duais an Chraoibhín award in the 1937 Oireachtas na Gaeilge literary competition. Her style inspired writers such as Seán Ó Riordáin (qv) and Seán Ó Tuama (1926–2006). It is regarded as a classic along with the works of the other Blasket authors Tomás Ó Criomhthain (qv) and Muiris Ó Súilleabháin (qv). It was an immediate success, and shortly after its publication it was added to the leaving certificate examination curriculum, where it remained until 1995. The work was edited by Ní Chinnéide and appeared under the title Peig. Her son Mícheál returned to live with her on the island when his health failed.Įncouraged by two visitors to the island, Máire Ní Chinnéide and Léan Ní Chonnalláin, to record her life story, she dictated it to her son Mícheál as she could neither read nor write Irish. When her surviving children emigrated permanently to America she decided to live with her blind brother-in-law Mícheál, who had helped the family after the death of her husband. Her husband, who had suffered ill health for a long period, died shortly afterwards. Three died in infancy, her daughter Siobhán died of the measles at the age of eight, and her son Tomás was killed in 1920 when he fell off a cliff while gathering heather. Life on the island was harsh, and of her ten children only five survived.
A different version appears in another account of her life, Beatha Pheig Sayers (1970), written by her son Mícheál Ó Gaoithín (qv) (‘Maidhc file’), which stated that Peig had seen her future husband beforehand and had fallen in love with him. Her marriage was arranged, and (according to her account in Peig) she had never set eyes on her future husband until the night the match was made.
She married (13 February 1892) Pádraig Ó Gaoithín (Peatsaí Flint), twelve years her senior, from the Great Blasket Island and was to spend the next fifty years on the island. She was deeply unhappy with her second mistress and finally returned home to her parents. Her elder siblings had emigrated to the USA and she also had hoped to follow them when the fare for her passage was sent to her by her friend Cáit Jim, but when it did not arrive she was forced to enter service for a second time. At the age of fourteen she entered domestic service in Dingle, where she remained for four years until her health failed.
At the age of six she attended the local national school in Dunquin, where she was taught by Seán Ó Dálaigh, receiving her education through the medium of English. She learned many of her tales from her father, who had recounted a substantial number to Jeremiah Curtin (qv). Kerry, six months before she was born, as nine of their children had died there and her mother had hoped that the change would bring the family luck. Her parents had moved to Vicarstown from Ventry, Co. Of English protestant descent on her father's side, the family had converted to catholicism during her grandfather's generation. She was baptised 29 March 1873 in Ballyferriter, Co. Kerry, one of thirteen children of Tomás Sayers, storyteller and small farmer, and his wife Peig (née Ní Bhrosnacháin). Sayers, Peig (‘Peig Mhór’) (1873–1958), storyteller, was born in Vicarstown, Dunquin, Co.
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