Known affectionately as "the Queen of Gaelic Storytellers," Peig Sayers here offers reminiscences of the daily events that made up her life (such as seal catching, collecting turf for roofs, preparing for a funeral wake) alongside the tragedies of drownings at sea, pilgrimages, and the news of the 1916 revolution in Dublin City. It is a unique record of an essential part of the oral Gaelic tradition.

An Old Woman's Reflections (Oxford Paperbacks)

Biographies & Memoirs

Peig Sayers

Leaders & Notable People

Oxford University Press

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

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.

Talbot

1983, trade paperback reprint edition (of a work first published in 1974), translated into English, with illustrations. Criterion Press / Talbot Press. 212 pages. Marvelous collection of stories related to a woman growing up and writing things down to reveal the story of a life.

Peig

Talbot Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Peig Sayers. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Peig Sayers

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Peig Sayers. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

An Old Woman's Reflections (Oxford Paperbacks)

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

Peig