5/6/2023 0 Comments Peig sayers childrenPeig Sayers died in Dingle, County Kerry, Ireland. Michael Guiheen 60 yrs, wife Mary 60 yrs, son Patrick 40 yrs, daughter-in-law Margaret 30 yrs, grandchildren Kate 6 yrs, Maurice 8 yrs, Patrick 4 yrs, resided in 1901 in house 6 in Great Blasket (Dunquin, Kerry). Her husband, who had suffered ill health for a long period, died shortly afterwards. Three died in infancy, her daughter Siobhn died of the measles at the age of eight, and her son Toms was killed in 1920 when he fell off a cliff while gathering heather. Margaret Sayers, daughter of Thomas Sayers, married on at Ballyferriter RC chapel, Dingle, co Kerry to Patrick Guiheen, son of Michael Guiheen. Life on the island was harsh, and of her ten children only five survived. Margaret Sayers born about 1873 in the townland of Vicarstown, Dunquin, County Kerry, dau of Thomas and Margaret (Brosnan) Sayers. From 1960 the Irish population was urbanising, a process that led to the “ Celtic Tiger ” economy in the 1990s, and Peig’s tales of woe in rural surroundings confirmed to many students that Irish was a language of poverty and misery, while English was considered the language of science and commerce.Peig Sayers "one of the greatest woman storytellers of recent times". As a book with arguably sombre themes (its latter half cataloguing a string of family misfortunes), its presence on the Irish syllabus was criticised for some years. The book was for a long time required reading in secondary schools in Ireland. Maeve found the following interesting titbit in Wikipaedia: The photos were scanned and sent by Maeve Moloney, Anne’s daughter, and she tells me that she has been motivated to re read Peig’s story. Micheal O Guithín, Peig Sayers, Dan Moloney While the search for a photo of Peig with the Curran family was going on, Kay Caball, Anne’s sister in law, came up with a photo of Peig with the Moloney family of Listowel. Anne remembers being sent up to the hospital with a naggin of whiskey that some kind benefactor had bought in Currans for Peig. We know from her own account that Peig had “galar an tabac” and was once reduced to filling her dúidín (clay pipe) with tea when she was gasping for a smoke and no tobacco was to be had. Peig Sayers spent the last years of her life in Dingle hospital. Since Anne was not born when Peig was in her family home, her memories of Peig are as an old lady. We’re not sure who the boy with his back to us is! Seated L to R: Fr Morgan Curran and his sister Sr Felicitas Curran ( Anne’s uncle and aunt) Peig Sayers, “Auntie” Ciss Mehigan nee Scullyįront L to R : Gussie Mehigan, on Peig’s lap, John Scully ( known by Peig as Seáinín) ( Anne’s eldest brother) ![]() Standing back L to R : Mary Curran ( Anne Moloney’s grandmother), Ogie Mehigan ( Anne’s first cousin) Eileen Scully nee Curran (Anne’s mother) Unfortunately, Anne has no photo of herself with Peig since she was very young when Peig died, but she secured from another member of her family this photo of Peig with them. This Curran family is the family of Anne Moloney of Cherrytree Drive. The bean an tí, her boss, was kind to her and she loved the children, particularly Seáinín. Peig describes her time in the Curran house with affection. The first of these tréimhsí was spent with a family in Dingle. In her biography, Peig describes 2 periods she spent “in aimsir”, i. Recently I discovered that a Listowel family have a close family link with Peig. This rare photo of Brendan Behan and Peig was posted online by a Michael Murphy. The most famous of the chroniclers of life on The Blasket was Peig Sayers. The Great Blasket at its peak had only 176 inhabitants in 1916. Even more extraordinary is the number of writers produced by one small isolated island off the west Kerry coast. People often marvel at how Listowel has produced so many writers. I am an islandman at heart and will be until the day I die.” Mike says ” Some people cannot get the island out of their system. I think about it every day and still dream about it every night. His preventable death and the subsequent delay in getting to the mainland for a coffin was the impetus the islanders needed to put pressure on the DeValera government to relocate them. The weather was too bad and the sea too rough to get him to the mainland or to bring a doctor from the mainland to him. In 1964 just before Christmas, Seainín ÓCearna contracted meningitis. It was the tragic death of Mike’s brother, Séanín, which led eventually to the complete evacuation of the last remaining 22 citizens in 1953. When Mike was growing up on the Great Blasket, the island people had no post office, no shop, no car, no electricity, no phone, no running water, no church, no doctor or nurse, no horse, no proper roads, no machinery and no pub . I read a review of the book by Darragh MacManus and that review has spurred me to read the memoir itself. ![]() Michael Carney was born on the island in 1920 and lived there until he was 16. Only 10 native islanders survive and all are very elderly. ![]() The Blasket islands have been uninhabited since 1953. The co-author, Michael Carney, is the last person born on the Great Blasket, the only inhabitable one of the 6 islands, to write an account of life there. This book has been much in the news recently.
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