2/23/2023 0 Comments Peig sayers dingle![]() The native Irish speaker admits the tears flowed when he set foot on the abandoned, windswept isle, with members of his US-based family, last May. The father of four was instrumental in persuading the then Taoiseach Eamon de Valera to evacuate the 22 remaining islanders from the increasingly desperate conditions they faced on their storm-ravaged outpost on November 17, 1953.īut Dr O Cearna, one of just nine surviving natives of Great Blasket, said he constantly dreamt about "a lost way of life" and said he expected "to be full of emotion" today. Peig, who died in Dingle in 1958, is one of the many figures that Dr O Cearna will remember today as he reminisces about the evacuation of the island exactly 60 years ago. She was a very easy-going and warm person, very entertaining and a wonderful storyteller. ![]() "But you had to know her and live with her, as I did. ![]() He said: "Schoolchildren in Ireland didn't enjoy her book, because she had a hard and very direct kind of Gaelic, but that was the way she spoke. Micheal O Cearna, 93, said he has fond memories of spending much of his early years at Peig's house on remote Great Blasket, which was evacuated 60 years ago today.ĭr O Cearna left the Co Kerry outpost in 1937 to seek a better future in Dublin, settling over a decade later with other emigrant islanders in Springfield, Massachusetts, in the US – where he still lives to this day.īut the grandfather of five said some of his happiest memories were of his regular visits to Peig's modest cottage. SHE'S turned generations of Irish schoolchildren off the Irish language, as they battled to get to grips with the unique style and sombre themes of her famous autobiography.īut Peig Sayers was anything but the dour figure her often dreaded book Peig might suggest – according to the oldest surviving former resident of the Blasket Islands.
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