Sayers, Peig (1873–1958)

Irish storyteller and writer. She was born into a storytelling family in Dunquin, County Kerry, a Gaelic-speaking community, and spent most of her life on the Great Blasket Island. Sayers had great powers of recollection, which she used to record numerous folk tales in clear, straightforward language. The stories were collected in Peig (1936), her autobiography which she dictated to her son Micheál; and Machtnamh Sean-Mná/An Old Woman's Reflections (1939; translated 1962). Her stories draw upon a great store of folklore and have a balance of rhythm, thought, and phrasing which has inspired many writers. Around 360 of Sayers's tales were recorded for the Irish Folklore Commission. The preservation of traditional narratives in the Irish language has left an important body of work for later Gaelic scholars.