Peig Sayers

dj jarvis · 12-10-2013 10:42AM #1

i know even reading that name fills me full of dread :-(

i have some tourists staying with me , and they were asking about the Irish language, and they asked why we dont speak it more.

i had one answer

PEIG SAYERS !!!

that book done more to kill any love of the Language that any violent christian brother ever could

so AH - describe what you feel in one word when you hear the name
PEIG SAYERS !!!

Princess Consuela Bananahammock · 12-10-2013 10:44AM

Nothing.

(Did the leaving 20 years ago, couldn't give a****)

Hootanany · 12-10-2013 10:46AM

Was he Dutch or Norwegian

whatdoicare · 12-10-2013 10:46AM

Haw haw I was in school in the 90s, no Peig for me!

I still dislike the Irish language though.

DEFTLEFTHAND · 12-10-2013 10:50AM

An Triail was our Irish play. They got rid of Peig 20+ years ago.

Banjo String · 12-10-2013 10:53AM

Any relation to Leo?

cml387 · 12-10-2013 10:58AM

Bit unfair to blame one poor kerrywoman, when the real blame lies with the government and Irish language fanatics trying to force it down our throats.

12-10-2013 10:59AM

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story...or in this case a dull dreary story.

The Dagda · 12-10-2013 11:01AM

Is it just me or does the name "Peig Sayers" not look particularly Irish?

Agent Smyth · 12-10-2013 11:02AM

God haven't heard that name in years
Think I last opened that book in the early eighties
Brings back a lot of memories

Hownowcow · 12-10-2013 11:03AM

dj jarvis wrote: »

i know even reading that name fills me full of dread :-(

i have some tourists staying with me , and they were asking about the Irish language, and they asked why we dont speak it more.

i had one answer

PEIG SAYERS !!!

that book done more to kill any love of the Language that any violent christian brother ever could

so AH - describe what you feel in one word when you hear the name
PEIG SAYERS !!!

I can completely understand this. As someone who liked the Irish language I thought it was an appalling book to foist on anyone. To me it is just so depressing, a whingebag aul wan droning on and on. It wasn't as if educators were stuck for choice if they wanted writers from the Blaskets. Muiris O'Suilleabhain and Tomas O'Criomhthain were far superior.

I went to a Christian Brothers school but it wasn't a brother who destroyed my interest in the language, it was a violent lay teacher. You've awakened memories, I actually feel a bit angry now.

dj jarvis · 12-10-2013 11:05AM

Hownowcow wrote: »

I can completely understand this. As someone who liked the Irish language I thought it was an appalling book to foist on anyone. To me it is just so depressing, a whingebag aul wan droning on and on. It wasn't as if educators were stuck for choice if they wanted writers from the Blaskets. Muiris O'Suilleabhain and Tomas O'Criomhthain were far superior.

I went to a Christian Brothers school but it wasn't a brother who destroyed my interest in the language, it was a violent lay teacher. You've awakened memories, I actually feel a bit angry now.

sorry about that !!

DEFTLEFTHAND · 12-10-2013 11:05AM

The Dagda wrote: »

Is it just me or does the name "Peig Sayers" not look particularly Irish?

It's English in origin. Many members of the old IRA also had planters surnames.

Those pesky Brits even infiltrated the Blaskets.

dj jarvis · 12-10-2013 11:06AM

cml387 wrote: »

Bit unfair to blame one poor kerrywoman, when the real blame lies with the government and Irish language fanatics trying to force it down our throats.

no blaming her at all , it was the awful book and how it was rammed into your head - put me off Irish totally

Rocket19 · 12-10-2013 11:07AM

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

An Triail was our Irish play. They got rid of Peig 20+ years ago.

Nooo they didnt.
I only did the leaving like 4 years ago, and we did Peig. Most schools did/do An Triail, though.

We had a great teacher, and she thought by doing it when others didn't, we would have an advantage, because it was considered the more difficult option.
We had to come in early (8am I think) once a week throughout 6th year BEFORE school started for a little extra Peig class.

Was pretty much torture, but worth it in the end I suppose :P

Anyone · 12-10-2013 11:09AM

I only remember two things from that book, and I'm not sure if I even have them right.

Someone fell off a cliff, and Peig hit someone with a sod of turf.

12-10-2013 11:11AM

Haha, it was one of my partner's LC texts. Just awful. I didn't study Irish (went to school in the North) but can't get over how dull and ineffective the teaching methods seem to be. There's just no need to teach it in that way (boring texts with no relevance to teenagers, pages of boring grammar rules etc). I think it's shocking that all Irish people learn this language for about 15 years and hardly anyone can actually string a sentence together in it.

Wibbs · 12-10-2013 11:11AM

This was the opening salvo in that book(as Bearla);

"I am an old woman now, with one foot in the grave and the other on its edge. I have experienced much ease and much hardship from the day I was born until this very day. Had I known in advance half, or even one-third, of what the future had in store for me, my heart wouldn't have been as gay or as courageous as they were in the beginning of my days."

Cheery stuff. Fcuking risible more like it. Like I gave a fiddlers about some old crone living on rocks on a rock. Jesus it was awful. Any interest I had in the language went rapidly south with daily readings from that whinging tome. Myles na gCopaleen's An Beal Bocht took the piss out of such works and would have been a good secondary read on the syllabus. At least today with TG4 and all that you get stories of relevance to actual people, not some melancholic Victorian notion of untouched peoples.

Wibbs · 12-10-2013 11:13AM

Anyone wrote: »

I only remember two things from that book, and I'm not sure if I even have them right.

Someone fell off a cliff, and Peig hit someone with a sod of turf.

And she met a Black fella who came to the island IIRC. Though she called him a blue fella. That in Irish African folks ain't black, but blue was the only thing I learned from that book.

LordSutch · 12-10-2013 11:14AM

Here's a few clips from the RTE archives to keep us going

Peig Sayers > > > http://www.rte.ie/archives/exhibitions/921-peig-sayers/289593-peig-sayers-taifeadai-on-ghort/

Agricola · 12-10-2013 11:16AM

School in the mid to late 90's for me so happily avoided this. It was still my least favourite subject though due to a teacher who seemed to share many of Peig's attributes.
When was it taken off the syllabus?

12-10-2013 11:17AM

We did a book by some fella who emigrated, good humour in it
Forget the name of it now

The Dagda · 12-10-2013 11:19AM

Wibbs wrote: »

And she met a Black fella who came to the island IIRC. Though she called him a blue fella. That in Irish African folks ain't black, but blue was the only thing I learned from that book.

Sure "black" fellas are the devil...

12-10-2013 11:19AM

Yea fear dubh means the devil doesnt it
fear gorm is our black friends

DEFTLEFTHAND · 12-10-2013 11:25AM

Rocket19 wrote: »

Nooo they didnt.
I only did the leaving like 4 years ago, and we did Peig. Most schools did/do An Triail, though.

We had a great teacher, and she thought by doing it when others didn't, we would have an advantage, because it was considered the more difficult option.
We had to come in early (8am I think) once a week throughout 6th year BEFORE school started for a little extra Peig class.

Was pretty much torture, but worth it in the end I suppose :P

I did mine 6 years ago in 07, I remember our teacher used to rile us if we were sleepy during class by saying you could be doing Peig. :eek:

Fair play for doing it, it's all about the teacher really isn't it and their approach and attitude to the material. I know if we'd been doing Peig with my teacher we would have all made a balls of that section of the exam, she was rubbish.

Wibbs · 12-10-2013 11:27AM

Another wilder, but cooler theory has it that they were called blue people because the traders from north Africa who plied the atlantic coast all the way up to the west coast of Ireland wore indigo blue robes and sold bolts of same. Wouldn't be that far fetched either. North African traders and slave raiders did come as far north as Ireland. See Sack of Baltimore for an example. Contrary to the popular notion that we were cut off, isolated, we were always quite engaged with the wider world. One of the pigments in the Book of Kells originally came from Afghanistan. We had jewelry made of amber from the Black sea regions.

Teyla Emmagan · 12-10-2013 11:32AM

Ah Peig wasn't that bad. The book was digestible enough but she sure did a lot of moaning, even if she did have to start working at 13 and lost a son off the cliffs.

Hownowcow · 12-10-2013 11:33AM

Wibbs wrote: »

This was the opening salvo in that book(as Bearla);

"I am an old woman now, with one foot in the grave and the other on its edge. I have experienced much ease and much hardship from the day I was born until this very day. Had I known in advance half, or even one-third, of what the future had in store for me, my heart wouldn't have been as gay or as courageous as they were in the beginning of my days."

Cheery stuff. Fcuking risible more like it. Like I gave a fiddlers about some old crone living on rocks on a rock. Jesus it was awful. Any interest I had in the language went rapidly south with daily readings from that whinging tome. Myles na gCopaleen's An Beal Bocht took the piss out of such works and would have been a good secondary read on the syllabus. At least today with TG4 and all that you get stories of relevance to actual people, not some melancholic Victorian notion of untouched peoples.

Couldn't agree more.

Wibbs wrote: »

And she met a Black fella who came to the island IIRC. Though she called him a blue fella. That in Irish African folks ain't black, but blue was the only thing I learned from that book.

There are accounts of Vikings bringing black African slaves to Dublin. They referred to these slaves as blamenn (blue men). I often wondered if this is where the Irish "daoine gorm" (which translates as blue people but means black people) came from.

Teyla Emmagan · 12-10-2013 11:46AM

Anyone wrote: »

Someone fell off a cliff, and Peig hit someone with a sod of turf.

Her favourite son Thomas fell off the cliff, IIRC. Don't remember who she hit with the turf though but it sounds vaguely familiar!

Teyla Emmagan · 12-10-2013 11:47AM

double post

stoneill · 12-10-2013 11:56AM

Peig was getting a length from a black lad?

Peig Sayers

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