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Child Item

Peig Sayers

dj jarvis

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 !!!

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Anyone

stoneill wrote: »

Peig was getting a length from a black lad?

Blue it seems, maybe it was a prequel to Avatar?

anncoates

Her son's ( or her brother, can't recall) nickname (The Pounder) was the business though.

Sounded like a porn star.

The Princess Bride

IzzyWizzy wrote: »

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.

I left school 27 years ago,and would still be able to converse confidently in Irish.You'd be surprised what most could do if they made an effort.

Re:Peig, such an utterly boring,depressing story.
Surely there were better stories back then which could've been studied as Gaeilge?

Bhí saol crua uafásach agam,mar bhí mé ag leamh an fécking leabhar seo:'(

DoozerT6

I did the LC in 1992, that might have been the last (or second last) year that Peig was on the syllabus.

Did she not shove apple cakes under her armpits as a girl to hide them, or steal them, or something?

She smoked a clay pipe and lost a whole hape of childer.

Cee-Jay-Cee

Like everyone else I done it at school but u can't remember a thing about it as I never had any interest in irish while at school.

Caislean Or was another one that has managed to fade in all but name from my memory.

FloatingVoter

Left in 92 as well. I believe some people in my class were struggling with it. I was playing inkwell golf with the rest of the lads doing Fail Irish (there were three grades in my school - honours, pass, and shut up down the back).

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

druss

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrBTWFBUeKE

Watching this on "The End" got me through the tough years of Peig reading. It was an endurance test.

I thought one of our teachers mentioned that her first draft mentioned that she married this guy and then never mentioned him again in the book. And that it was an editorial decision to add a few sentences about her gra for him. Apparently she could be a bit more interesting in story telling/singing but her own life story is a dirge of the highest order.

[Deleted User]

The Princess Bride wrote: »

I left school 27 years ago,and would still be able to converse confidently in Irish.You'd be surprised what most could do if they made an effort.

Re:Peig, such an utterly boring,depressing story.
Surely there were better stories back then which could've been studied as Gaeilge?

Bhí saol crua uafásach agam,mar bhí mé ag leamh an fécking leabhar seo:'(

Most can't, though. Imagine what people would be able to do if Irish were taught in an interesting, communicative way. There's no reason it couldn't have the same status as Catalan in Catalonia - a language which is trendy and cool to speak, that the locals are proud of, instead of being seen as a waste of time.

druss

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5pkq1s8tnQ

[Deleted User]

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 !!!

PUSH - as in push the second leg into the grave and put us out of our misery!

shruikan2553

I gave up on Irish before the junior cert so didnt have to do peig or an trial. Enjoyment of Irish improves greatly when you can just learn a generic paragraph and get a C for it in the leaving cert, dont even have to understand it.

Napper Hawkins

shruikan2553 wrote: »

I gave up on Irish before the junior cert so didnt have to do peig or an trial. Enjoyment of Irish improves greatly when you can just learn a generic paragraph and get a C for it in the leaving cert, dont even have to understand it.

And that's why it's a farce.

An Coilean

The Dagda wrote: »

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

Have a look at This
Gives a fairly good account of the anglicisation of names in Ireland.

Insect Overlord

Peig dictated her stories to her son, Micheál "An File" Ó Guithín. He edited the story into what we now see in the book. It has been suggested that he left out a lot of his mother's more interesting tales to suit the image he wanted to portray. Tomás Ó Criomhthan's "An tOileánach" was already famous at that point so the template wasn't a very exciting one.

http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/a-blasket-bore-1.552077

The books were written for historians, linguists and antiquarians, and not for mass study by teenagers.

who the fug

Still want to know who has the copyright and how did it end up on the leaving when it was generally acknowledge to be a pile of steaming

Insect Overlord

who the fug wrote: »

it was generally acknowledge to be a pile of steaming

That's where you're wrong. It's a very valuable document of social history in one of the most remote regions of this little country.

The problem was that it was force-fed to school kids instead of being left to 3rd level students and enthusiastic scholars.

P. Breathnach

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Peig dictated her stories to her son, Micheál "An File" Ó Guithín. He edited the story into what we now see in the book.

There is truth in that, but there was another editor, Máire Ní Chinnéide. Filtered twice, it is possible that the final book was not a fair reflection of her personality. But she didn't have an easy life - nobody living in the Blaskets did - and she was entitled to tell people how tough it was.

It has been suggested that he left out a lot of his mother's more interesting tales to suit the image he wanted to portray.

The better material ended up in another book, Beatha Pheig Sayers.

I suspect that I am one of a very small group, in that I read Peig voluntarily. It wasn't a set text in my schooldays (which were so long ago that Peig could have been counted as newly-published).

Tomás Ó Criomhthan's "An tOileánach" was already famous at that point so the template wasn't a very exciting one.

Ó Criomhthain did tell of some happy times as well as hardship.

http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/a-blasket-bore-1.552077

Links to stuff behind a paywall, and I haven't paid.

The books were written for historians, linguists and antiquarians, and not for mass study by teenagers.

Arguable. One of their purposes was to provide a resource for those learning Irish. But I don't think there was any presumption that they would become school texts for such a diverse group.

John Mason

Remember when Cait Jim went America and said she would send money back to Peig, so she could follow her over?

wW all know Cait Jim didnt hurt her hand, she just couldnt bear the thoughts off listening to Peig an her stories about scrawny cows and god loving poor people and stones, which is why he made so many.

Ans as for that pounder lad and his stone lifting ways at the crossroads tut

DEFTLEFTHAND

Adams was never a member of the IRA though Femme Fatale.

Wibbs

An Coilean wrote: »

Have a look at This
Gives a fairly good account of the anglicisation of names in Ireland.

Great page that one AC.

FTA69

I'd to do a play called "Gafa" which involved a youngfella called Eoghan banging smack up his arm and turning into a hopeless addict. Then another one called "An Lasair Choille" which was about a slow fella being manipulated by an old cripple.

Are there any happy Irish texts at all?

Insect Overlord

FTA69 wrote: »

I'd to do a play called "Gafa" which involved a youngfella called Eoghan banging smack up his arm and turning into a hopeless addict. Then another one called "An Lasair Choille" which was about a slow fella being manipulated by an old cripple.

Are there any happy Irish texts at all?

Mícheál Ó Conghaile had a great book of short stories called "An Fear A Phléasc". Alas, some of the content wouldn't be deemed appropriate for delicate teenage minds. There's a good extract from the opening of "Lig Sinn I gCathú" by Breandán Ó hÉithir that pops up every few years as well, but the later parts of the book are even better.

tritium

The bit that stuck in my memory was "cleamneas agus posadh" (think that's right)- the matchmaking scene. Seemed fecking archaic even then. I still remember one particular paedophile Irish teacher I had (we only discovered this about him years later) cooing approvingly about this one

{Not all my Irish teachers were paedophiles, some were violent psychopaths or control freaks- wonder why I never learned to love the language?}

P. Breathnach

Insect Overlord wrote: »

... "Fiche Blian Ag Fás" by Breandán Ó hÉithir ....

Is that better than the other work of the same title by Muiris Ó Súilleabháin?

Insect Overlord

P. Breathnach wrote: »

Is that better than the other work of the same title by Muiris Ó Súilleabháin?

Fixed.

BunShopVoyeur.

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 !!!

Meh, I read it in English. Saved myself the hassle.

Galwayguy35

I did the LC in 1992 and like everyone else in the class hated that miserable aul biddy with a passion.

It would have put anyone off trying to learn the language, who gave a fook about her and her life on an island, it had zero to do with trying to learn irish.

We had a book for the Inter Cert which was just as bad, don't know how to spell it but it was called eoghnainn na nean or something.

D1stant

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."

Oh Christ. I still remember that first paragraph, my little bright heart sank. It was not too far away from child abuse really. Anyone up for a claim against the Dept of Education?:pac:

losthorizon

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.

I cant speak a word of Irish and was always very anti saving the Irish language for loads of reasons. They foisted that stupid book on us, the teachers were usually terrible but the main reason was that you had to conform to a certain view of being Irish to speak Irish. It was like a fiddle playing, GAA loving, FF sporting culchie concept. Thats the way it was. You couldnt on the other hand, like going to football games ( soccer AH), Rock music, the BEEB, Granham Greene and speak Irish which is daft. Of course irish is going to die with this type of attitude or attract oddballs and diehards of a certain persuasion.

However, after travelling to over 30 nations where everybody speaks their own language no matter how small the country I've changed my opinion although not about the facts that the Irish language should be not be just for the nutters and claimed by a certain section of society.

Indeed it would have been handy to discuss matters abroad with my other half without others people knowing what we were talking about before we came to a decision in Hotels and restaurants and things. Hopefully things are changing in this regard and I know for instance that my nephews go to an All-Irish speaking school and it seems to be an excellent schoool.