8 Margaret Brosnan, now Mrs Sayers, believed that if they moved, their fortunes might improve and so they took up residence in Baile an Bhiochaire (Vicarstown) in Dunquin. 7Īt this time, they had three surviving children, John, Patrick and Mary. They didn’t prosper in Dunquin no more than they did in Ventry … one after another, the children died, until in all, nine children were buried. 6 In her autobiography, Peig recalled that her parents enjoyed six years of prosperity before their fortunes took a turn for the worse: The young couple lived first in Ventry but at some point moved to Dunquin. Tomás Sayers was a farmer, fisherman and storyteller who shared his stories with Jeremiah Curtin 4 He was said to be of Bearla (English) descent (the name of Sayers was not uncommon to the Dingle area indeed, the parents of another Tom Sayers, the nineteenth century champion bare knuckle fighter who defeated Heenan, were from Dingle).

3 If this was the marriage of Peig’s parents, there is little more to add than it was witnessed by Daniel Divane.

It is a long road from Castleisland to Ballyferriter but in the latter there is on record the marriage, in 1851, of Margaret Brosnan to Tomás Sayers (or Sears). Peig at her own fireplace in Dunquin c1946 © UCD Tom Brosnan, author of The Brosnan Gathering, remarked that, despite Peig’s international literary fame, little seems to be known about her mother, and her Castleisland forebears appear something of a mystery. It is generally accepted that Margaret Brosnan was from Castleisland. 1 It contains an interesting article about Blasket Island writer, Peig Sayers, whose mother was Margaret (Peig) Brosnan. A Brosnan Gathering is the title of a book produced in 2013.

Peig in english