On a short shelf of ten prose masters, apart from my top 20 (compiled separately farther down):Įrnie O'Malley's 'On Another Man's Wound' Īlexander Theroux's 'Laura Warholic, or the Sexual Intellectual.' "Flann O'Brien & Modernism": Book Review."National Geographic Traveller: Ireland": Book Review.
Maeve Binchy's "Maeve's Times": Book Review.Gerard Cappa's "Black Boat Dancing": Book Review.
Mark Cunningham: "Horslips: Tall Tales": Book Review. Peter Somerville-Large's "Irish Voices": Book Review. Máirtín Ó Cadhain's "The Dirty Dust": Book Review. Eric Cross' "The Tailor and Ansty": Book Review. It's not the most gripping account, but visitors to these shores today may give it a go. This may or may not be a strength for today's audiences, but the value of this historical record remains. Bryan MacMahon's translation came too late for many a cribbing child's lessons, but it conveys the air of the Irish for we English-speaking readers. These tales, a century later, are frankly not that arresting. The frequency of these woes has led to Flann O'Brian's parody translated as The Poor Mouth by Myles na gCopaleen, to the detriment of this original inspiration. The last third or so of the narrative, as with many a teller's life, is more weighted down by sorrow and lament. Most of this book are stories, naturally, told by her, with frequent invocations to the holy presences that once filled many an Irish person's mind and mouth, whether they knew the Irish or had given over to the English tongue.Īfter marriage takes her across the strait to the Blasket Island home where she raises a family, the years compress. What surprised me was how much of her autobiography took place in her youth, not only in Dun Chaoin but in her Irish-speaking schooldays in the family's new residence An Ceann Trá (Ventry) nearer to Dingle, where she went to work for a household while in her teens. Her book and that of her son are still in print and in local shops, and surely the study of the Blaskets accounts for the bulk of local commemoration, or the scholarship given to her memoir and those of her fellow islanders. I noted when travelling around the Dingle area and her 1873 birthplace that nothing I could see revealed Péig Sayers' presence, although my stay there was too brief, and half at night, to allow me to investigate further. Its prescribed reading for generations of schoolchildren subjected to compulsory Irish has weakened its reputation. While this well-known account has sat on my shelf for decades, I read this only after staying in the author's native village of Dun Chaoin (Dunquin) in the West Kerry/Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht.
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