Old Woman's Reflections

Storytelling kept alive the myths, legends, and history of the Blasket Islands. In her old age, Peig Sayers, `the Queen of Gaelic storytellers', recounted her life to her son, who recorded the tale in this book. She recalls the events of her life and her simple philosophy in a moving poetic style. Such everyday tasks as collecting turf for roots, catching and eating seals, and preparing for a wake are depicted alongside such momentous events as drownings at sea, pilgrimages, and the spread of the news of the Easter uprising in 1916. There were `clouds of sorrow', but helping them to lift them was the friendship she found in the community, which `was like a little rose in the wilderness'.