![]() Peig was recorded again by Radio Éireann in 1953, when Mac Réamoinn visited Dún Chaoin to make a programme about the final desertion of the Great Blasket Island. The Irish Storyteller: A Picture of a Vanishing Gaelic World, broadcast on June 13th, 1948. Peig made her international broadcasting debut when Rodgers used some of this material in the programme ![]() With the co-operation of Radio Éireann and the Irish Folklore Commission (which nominated Joe Daly as local facilitator), Rodgers recorded nine short items from Peig, including two traditional tales, three stories about her father, one English verse recalled from her schooldays, a prayer in Irish and two items of commentary, in one of which she explains, in English, why she doesn't have any English-language tales. Several months earlier, on August 12th, 1947, she was visited in St Elizabeth's Hospital in Dingle by a BBC Third Programme radio team, headed by the producer and scriptwriter WR Rodgers. The material recorded on that occasion includes the above-mentioned account of their arrival and 13 other items, including two long traditional tales, a verse drama, two supernatural legends, a prayer, songs, reminiscences of life on the Great Blasket Island and a formal address entitledĭespite her expression of surprise, this visit was not Peig's first experience of a radio recording session. The men were the traditional musician and folklore collector Séamus Ennis, the broadcaster Seán Mac Réamoinn and the technician Joe de Lacy, who were joined later by the local man Seosamh Ó Dálaigh (Joe Daly), whom Peig knew well in his role as full-time collector with the Irish Folklore Commission. Triúr strapairí ag teacht istoíche(The night visit of the three boyos), refers to the first recording of Peig Sayers in her own home by a Radio Éireann team. The visit dramatised thus by Peig, and published here under the title The men have come for a purpose, and when Peig realises that the boxes and contraptions they are carrying are radio recording equipment she declares her intention to submit to the challenge of this new technology: “Déanfaimid ár ndícheall chuig pé ní a dh’féadfaimid a chur air, a chur air” (We will do our best to put anything we can on it). When the light and sound arrive at her doorstep, Peig jumps to attention and, despite her many ailments, welcomes into her house – “de réir mar ba cheart dom a dhéanamh” (just as was proper) – three strapping young men who are carrying equipment the likes of which she has never seen before. Her son Mícheál (Maidhc) goes to investigate, refuting Peig’s suggestion that the light, gadgetry and sound that are now approaching the house are emanating from an cóiste balbh, the legendary death coach of oral tradition. She hears noise outside but thinks at first that it is the sound of an aeroplane overhead. Darkness is falling, and, instead of lighting the oil lamp, she is thinking of taking to her bed. ![]() It is November 1947, Peig is 74 years old and she is painracked after seven months in Dingle hospital. THE MOST STRIKING image to emerge from this latest publication relating to the renowned storyteller Peig Sayers is the picture that she herself conjures up of her reaction, as a frail old woman, to the unexpected arrival of a radio crew at her home in Baile an Bhiocáire, Dún Chaoin. FOLKLORE: Labharfad le Cách/ I Will Speak To You All: Peig SayersBy Bo Almqvist and Pádraig Ó Héalaí (eds) New Island, 312pp.
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