Peig Sayers for a new generation
June 4, 2013
A chara,
In light of Felicity Hayes McCoy’s disparaging comments towards Peig Sayers (Life, May 20th) I feel obliged to point out that the current generation of NUI Galway final year Gaeilge students informed me during course evaluation that I should have spent more time on Peig Sayers’s works, as they enjoyed her.
A majority of the 150 students chose to include Peig in their exam answers. I observed, particularly among female students, that they connected with Peig’s independent spirit and her belief that people should only marry on the strength of love for one another rather than the strength of a dowry. Her description of the first time she laid eyes on her husband – Pádraig Ó Guithín – led one student to remark, that regardless of the harrows she had suffered in her life she also enjoyed the elations of love, meaning that she truly did live it to the fullest.
I will leave you with Peig’s simple yet beautiful words: “D’fhéachamair féin ar a chéile. Do chonac rud éigin aoibhinn sa bhféachaint sin. Rud éigin a bhí thar thuiscint an duine do mhíniú anso”.
Is mise,
TOMÁS L Ó MURCHÚ,
Áras na Gaeilge,
Ollscoil Éireann,
Gaillimh.
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