Judging Peig

Following the success of Judging Dev, historian Diarmuid Ferriter is to release the sequel, Judging Peig, this September.

Peig Sayers, who dictated her autobiography to her son in 1936, was a staple of the Irish school system, her descriptions of the austere life on the Blaskets a model for DeValerian Ireland. Peig was an early proponent of hardship literature.

But Mr Ferriter has discovered material which suggests she actually ran a brothel.

‘Perhaps an even more shocking discovery is that she was in fact not illiterate,’ according to a press release from the book’s publishers, the Royal Irish Academy.

Mr Ferriter has altered the landscape of Peig studies forever. We now know Pádraig Ó Guithín courted his young bride somewhat atypically. A newly discovered diary tells how he lured the young Peig to the Great Blasket with the promise of a porcelain music box. Something of an ingénue, she accompanied him in his curragh, only to be greeted by an island priest who married them instantly. The island was a very hostile environment for a non-native, and Peig had to toughen up to survive. She took over the local cat-house when the reigning madam died and by sheer dint of personality carved out a leading role in the community for herself.

‘All of this was airbrushed when Peig published her spartan stories of life on the island,' says Ferriter.

'Her son, Micheál, was said to be a gigolo who would never stand for the national anthem. After her death he and all her children emigrated to Massachusettes – a move we can now see as an attempt to start afresh.'

Judging Peig will be launched on September 14. RTÉ director general Cathal Goan is discussing with Mr Ferriter the possibility of a television series to partner the book.