![]() ![]() The tall ‘boy’, 3rd from the left, was my uncle. The inscription on the back reads: “Peig Sayers (with priests & boys from Farranferris)”. They're nudging each other and giggling in the presence of the great Peig.įound this photo of #Peig in an old family album recently. But the island, which has neither electricity nor water mains, doesn’t have public toilets.Īs a result, tourists use ruins - which include the first home Peig lived in when she arrived on the island that the OPW has owned since 2009 - as toilets instead."When you look at the photo, it looks like she's surrounded by starstruck lads, and a really dignified pose in the middle of it, that gives away that she was a big deal at the time. The couple, who left the island on Tuesday after starting work there as holiday home caretakers in April, also say tourists are endangering the lives of seals in the island’s famous seal colony. Peig Sayers' home on the Great Blasket Island. Netherlands-born Ms de Haas said: “We witnessed people regularly using the ruins as toilets. “But we don’t blame people because they have nowhere else to go. “We are, however, more worried about what day trippers are doing to seals. ![]() ![]() ![]() “We witnessed one man throw a seal cub into the water, then take it out and hold it up for a selfie taken by his wife. It was one of two to die that we know of.” The couple were so concerned about what they say has been going on on the island that they recently wrote to the OPW to draw their attention to the issues. “We have heard there are plans to build a pier on the island but, to be honest, we think they would be better off first installing better facilities for tourists." “There are no toilets, and there should be, and there are also no signs warning visitors about the dangers of being too close to the seals,” Mr Montgomery said. Peig Sayers, who died in 1958, lived in two homes during the near-50 years she spent on the island. One, where she lived with husband Pádraig Ó Gaoithín and his family, is now a ruin, and the other - which she lived in after her husband died until she left the island with her son in 1942 - is a privately owned holiday rental cottage. Her autobiography, which was published in 1936 and was Leaving Certificate Irish curriculum reading until 1995, detailed her life and the hardships she endured on the island. Máire Ní Dhálaigh, of the OPW-Failte Ireland-Department of Heritage’s €2.9m Blasket Centre on the mainland across from the island, last year described Peig as “the Netflix of the time”. Tourism at the island has rocketed in recent years, with up to 1,000 people per week being ferried to the islands at high season in the summer months by different operators.įollowing calls for toilets by local councillors in November 2017, the OPW said it was planning to install them. Nearly five years later, the OPW still says it is planning to install public toilets. “This is just beyond ridiculous, and pretty disgusting,” Kerry County Council councillor Brendán Fitzgerald told the Irish Examiner. “The OPW needs to stop talking about installing toilets on the island and just get on with it. “Peig Sayers’ homes on the islands are important landmarks in our cultural and social landscape and the fact that one of them is being used as a toilet is, frankly, disgusting. Peig Sayers lived on the island until 1942. “It is absolutely outrageous that this is happening because the State won’t install toilets on an island it actually promotes.”Ī spokesperson for the Office of Public Works (OPW) said: “Provision of public toilets is an ongoing challenge given the unique nature of the island. “At present, toilet facilities are provided on some ferry boats landing visitors to the island. “The OPW is preparing to seek quotes from suitably qualified professionals to assess potential locations on the island for toilet facilities.PEIG SAYERS (1873-1958) was an Irish author and widely regarded as one of the best traditional Gaelic storytellers. She was born Máiréad Sayers in 1873 in the townland of Vicarstown, Dunquin, Coun. ![]()
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