The often bleak tone of the book is established from its opening words: Peig depicts the declining years of a traditional, Irish-speaking way of life characterised by poverty, devout Catholicism, and folk memory of the Famine and the Penal Laws.
Parody of the type reached its zenith with Flann O’Brien’s satire of an tOileánach as an Béal Bocht ("the Poor Mouth"). The movement swiftly found itself the object of some derision and mockery – especially among the more cosmopolitan city dwellers of Ireland – for its often relentless depictions of rural hardship. Flaherty’s documentary Man of Aran address similar subjects. Tomás Ó Criomhthain’s memoir an tOileánach ("the Islandman", 1929) and Robert J. Peig is among the most famous expressions of a late Gaelic Revival genre of personal histories by and about inhabitants of the Blasket Islands and other remote Irish locations. The books were not written by Peig but were reminiscences which she dictated to others. Sayers is most famous for her autobiography, Peig, ISBN 0-8156-0258-8, but also recounted folklore and other stories which were recorded in Machnamh Seanmhná/An Old Woman’s Reflections, ISBN 978-0-19-281239-1. Robin Flower, Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum, and again by Seosamh Ó Dálaigh twenty years later." Books
Some of her tales were recorded on the Ediphone in the late ‘twenties by Dr. Seán Ó Súilleabháin, the former archivist for the Irish Folklore Commission, described her as "one of the greatest woman storytellers of recent times".Sean O’Sullivan, "Folktales of Ireland," pages 270–271: "The narrator, Peig Sayers, who died in December, 1958, was one of the greatest woman storytellers of recent times. Peig Sayers ( 1873–1958) was an Irish author and seanachaí born in Dunquin (Dún Chaoin), County Kerry, Ireland.
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