![]() ![]() People often marvel at how Listowel has produced so many writers. Even more extraordinary is the number of writers produced by one small isolated island off the west Kerry coast. The Great Blasket at its peak had only 176 inhabitants in 1916. The most famous of the chroniclers of life on The Blasket was Peig Sayers. This rare photo of Brendan Behan and Peig was posted online by a Michael Murphy. ![]() Recently I discovered that a Listowel family have a close family link with Peig. In her biography, Peig describes 2 periods she spent “in aimsir”, i. The first of these tréimhsí was spent with a family in Dingle. Peig describes her time in the Curran house with affection. The bean an tí, her boss, was kind to her and she loved the children, particularly Seáinín. This Curran family is the family of Anne Moloney of Cherrytree Drive. The old village above the Trá Bán (White Strand) is situated on the north-eastern side of the island, facing the mainland and Slea Head.Standing back L to R : Mary Curran ( Anne Moloney’s grandmother), Ogie Mehigan ( Anne’s first cousin) Eileen Scully nee Curran (Anne’s mother) Unfortunately, Anne has no photo of herself with Peig since she was very young when Peig died, but she secured from another member of her family this photo of Peig with them. The small farming and fishing community exceeded a population of 150 in the early 20th century, but had dwindled to a small number when the island was vacated in 1953. Occupied from pre-history, the island overlooks the location where a number of the Spanish Armada ships were wrecked. Anyone who has not done at least the tour with you should go. “I’m not surprised!! Me and my husband to be have wonderful jobs but when we saw your advertisement even we had a longing to apply. “Hopefully, we will meet you all sometime over the next 30 years.” “So sorry if we haven’t got back to you yet, our inbox is chocca block,” he wrote. Mr O’Connor said they had planned to email everyone back, when the inbox was at 200. If only we could get everyone who applied to stay for one night, we’d be fully booked for the next 30 years.” “To date we have received over 23,000 applications. “Posting the advert last year, we were concerned we would not find anyone willing to leave their job, pack their bags and move to a windswept island with no electricity or hot water in the middle of the Atlantic, off the Dingle peninsula for six months of the year. Mr O’Connor, who ferries tours to the island on his boat, The Peig Sayers, has renovated three houses, including Peig’s old home.Ī post on the coffee shop’s Instagram and Facebook page said: “We are beyond overwhelmed at the response for the job post for the Great Blasket Island coffee shop and accommodation. “A lot of people told us they want to move back to Ireland including Irish people from as far away as Australia,” he said. The job vacancies made news headlines in Australia, Massachusetts in the US, and Greece to name but a few. He said the response to the job advert has been “beyond expectations” with people applying from all around the world including Australia, the US, Greece, the Middle East, and Asia, Mr O’Connor said.
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