Sean O’Sullivan, author of 'Folktales of Ireland,' once said she was among the last great Irish storytellers. She developed a reputation as a seanachaí, an Irish word indicating a tale teller or oral historian. Living in a one room stone cottage, they produced eleven children, six would survive to adulthood. In 1892, she married Pádraig Ó Guithín from Great Blasket Island where she then moved, and there raised her family. Born Máiréad Sayers in Vicarstown, Dún Chaoin, County Kerry, Ireland, the daughter of Margaret Ni Bhrosnachain (Brosnan) and Tomás Sayers. She was moved to a hospital in Dingle a few years later where Sean O’Sullivan recorded more of her repertoire. In 1942 she returned to Viacarstown, and in 1947 Radio Éireann's Travel Unit visited, recording over an hour of her stories. Beginning in 1938, she related her store of tales to the Irish Folklore Commission.

She dictated her biography in Gaelic to her son Micheál in 1936, the manuscript was published as 'Peig: The Autobiography of Peig Sayers of the Great Blasket Island' and was for many years required reading in Irish schools. Robin Flower, Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum, traveled to the island to record her tales.

Peig sayers storie annotations