Editing Peig Sayers (section)

=== Youth ===

She was born Máiréad Sayers in the townland of Vicarstown, [[Dunquin]], [[Dingle Peninsula|Corca Dhuibhne]], County Kerry, the youngest child of the family.<ref name="oxford">{{cite ODNB|id=58634|title=Sayers, Peig|first=Maria|last=Luddy}}</ref> She was called Peig after her mother, Margaret "Peig" Brosnan, from [[Castleisland]]. Her father Tomás Sayers was a locally renowned expert on the [[oral tradition]] and passed on many of his tales to Peig.

Through her father's influence, Peig also grew up upon a rich [[oral tradition]] of [[Irish folklore]], [[Irish mythology|mythology]], and local history, including local [[folk hero]]es like [[Piaras Feiritéar]], faction fights at pattern days and market fairs before the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]], and the lingering memory of [[Mass rock]]s and [[priest hunter]]s under the [[Penal Laws (Ireland)|Penal Laws]]. The custom of ''bothántaíocht'' (people visiting neighbours at night to swap news and stories) was strong and Peig’s brother Sean used to bring her along, and Peig heard and remembered a large number of stories about the past. <ref>{{Cite book |title=Peig Sayers: Volume 1: Labharfad le Cach |publisher=New Island |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-84840-845-6 |edition=Paperback |location=Dublin}}</ref>Peig was very sociable and enjoyed the company of older people as well as girls her own age.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Peig Sayers: Volume 1: Labharfad le Cach |publisher=New Island |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-84840-845-6 |edition=Paperback |location=Dublin}}</ref>

At the age of 12, she was taken out of the [[National school (Ireland)|National school]] and went to work as a domestic servant for the Curran family in the nearby town of [[Dingle]].<ref name=wom>Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia, 2002</ref> The Currans were members of the growing [[Irish Catholic]] middle class produced by the Government-funded [[Land Acts (Ireland)|breakup and sale]] of the [[Anglo-Irish]] landlords' estates after the [[Land War]]. Peig later recalled that the Curran family were kind employers and treated her very well. The Curran children, however, were forbidden by their parents, who desired for them to move up in the world, to learn the [[Irish language]] and so, at the children's request, Peig taught the local [[vernacular]] to them in secret.

After she grew to adulthood, Peig was promised during the "American wake" of her childhood best friend, Cáit Boland, that Peig would soon join her as part of the [[Irish diaspora]] in the United States. Cáit later wrote, however, that she had had an accident and could not forward the cost of Peig's passage.