Interview with Peggy Hayden, 2019
Item Information
- Title:
- Interview with Peggy Hayden, 2019
- Description:
-
BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE: Peggy Kane (Peigí Ní Chatháin) Hayden was born in Polleens (Na Poillíní), Furbogh (Na Forbacha), Connemara, Co. Galway, in 1935 and moved to the Portland, Maine area early in 1952, lodging with her aunt. She worked at the Women’s Home on Danforth Street and at a factory in Westbrook. In 1963 she married dentist Jack Hayden, an Irish-American who loved Ireland and the Irish language. The couple visited Ireland often. They had four children, and lived on Providence Street before purchasing property in 2009 at Hayden Way, Falmouth. Jack passed away in 2014, two years after the loss of eldest son Michael. Peggy continues to reside at Hayden Way, adjacent to one of her daughters. Visitations between friends and relatives in greater Portland and in Furbogh have been constant, and Peggy enoys seeing her daughters Kate and Pat, her surviving son, Matt, her grandchildren, her two surviving sisters, and several grandchildren, nephews and nieces. SUMMARY: Polleens (Furbogh); biking to Spiddle; conditions at school; parents and maternal grandparents; an uncle who boarded with them and emigrated, like others, to Portland or Boston; nine siblings and the one who died in childbirth; her surviving sisters, her husband, and her own children (the eldest son deceased); an early visit to England; emigration (at age sixteen) on the death of her mother; work at the Women’s Home; aunts in Portland; living with her McDonagh aunt (like a second mother) and her uncle; permission to leave for New York; remaining in Portland; friends and new work; meeting Jack Hayden, marriage, and children; his relations on Munjoy Hill; very little of family left in Polleens; few in Portland area to speak Irish with; early days, brothers who came to Portland, and the Irish American Club; more on school in Ireland; buying and selling in Galway: the Saturday Market; husbandry, fishing, hunting, gardening, and baking back home; brothers, sisters, and occupations; rationing and barter; the Big House and caretakers, the chapel, Furbogh House, and the new school; traffic, newcomers, and other changes in Furbogh; recent visits and relatives; Hayden Way; more about sisters and children; Irish language speakers and their families in greater Portland over the past decades; further visits; Inverin and the sister who swallowed a pencil there during childhood. The Boston and the Irish Language project investigates the unique importance of Irish in forming persistent bonds among and between Connemara emigrants living in Boston with their families and communities in Ireland through recorded personal interviews. Questions explored include: upbringing through the Irish language, economic and social conditions in Ireland, reasons for emigration or return, adaptation to and participation in life within the United States, changes experienced since arrival, and current use of Irish. The project is sponsored by Cumann na Gaeilge i mBoston (The Irish Language Society of Boston), and supported by a Mass Humanities project grant and the Emigrant Support Programme of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ireland.
- Contributor:
- Hayden, Peggy
- Contributor:
- Concannon, Máire
- Date:
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June 15, 2019
- Format:
-
Documents
Film/Video
- Location:
- University of Massachusetts Boston, Joseph P. Healey Library
- Collection (local):
-
Oral History Collections
- Series:
- Boston and the Irish Language: Fifty Years of Cultural Connection in Oral History
- Subjects:
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Falmouth (Me.)
Connemara (Ireland)
Portland (Me.)
Irish language
Gaeltacht (Ireland)
Irish Americans
Ireland--Emigration and immigration
Hayden, Peggy
Hayden, Jack
- Places:
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Ireland > County Galway (county) > Connemara (area)
Maine > Cumberland (county) > Portland
- Link to Item:
- https://openarchives.umb.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15774coll11/id/163
- Terms of Use:
-
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Contact host institution for more information.
