Grace O'Malley, The Pirate Queen

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Grace O'Malley (also known as Gráinne O'Malley, Gráinne Ní Mháille, Gráinne Mhaol and Granuaile) left a large footprint on the west of Ireland and beyond. The head of the O'Malley (or Ó Máille) dynasty, her power and influence made her the subject of lore and myth. There is little Irish documentary evidence of her life- being a woman meant she was largely written out of history by the male Irish monks who were reportedly the "saviors of civilization". Whether she was a heroine or a cutthroat thief, the facts of her ambition, fearlessness and both seafaring and political prowess are not in dispute.

O'Malley was born in Belcare Castle near Westport. She grew up in the western province of Connacht in a seafaring family that made their money fishing, trading and taxing others who fished in areas of their control, such as Clew Bay. Through marriage and conquest, she acquired several other castles in the area. The ruins of these can be found in Kildavnet Tower in Achill (aka Grace O'Malley's Towerhouse), Granuaile Castle on Clare Island, Rockfleet Castle in Clew Bay, and Doona Castle on Blacksod Bay.

During the reign of Elizabeth I, Grace O’Malley sailed up and down the west coast of Ireland with her fleet of ships, raiding as she went and building up a great deal of wealth, earning her title The Pirate Queen. A biographer described her as “a fearless leader, by land and by sea, a political pragmatist and politician, a ruthless plunderer, a mercenary, a rebel, a shrewd and able negotiator, the protective matriarch of her family and tribe, a genuine inheritor of the Mother Goddess and Warrior Queen attributes of her remote ancestors.” Grace O’Malley has been held as a personification of Ireland and has inspired poems, plays and songs (including Dead Can Dance's "Return of the She-King"). Documentary evidence for her life comes mostly from English sources.

Patrick Weston Joyce, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1593, two of her sons and a half-brother were captured by the English “Lord President of Connacht”, Sir Richard Bingham, who complained that she was "nurse to all rebellions in the province for this forty years". O'Malley sailed to England to petition Queen Elizabeth for their release. O'Malley met with the Queen at Greenwich Castle, finely dressed. O'Malley refused to bow before Elizabeth because she didn't recognise her as the "Queen of Ireland" and considered they were of similar rank. Their discussion was carried out in Latin, as O'Malley spoke no English and Queen Elizabeth spoke no Irish. The women eventually came to an agreement that Elizabeth would remove Bingham and O'Malley would stop supporting the Irish lords' rebellions.