| Grace O’Malley, Granuaile, Ghrainne Mhaol, The | | | | under Brehon law ‘for one year certain’, |
| Sea Queen of Connaught - she was known by many | | | | after the year had elapsed Grainne dismissed him and |
| monikers - she was a pirate, seafarer, trader and | | | | seized Rockfleet Castle. Around the time of Donal |
| chieftain in sixteenth century Ireland. She was born in | | | | O’Flaherty’s death, reports began to pour |
| 1530 in Co. Mayo, the daughter of Eoghan Dubhdara | | | | into the English administration accusing O’Mhaille |
| O’Mhaille, chieftain of the O’Mhaille clan who | | | | of piracy. She was conducting her operations from |
| were a seafaring family who taxed all those who | | | | her base on Clare Island, she recruited fighting men |
| fished off their coast. When she was a young girl, | | | | from both Ireland and Scotland, terrorising ships and |
| her father refused to allow her to sail, she dressed in | | | | attacking castles all along the Western and Southern |
| boys clothes and cut off her long hair to prove she | | | | coasts of Ireland. The Tudor conquest of Ireland in |
| could sail, hence earning her the name Grainne Mhaol | | | | the mid-sixteenth century began to encroach upon |
| or ‘Bald Grace’. At the age of sixteen she | | | | the power of Grainne. In 1593, when members of her |
| married Donal an-Chogaidh O’Flaherty, heir to the | | | | family were taken captive, she sailed to London to |
| leadership of the O’Flaherty clan, an excellent | | | | petition their release. She gained an audience with |
| alliance as Donal was expected to one day rule | | | | Queen Elizabeth, who was apparently very taken |
| Connaught. She bore him three children but Donal | | | | with her and granted their release and other |
| was later killed in battle, Grainne retuned to | | | | concessions in return for a guarantee that she cease |
| O’Mhaille territory taking many of O’Flaherty | | | | her support for Irish rebellions and piracy against |
| who remained loyal to her. In 1566 she married | | | | English ships. Grainne agreed but when the British |
| Richard an-Iarainn Burke, reputedly to satisfy her | | | | Crown reneged on some of their promises, she |
| deisre for greater holdings and prestige. They married | | | | returned to piracy and rebellion. |