A lady pirate

No one knows for sure what the real Grace O'Malley Gráinne Ní Mháille  (c. 1530 – c. 1603)  looked like, but that didn't stop a statue of her from being putting up.

I'd never heard of her until we began our Westport, Ireland housesit near where she ruled as a chieftain and ran a shipping and trading business.

Some of the trading may not have been the choice of the person from whom the merchandise came. (see Julia no preposition at the end.)

And her family was efficient in collecting taxes that added to her wealth.

She was a wealthy woman between inheritance and her own cleverness.

But all was not necessarily smooth sailing (pun intended). At one point she was the prisoner of an English governor. She did present her case to Elizabeth I, and was obviously better educated than most women and men of her time, speaking to the Queen, it was said, in Latin. She was said also to be able to speak Spanish and French. Being quadro-lingual was no more common in her day than it is today.


Her castle is not far from where are staying. But the seas to the Clare Island are rough. She might not have minded bad sailing.

I do.

Her second marriage was under Brehon law, which allowed her to divorce her husband after a year. She kept his castle.


She inspired many legends including the kidnapping of a grandson in retaliation of a slight and the capture of a castle or two and her ability to stir up a rebellion must have caused the name to stir worry in the English who were bent on control.

Now that would make a great movie.