Granuaile

Grace O Malley

Dear Reader,
Welcome to my version of the story of Grace O Malley, Granuaile, one of the, if not the most amazing women in Irish history. I have researched her life from various sources and this is a reasoned amalgam of what I learned. It would not be historically accurate enough for the black chair on Mastermind, but I hope it is an enjoyable read about an extraordinarily intelligent, strong, determined example of Irish womanhood

Can anyone reading this say they have not met an Irish person or a person of Irish descent, I doubt it, a woman in particular, and noticed a determination in their spirit. Well if you have, you may well have met one of the thousands of Irish women with the blood and DNA of one Granuaile, Irish woman, pirate, mother, and soldier.

Grace was born in 1536 at Rockfleet Castle to a wealthy land owner and merchant Eoin Dubhdara Black oak O Malley and his wife Margaret who reigned over the O Malley Clan family of Co Mayo West of Ireland around Clew Bay, a bay with many small islands which made it impenetrable to all but those most familiar with the layout, so a haven for the O Malley enterprises. Graces father was a farmer and a trader, trading in furs and fish with the English and Spanish mainly. From an early age Grainne was adamant she wanted to travel onboard her fathers ships on his trips but he insisted, as she was a girl, she had to be educated and then married suitably in her teens to the son of another clan chieftain to consolidate estates, lands and power.
This little lady was not for turning ,at age about ten she cut off all her hair and dressed as a boy hiding on board her fathers ship heading for Spain, remaining hidden until they were far enough out to sea that she could not be returned home.She knew father was secretly delighted and proud she wanted to be a part of his expeditions.She had one half brother Donal, who showed no such interest to his fathers disappointment
Grace became known as the gaelic Grainne for Grace and Mhaol for bald after cutting off her hair and thus became Grainnuaile grawn ya wail Unusual as it may seem young women in Ireland of wealthy families were well educated and she spoke Irish, English, Latin, Spanish and French fluently. The Brehon laws of the time conferred many rights on women that had to be fought for again in the 20th century having been lost to them in the intervening years.
Granuaile was married twice, was widowed once and divorced once, Yes, in 16 th century Ireland a woman could easily divorce a husband and claim his property. She married Donal O Flaherty at 16 and he died in battle when she was 29.At 30 she married Richard Burke, both marriages having been arranged, the first by her parents, the second by herself, to consolidate power and land bases of two powerful west of Ireland clans. She had four children, three with Donal and one with Richard, Tibbott Toby Bourke and Owen, Maeve and Murrough O Flaherty.Little is known of her relationship with her elder children but Toby was her right hand man for many years and was to become heir to all she commanded. By the time she married Richard her father had died and she was running his shipping enterprise and estates, having learnt at his side since that day at age ten when she successfully staked her claim as his successor.
At this time, in the 1560s, the English were ruling Ireland with a distant disinterest really but they were fearful of an invasion from Spain the Spanish wishing to re establish England as a Catholic country and that they would use Ireland as a route to the mainland Obviously the Spanish Irish Catholic connection was strong so England was trying to ensure this did not happen, so had secured ports like Galway, the main west of Ireland port, for themselves. English trading ships were regular visitors. Granuaile saw opportunities in all these English ships passing her Clew Bay and she set out to collect taxes/tributes our first customs post from all who approached the coast enroute to Galway, demanding payments from them. Refusal resulted in the ship being boarded and plundered by herself and her bands of pirates of all its goods, intended for the markets of Galway. She commanded hundreds of men who seemed to have a blind loyalty to her, She exuded power, she was not afraid to wield a sword even two at once. She relished killing sailors and soldiers alike, if they wore English uniforms or sailed under the English flag.She herself, sailing under a flag of a white seahorse on a blue background, lead boarding parties onto hundreds of ships who refused to pay her taxes/tributes for free passage to Galway.She was a thorn in the side of the English.
The English governors of the provinces who were in Ireland at the behest of Queen Elizatheth1 had little power over the clans and their systems of working, trading, farming and fishing, but this woman pirate was getting on the wick of Bingham the queens representative in Galway. She was stripping ships coming to trade either of their coins or worse again the goods awaited by the merchants in Galway.

Foreign ships could not navigate Clew Bay, so after a raid on passing ships, she could retreat in the knowledge that any who gave chase would be marooned quickly on an island or sand bank, She was an astute strategist.The spoils of her activities were divided between keeping her estates in profit and her men, keeping them totally loyal to her as their leader, their families being well provided for.
The English in the mid to late 1500s were growing in impatience with her escapades, Sea captains were particularly aggrieved when boarded and plundered by a female lead band of desperado pirates.