Granuaile Part 2

She heard rumours her stronghold would be invaded by them to stop her reign of terror at sea. She decided she had to show her strength and she decided she had to take one of their strongholds. Down the west coast, up the Shannon estuary, was the seat of the Fitzgeralds, Earl of Desmond at Askeaton Limerick her target. She amassed her army and some imported Gallowglassesmercenaries from Scotland.She advanced on the castle in the dead of night, found an access gate open, marched her troops in, straight into the hands of a waiting army and immediate arrest.

Hauled before Limerick court she was sentenced to be imprisoned and she spent much of 1577 to 1582 in the flea pit that was Limerick Gaol. From where she was later transferred to Dublin Castle and there she makes an agreement with Lord Grey, Governor of Ireland to help the queens forces attack Desmond, who has been trying to overthrow other Anglo Saxon lords to increase his Shannonside territory.

This agreement would free her from jail and allow her regain control of her fleet, obviously under the agreement she was not supposed to resume her piracy. She never actually said she would not but Grey assumed it part of the agreement which included a pardon for previous misdemeanors.

Once back in Mayo she does nothing to help the English against Desmond and goes straight back to sea for the summer, rejuvenating herself and her piratic enterprises after her absence. While absent her army had done enough to keep their families fed and her estates in profit under her youngest sons guidance. She had come home from gaol haggard, weak, bent and looking like an old woman but a few weeks at sea and she was the warrior of Irish piracy again.
At this time 1580s the O Neills and O Donnells, the Irish chieftains of Ulster, are fighting a battle to keep the British from planting Ulster with British settlers. Granuaile supported them and ran shipments of guns from Europe to the northern chieftains. She thrived on this kind of action outwitting the English with every consignment she ran from Spain to Ireland.
In 1582 Lord Grey, who had negotiated her release from prison and her pardon by Royal decree, was replaced as Governor of Ireland by Lord Perrott. He introduces a scheme to gain support from Irish landlords called Grant and Regrant, they would give up their lands to the English and have it given back along with an English title rather than an Irish one. Grainnuaile believed this was trickery as the lands were often held as commonage, so were not transferrable to individual landholders hence this scheme would do nothing but create wars over future ownerships etc.

She was happy the sea was her main territory and they could not take or grant the seas to anyone. Her preferred domain was safe.Forever aware of the damage her activities were causing English merchants, the English authorities in Dublin Castle used various schemes to try and thwart her activities .They orchestrated kidnaps of her family and she had to make various agreements for their releases, none of which she kept in the long term. Her youngest son, Toby, was forced in order to be released from captivity to marry the daughter of an English supporting landlord in Sligo, thus introducing Anglo Saxon supporting bloodline into the OMalley s. A marriage which rewarded him with a vast estate but forced his support towards London.
In 1588 the Spanish decide to send an armada of ships to invade England and to use Ireland and Irish waters as their route gleaning support as they went from the anti English sentiment rife amongst the Irish.
Elizabeth had sent the dreaded Bingham back to Ireland to try and scupper the Spanish incursion and Grace knew she and her armies would be on his list to target , no love being lost since he was previously in charge in Galway where she had pirated her way through shipments of goods destined for that port. Bad weather actually lead to the routing of the Armada .High storms on the English Channel destroyed some ships. Those that got nearer England were again lashed on the Irish sea by winds. English boats, which were built to move faster and carry more soldiers than the Spanish ships, chased the Spanish ships not wrecked by the winds towards Ireland. Whatever struggling sailors and soldiers made shore in Ireland were greeted not as allies but as enemies and the soldiers were attacked by blood thirsty natives on alighting their battered vessels, assuming Irish soil friendly.
Granuaile was distraught at this turn of events. How had the Irish turned against the Spanish and treated them as invaders, when all along the Spanish had supported the Irish cause against the English in Catholic solidarity, by providing arms and the best of boats from their master craftsmen boatyards. Now Spain had lost most of its fleet and Ireland had lost their support., She further despaired when she discovered that some Spanish who had struggled ashore in Ulster had been handed over as prisoners to the English in exchange for the release of some O Neill and O Donnell clan members. An agreement the English did not honour. When this exchange of prisoners did not happen as agreed, a full scale rebellion started in Ulster, the Ulster chiefs going to war against the English and Anglo Saxon landholders.
Bingham brought the army in to Ulster to quell the rebellion. He enforced new taxes, land seisures, shooting Scottish Gallowglasses who Granuaile had brought in to support O Neill and O Donnell, hanging Irish fighting clansmen of all the Ulster clans. The rising in Ulster has lead the English to decide all the Irish provinces needed stricter controlling. On hearing this through some friends like the Earl of Ormond who, even though Anglo Saxon, always had respect for the pirate queen. Granuaile and her army set about reinforcing her strongholds along the Mayo coast including Clew Bay and Blacksod bay where her daughter and son in law had their stronghold around Achill Island, one of the easier spots for the English to navigate to on the Mayo coast due to deeper waters. The sheriff of Connaught as expected, lead the invasion of O Malley lands. Granuaile was ready and when they arrived at Achill they were met by her armies and slaughtered on the beach of CurraunMore. This defeat infuriated the English authorities, the next attack was when troops under Bingham arrived and a full scale battle ensued with Bingham using every barbaric method he could think of to deal with the native insurgents, of which there were thousands from every clan in the province. Determined now that England will not enforce its rules and laws on Connaught, Binghams army are forced to eventually retreat without bringing the Connaught chieftain under the control of the crown. To Granuailes disgust she discovered her son Murrough O Flaherty has fought on the English side, so she makes for his stronghold in Bunowen and plunders it as she would the home of any Irish man unfaithful to the cause, so determined was she Ireland would not succumb to English rule.