Grace O'Malley - Pirate Queen

This is a perectly awful picture
but I used it anyway. j

As a young child, Grace always knew she wanted to be a sailor but as a female, she was discouraged repeatedly. Extremely upset when her father refused to take her on a sailing trip, legend has it Grace cut off all her hair and dressed in boys clothes to prove to her parents that she could handle the trip and live a seafarer's life

She spent her young life learning the ways of the sea and grew to be quite the sailor--eventually having her own fleet of ships. Her family had become wealthy mainly through fishing and trade, but in her later life, Grace took up piracy by taking on Turkish and Spanish pirate ships and even the English fleets. She grew her estate to include a fleet of ships as well as several islands and castles on the west coast of Ireland.

Born in 1530 Grace O'Malley was possibly baptized, married and buried at the abbey on Clare Island. Grace may have passed her childhood at the family residencies of Belclare and Clare Island. Her father, Owen (Dubhdara) O`Malley funded both the abbeys on Clare Island and in Murrisk. The Cistercian monks would have certainly influenced his daughter’s education.

Her five petitions to and conversation with Queen Elizabeth Ist in June 1593 proved that she understood Latin. This is surprising as the Irish monks were ridiculed throughout this century for illiteracy and their sacrilegious behaviour.

Grace's ability to communicate by vigour preceded her mastery of foreign languages. Legend portrays her as the Sea Queen who carried the appropriate motto "Terra Mariq Potens"(powerful by land and sea).

For decades, with her small fleet of ships, she conquered the western lands of Ireland and battled even as far as the shores of Scotland. Her career spanned from the supremacy to the suppression of Gaelic rule. Folklore conveys her alliances with English forces, her imprisonment in the jails of Limerick and Dublin, and her partial submission to Elizabeth Ist, Queen of England.

The island of Clare and Clew Bay was entirely in Grace O'Malley's control - except the castle Rockfleet (Carraig-an-Cabhlaigh). This was the property of Iron Dick Burke, so Grace arranged to marry him in 1566. She made the agreement with Dick that after one year, either party could terminate the marriage. When the time approached, Grace shut herself up in Rockfleet and dismissed her husband, thereby acquiring the castle as her own. However, it seems she continued a relationship with Iron Dick, as he is connected to her in later writings.

The marriage, though short, produced one son, who she named Tibbot-na-Long, or Theobald of the Ships. Legend has it that Grace gave birth to Theobald during a trading mission. When Turkish pirates attacked her ship, it looked as though they would be defeated. Grace screamed out, "May you be seven times worse this day twelve months, who cannot do without me for one day!" She went on deck, waving a blunderbuss, and said, "Take this from unconsecrated hands!" O'Malley's crew captured the Turkish ship, dispatched the crew and added to their fleet.

When Sir Richard Bingham became Governor of Connaught in 1584, he proceeded to remove all clans and chieftains and parceled out lands as he saw fit. He captured Grace O'Malley in 1586, confiscating her possessions and dismissing her followers. By turning evidence against her son-in-law, Grace was allowed to go home, but her son Owen was brutally murdered by Bingham's troops. With her livelihood on land gone, Grace O'Malley turned back to the sea, and again became known as "a notable traitoress and nurse to all rebellions in the Province".

Grace had written letters to the Queen demanding justice, but received no response. In 1593, her son Theobald and brother Donal-na-Piopa were arrested and thrown into prison. This was the final straw that prompted Grace to stop writing letters and go to London in person to request their release and ask for the Queen's help in regaining the lands and wealth that were rightfully hers.

Grace set sail and managed to avoid the English patrol boats that littered the seas between her homeland and London. The meeting took place in Greenwich Castle. The only record of this meeting that has survived are the lyrics to an old song that tell of Grace's presence in the court of the Queen:


No one really knows why Queen Elizabeth agreed to meet with Grace (let alone why she did not have her executed or imprisoned). Grace was fluent in Latin and thus was able to converse freely with the Queen. Grace explained that her actions in the past were not rebellion but rather acts of self-defense. She told of how her rightful inheritance from both husbands' deaths were wrongfully withheld from her and asked for them to be returned. She also asked for the release of her son and brother. In return for all of this, Grace agreed to use her strength and leadership to defend the Queen against her enemies by land and by sea.

Grace eventually returned to Rockfleet. It is believed that Grace went back to her pirating ways; there is only one account of an English patrol overcoming one of her galleys on its way to raid the ships of the McSweeneys.

Some say Grace O'Malley died in a battle while attempting to raid a merchant ship. Others believe she died in her castle Rockfleet. But her life was wrought with risk. At a time where women had very little influence in positions other than the queen's, Grace O'Malley asked permissions from no man.

Read more of her story here, here and here.