Legendary Pirate Queen

Pirate Queen Haruhi

Gráinne Ní Mháille /Grace O’Malley

Grace O’Malley was born in 1530 in Clare Island Castle, County Mayo. She was, by all accounts, a larger-than life heroine, a woman of fire and adventure, a pirate, mercenary, traitor, chieftain, and noble-woman. Her father Owen “Dubhdarra (“Black Oak”) O’ Malley was a famous sea captain and chieftain of the Barony of Murrish.

Her reputation as a pirate, began when the city of Galway, one of the largest trade centers in the British Isles, refused to trade with the O’Flahertys. Grace used her fleet of fast galleys to waylay slower vessels on their way into Galway Harbor, offering an ultimatum : Pay a fee and be granted safe passage into Galway, or watch her men pillage the captive ships.

Grace O’Malley is fondly remembered for refusing to trade her lands in return for an English title, a common pratice of the day. The Irish remember her as a revered chieftain of her people and a defender of Gaelic life.

Frommer’s Ireland from $90 a Day‎, Suzanne Rowan Kelleher, 2006, p390

See Also : Pirate Queen Haruhi Figurine

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