Grace O'Malley, or Granuaile, is a name associated with the west of Ireland and, more particularly, with the western Galway/Mayo coastline around Clew Bay. To some, her name conjures up images of an amazon-type woman, ruthless and domineering; to others she is associated with a figure of fiery patriotism whose sole aim in life was to expel the foreign invader from native Irish soil. Either way, Grace's story is larger than life but so was the turbulent and eventful age to which she belonged - the age of Henry VIII, Anne Boelyn, Thomas Moore, Elizabeth I, Phillip of Spain, Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, Walter Raleigh, and Francis Drake. Grace emerges from this roster as an exception woman, alive, vital and daring, who lived life to its limits and who possessed all the requirements necessary for survival in that era. She plied her family trade with all the expertise and enterprise it required and put her own interest and those of the small remote domain over which she ruled first, in a never-ending battle for survival. Let's get to know her a little more:

Grace was born in 1530 to Owen and Margaret O'Malley in an area we now know as County Mayo in the west of Ireland. The O'Malleys were long time sailors and sea-tradesmen and it wasn't long before Grace took to her father's ships and probably sailed with him as far as Portugal. At 16 she was married to Donal O'Flaherty but records tell us she kept her finger in her father's sea trading business so, in essense, her duties as mistress of O'Flaherty lands and O'Malley land and sea holdings after Owen's death gave her sizable rule over most of western Connaught. Grace bore Donal three children during their marriage - Owen, Margaret, and Murrough. She did not let motherhood squelch her will, though. She continued her escapades and soon became better known than her husband in tribal disputes, politics, and pirating. Donal O'Flaherty was banned from trading at Galway, one of the largest centers in the British Isles, so he was forced to trade elsewhere. But Grace sailed out in her fastest galleys and intercepted merchants going to Galway; she would negotiate safe passage or allow her men to raid the ships.

It is difficult to establish why Grace chose this way of life. Was there weakness in her husband's character that forced her to assume the role of leader, or were the qualities of leadership and thirst for power so much in her being that they became a force within her greater than the accepted conventions of her time? For many years, merchant vessels plying the west coast of Ireland feared attack.

When Donal O'Flaherty died, Grainne was entitled to one third her husband's estates, but the law was often ignored. Her two grown sons were trying to establish their own lands, so Grace returned to O'Malley soil with 200 followers, and set up on Clare Island. This was an ideal setting for Grace; she could monitor ship traffic in Clew Bay and along the coast. Her pirating skills and her ability to charge for safe passage kept her and her followers quite comfortable

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 under Brehon law of "for one year certain"...an agreement 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. 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.

Iron Richard Burke died in 1583 - surprisingly, of natural causes. Grace had been cheated out of her right to part of her first husband's estate, and this time she wasted no time and took what she was owed. She gathered 1000 head of cattle and horses and took up residence in Rockfleet.

Across the Irish Sea, another woman was also preparing to assume her role in a man's world and she was to excel and be immortalized as the greatest ruler England has ever known. Her impact on Ireland would leave an indelible mark and was to close the door forever on the only way of life Grace ever knew.

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".

Bingham was desperate to suppress Grace O'Malley, even convincing her son, Murrough, at one point, to side against his mother. Grace then moved to a more political tactic. She petitioned Queen Elizabeth, and asked for liberty - in exchange for an all out attack on the enemies of the queen. Elizabeth responded by sending a list of questions to be answered by Grace. The 18 "Articles of Interrogatory" and Grace's answers are preserved in the English State Papers. But before the queen could act, Bingham arrested Grace's sons, Murrough and Tibbott, and her brother Donell O'Piper.

In a daring move, Grace O'Malley traveled to English soil to again petition the Queen.

It was said to be quite an unusual scene; O'Malley, in her 60's, swarthy and arrogant, in a room full of powdered and coifed men and women of the court. It isn't known what swayed the Queen Elizabeth's thoughts, but she immediately wrote Bingham, demanding that he release Grace's sons and brother and provide living for Grace for the rest of her days.

Grace put out to sea again, under the guise of fighting for the queen. Bingham knew she would go back to her old ways if she could, so he ordered a captain and a company of soldiers to follow her on all voyages.

Grace finally fled to Munster and stayed with an old friend, Thomas, Earl of Ormond. The Earl helped Grace petition the queen again, but there is no record of a reply. 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.

Resources
Granuaile: The Life and Times of Grace O'Malley 1530-1603, Anne Chambers, Wolfhound Press, 1983
Grania, Morgan Llywelyn, Crown Publishers, 1986

Contributed by: Bernadette