PIRATE IRELANDA notorious woman in all the coasts of Ireland.
—LORD DEPUTY SIR HENRY SIDNEY SPEAKING ABOUT O’MALLEY
Gráinne stood in her room, a pair of rough scissors clutched tightly in her hand. Her father, the Ní Mháille clan leader, was sailing to Spain in a few days time and Gráinne desperately wanted to go with him. Her mother wanted her to stay home, to learn the work of women: sewing, cooking, entertaining visitors, and running the castle.
But young Gráinne had no interest in any of that. She loved the sea. Fiercely. She loved everything to do with the sea: the ships and trading and traveling. Just like her father. And that is where she wanted to spend her life, not at home in the castle.
“The sea is no place for a young girl,” argued her mother.
“Your long hair would get caught in the lines,” argued her father.
Well, Gráinne had an answer for their arguments. Snip, snip, snip—off it came. All of it. Her long locks lay strewn about her feet, and Gráinne rubbed her fuzzy head with satisfaction.
That evening at dinner, her parents froze when Gráinne walked into the room with her head shaved and boys’ clothing in place of her usual wardrobe.
“Now will you take me?” she asked her father. He gave no answer, just sat staring at her. Will they get angry? Gráinne worried. Will they lock me in my room?
But to her surprise, her parents burst out laughing.
“Aren’t you a headstrong one?” said her mother, wiping tears from her eyes.
“From now on, we shall call you Gráinne Mhaol,” said her chuckling father.
But Gráinne didn’t care if they nicknamed her Gráinne the Bald. They could call her whatever they liked, so long as they let her go to sea.
And they did.
This story of how Grace O’Malley got her name has been told for nearly five hundred years. It is the stuff of legends, but there is surely some truth in it, for Grace spent the rest of her life at sea. And no matter who tried to stop her—even the queen of England—no one could keep her from it.
Grace O’Malley was born on the northern coast of Ireland. Her name, Gráinne Ní Mháille, would be anglicized to Granuaile Ó Máille and later to Grace O’Malley.1 In that part of Ireland, her ancestors had made their living fishing for salmon, lobster, and herring. Her father, a successful, wealthy man, was chosen as the chief of the area, and Grace was born at his castle on Clare Island.
As a young girl, Grace sailed with her father up and down the coast of Ireland, and as far away as Spain and Portugal. She learned how to sail and navigate, how to command and defend a ship, and how to fight like a pirate. Grace was a natural.
Fights at sea were common back then. If another clan’s ship sailed into their waters, Grace and her father would demand payment for “safe passage” or take their entire cargo. And when they were sailing in someone else’s waters, they had to defend their ships and cargo from other raiders. Back then, most seamen were what we now consider pirates.2
Even as a young girl, Grace wasn’t afraid of the pirate life. Once, on the way home from Spain, Grace’s fleet was attacked by English pirates. Young Grace hid up in the rigging, as her father had instructed her. But when she saw him attacked by a knife-wielding pirate, she couldn’t stay put. With a banshee wail, she pounced on the attacker and saved her father. Then she and the crew battled until all the English pirates were in chains.3
At sixteen, Grace was married off (like all girls in Ireland at that time); fortunately, it was a good match, to Donal O’Flaherty, of another seafaring clan. Grace was soon in charge of Donal’s entire fleet of ships. Donal was a fighter, like his wife, and was eventually killed in a brawl. When his family denied her a “widow’s portion” of his property, she took her men off to Clare Island, her childhood home, and began attacking ships and plundering islands all around her. She was building a kingdom (or “queendom”) of her own.
Soon she controlled most of Clew Bay, the area around Clare Island, which included five castles and numerous islands. But she desperately wanted Rockfleet Castle because of its safe, commanding position deep inside Clew Bay. So she married its owner, Richard Burke, and that was that. She had a new husband, her favorite castle, and a new fleet of ships to command.
Like Grace’s first husband, Richard was a hothead. In the 1500s, England was trying to take over Ireland, and when Richard started a rebellion against the English invaders, Grace fought alongside him. In the end, the English troops outnumbered them, and Grace was captured and thrown into prison, where she languished for a year and a half. The justice finally agreed to free her so long as she promised to quit pirating. Of course she promised (she wanted to get out of prison, right?), but she must have had her fingers crossed when she did.
Grace didn’t stay out of trouble for long. Richard had died while she was in prison, so when she returned to Clew Bay, she took over his castle, lands, and fleet of ships. Soon, Queen Elizabeth I sent a tyrant, Sir Richard Bingham, to conquer the Irish in Grace’s area. Sir Bingham hanged or killed anyone who fought English rule. Grace spent years battling him as he tried to destroy the “Pirate Queen.” He wrecked much of her fleet and took over much of her territory, until he finally went too far. In 1593, Sir Bingham put Grace’s son in prison for treason. It was the last straw. Grace decided to demand justice from Sir Bingham’s boss—the queen of England!
Even childbirth didn’t slow Grace down. The day after she gave birth to her first son, Owen, while at sea, Turkish pirates attacked her ship. Grace, who was recovering in her galley, leaped into battle and fought the Turks off.6
Grace’s followers begged her not to go. Queen Elizabeth was no fan of the Irish, whose rebellion was a thorn in her side. And no Irish chieftain had been brave enough to set foot on English soil . . . until Grace. When the Pirate Queen met with the queen of England, she explained that Sir Bingham’s cruelty made the Irish want to rebel even more. Grace promised that if the queen got rid of him, she would pledge allegiance to her; she would stop supporting the Irish rebellion.4
Legend says that right about then, Grace sneezed. When the queen handed her a fancy lace handkerchief, Grace blew her nose in it and then tossed it into the fire (as was Irish custom). Everyone in court gasped with shock at this great insult and all were sure the queen would order Grace’s head cut off. When the queen demanded to know why she’d done it, Grace explained that in Ireland, they value cleanliness too much to put a dirty hankie in their pocket.
To everyone’s surprise, Queen Elizabeth burst out laughing. And then she agreed to Grace’s demands.5
In time, both queens went back on their promises (of course): Queen Elizabeth returned Sir Bingham to Ireland and Grace rejoined the rebellion. But five hundred years later, Irish children are still hearing this and other heroic tales of their fearless Pirate Queen.