Grace O'malley, Who is a fan?

Who knows about Grace O' Malley, the Irish Pirate Queen? Although erased from much of history due to her great status (which was unheard of for women in those times), I think Grace O'Malley is extremely important in Irish History and deserves more recognition. Anyone else agree with me? I mean, she was such an amazing person. I hope to make a film about her life one day.

Lyra, can honestly say, I never heard of her til I read this. I did check on the internet and did come across a great deal of info on her. I don't think you will have much of a problem putting her entire story together.

I didn't spend a lot of time reading much of the pages I hit. I just glanced over them quick and I will go back and read each of them later. Pretty interesting, that a female pirate gets to have an audience with the Queen of England.


Thanks for bringing her forward and keep us informed about the proceedings of the movie.

Oh, I love Grace O'Malley! I remember first reading about her when I was younger in the "Summer King" by O. R. Melling (an excellent book!), and being fascinated with her. She was also featured in the "Warrior Women" program hosted by Lucy Lawless. She was an amazingly strong woman, and a movie about her would be wonderful! I hope you make one Lyra

BTW Lyra, I love your avatar! Are you as excited as I am to see Arthur? I hope it is going to be good - I saw a brief making of featurette, and it definitely looked exciting!

Yes, highly excited. I too watched the featurette on the site and cannot stop watching the new trailer. It looks so amazing.

I have to admit that I am especially excited that Ioan gruffudd is in it as Sir Lancelot. I loved him in all of the Hornblower movies that A&E put out, and with dark curly hair, a goatee, and an accent he promises to be good!

Did some research about her a few years ago for the 'Maid of Erin' society in Philly. Here is what I turned up, as brief as I can put it. A lot of folk think that she was a 'folklore legend' but she was born (probably) at Clare Island, County Mayo. Her gaelic name was Grainne Ui Mhaille (sorry about the lack of accents for those who are checking, I havn't figured out how to do that).

Grace (hereafter refered to by her Irish name of Grainne) was born to Dubhdara O Maille and Mairghread O Maille (yup, they were related, but I guess that was cool then) around 1530. Married at 16 to Donal O Flaitheartaigh (if you say that like O'Flaherty, you will be right on the money), a chieftan from the lands of Caunaght and Connemara. Grainne was interested in ships, trade and seapower and took an active part in the affairs of her estate around their home at Bunowen Castle. It seems that the neighboring Joyces slew her hubby Donal, and Grainne used his ships to attack British shipping and make trading missions to Scotland (my kind of lady!).

In 1566, she married Risteard an Iarainn de Burca (Richard Burke) but under Brehon law, claimed it was for only "One Year Certain." A stipulation she was to utilize to her advantage when, after she gained control over the area, she terminated her marraige to Richard, though she remained allies with him the rest of her life. This was the time of 'submission' (basicaly you stated your lands, wealth, family, etc, and swore fealty to Queen Bess, to prevent her from invading your lands, wealth, and family etc.) The person she submitted to, Lord Deputy Sydney who stated that "This was the most Notorious Woman in all the coasts of Ireland." Pretty cool title, that! Anyway, it didn't take long for the brits to go back on what they had on paper, and Grainne led the Burkes in an uprising against the English. She was captured and sent to prison in Dublin Castle in 1577, and released a year later.

The next year she defeated a government fleet, but was captured again in 1586. Her son-in-law (also named Richard Burke, who had an alliance with the British) attained her release. She was eventually driven to Ulster, taking refuge with the Earl of Tyrone. She sailed to England to appeal to Queen Bess in July of 1593, and, even though the English President of Connaght stated that she was a "Notorious traitoress and nurse to all the rebellions for forty years," Elizabeth gave Grainne back, one third of Richard Burkes estates. Later, she sailed against the Mac Sweeneys who were poaching on her fishing grounds, and the british were after her again. She went back to the Tyrconnells in Donegal, but returned to Clare Island, where she died, around 1603.

Wow, that was fun. Glad I don't throw away anything!

Good luck with your movie. I pulled most of my stuff from "Women of Ireland" by Kit and Cyril O'Ceirin. Great book.

Eamon

Have you read her biography by Anne Chambers (believe that's the author). The Life and Times of Grace O' Malley that's where I've been pulling majority of my info from for the screenplay.

I have not, Lyra, but have heard some pretty good things about it. Here is Anne's website.

http://www.graceomalley.com/

There is a lot of dreck out there about her...so be a bit careful. I had to wade through some REALLY bad information about her, but the Chambers book is supposed to be pretty good.

Eamon

LOL-Me too!

OhhYeah! She's awesome!
Lyra, good luck on the film! Wish I'll get to see it!

Cheers,
Aithne

There is a great song about Grace on Kirk McWhorter's solo CD, Eye Of The Storm. Kirk hails from Western New York and is the lead singer of the Celtic band Kilbrannan.

Kilbrannan is a kilted Celtic folk rock group that have two CD's of their own.

Kirk's Eye Of The Storm CD is a collection of original and traditional songs of the sea. You can listen and order this CD on the Kilbrannan website

Morgan Llywelyn has written a book about Grace O'Malley. She is one of my personal favorites of females in history. She is right up there with Kisaya from Ancient Sumer. I'm thinking of writing a story about her(Kisaya) her story is AMAZING! But, the book is "Grania" haven't started it yet so don't know how good it is...

I've started reading Grania, sort of slow so far but we'll see.