The Most Notorious Pirate Queen of Ireland

The incredible story of Grace O’Malley, the 16th Century pirate queen of Ireland

Mar 08, 2022

Can You Name Some Famous Female Pirates in History?

If I were to ask to name some famous (or shall we say infamous) pirates in history, your answers would come unabated like this.

Blackbeard, Captain William Kidd, Henry Morgan, etc. The options are endless.

Sounds good. Now let me tweak the question a bit. Name some famous female pirates in history? Suddenly you find that your answers have dried up. You may even get annoyed a bit stating,

” Pirates? Females? I thought piracy is a man’s world. “

Not quite.

To be a female pirate is rare. To be a female commander of pirates is rarer. And to be a female commander of pirates in the 16th century when women were often used as a tool to create alliances through marriage that would make the men involved more powerful is the rarest of the rare. And Grace O'Malley was such a woman, the fearless pirate queen who challenged the turbulent politics of 16th century England and Ireland.

Her reputation was conflicting depending on who is telling her story. To the Irish, she was a fearless woman who fought for the freedom of Ireland from the British crown. On the other hand, for the British, she was a bloodthirsty, ruthless, and thieving pirate, who controlled the coastlines through intimidation and plunder.

Surprisingly despite being such a powerful woman, her exploits had largely been airbrushed from history for not fitting the conventional norms of ‘womanhood’ as expected in the 16th-century male-dominated world. It was only in the early 2000s when Grace’s exploits were remembered and recognized through the work of the historian Anne Chambers who wrote a stirring biography about the pirate queen.

As the classical and folk music, Irish composer Shaun Davey describes the exploits of the queen in his album Granuaile.

“She had strongholds on her headlands
And brave galleys on the sea
And no warlike chief or Viking
E’er had bolder heart than she.”

The Story of Grace O'Malley

Little is known about Grace O'Malley's childhood. But unlike other girls, she was born in a seafaring family O'Malleys who controlled vast swathes of land on the Irish west coast where the clan fished, traded, and taxed others who fished off their coasts.

And as with any seafaring clan, plundering and piracy was part of the job with the risk that the penalty of piracy is death by hanging. So from a very young age Grace, under the tutelage of her father and other members of the family became an accomplished pirate and was never cut in for housewifery as was the fate of most women of that era.

At 16, she was ‘politically married’ to Dónal Ó Flaithbheartaigh, heir to the lands of Ó Flaithbheartaigh, a powerful clan in west Ireland. The marriage became an excellent launching pad for her career as a pirate as she started expanding her network to Spain and Portugal, leading ambitious raids on the English ships along the coast. Upon the death of her first husband in 1554, she inherited his fighting ships and castle at the age of just 23.

In 1566, O'Malley married again to Risdeárd also known as ‘Iron Richard’, another powerful heir only to divorce him a year later to expand her lands further and take control of his castle. Although they divorced, Grace still managed to maintain his loyalty as a key ally.

At a time when women were used as instruments of alliances by men to be more powerful, Grace was doing just the opposite. At the height of her power, she had hundreds of men and numerous ships at her disposal.

It was the time when the English were rapidly invading Ireland and Grace’s predatory surges on the English did not go unnoticed. They sent a large force of ships and laid siege on Rockfleet Castle, her base of operations. But they had underestimated Grace as within two weeks, the pirate Queen launched such a vicious attack that the English were forced to make a hasty retreat.

But her luck finally ran out when Grace O’Malley was finally captured by Sir Richard Bingham, a ruthless governor that was appointed to rule over Irish territories. Grace managed to escape but lost all her lands and wealth in the process leaving her in dire straits. Bingham also captured her beloved son who was subjected to painful torture every day.

But Grace did not give up. She decided to go over Bingham’s head and straight to his boss, the Queen of England, Elizabeth I.

It was a risky move as she could have been thrown straight into the Tower of London and executed. But she took the chance and sailed to England seeking an audience with the Queen. The Queen was intrigued and agreed to meet the ‘impressive’ woman of Ireland as she called her.

It was obvious Grace managed to impress the queen as at the end of the long meeting, Bingham was instructed to return Grace's lands, pay her the funds she had demanded, and free her son. In return, Grace would withdraw her support for the Irish rebellion (The Nine Years War whom she supported) and attack only England's enemies.

Her Death

The last years of Grace O’Malley are shrouded in mystery. Her exploits were largely written out of history by contemporary Irish historians for being a woman. This makes it difficult to pinpoint the precise year and location of her death.

However, most modern historians believe that Grace died a natural death at a ripe old age at Rockfleet Castle in 1603, the same year as Elizabeth I. She was buried in the abbey on Clare Island in the same abbey she learned to read and write as a child.

Her memory still lives within the numerous Irish ballads that celebrate the adventures of a bold and courageous heroine in a man’s world. As one of the ballads aptly remember her.

In the wild grandeur of her mien erect and high
Before the English Queen, she dauntless stood
And none her bearing there could scorn as rude
She seemed well used to power, as one that hath
Dominion over men of savage mood
And dared the tempest in its midnight wrath
And thro' opposing billows cleft her fearless path.