Pirate Queen of Ireland
While the Leprechaun Pirate King leads our merry band of singing pirates, we all hold Granuaile the Pirate Queen of Ireland in the highest regard and reverence. What is more daring or more bold than a woman that leads her clan on the high seas? Family and fortune go hand in hand, especially among the Irish clans. Anne Chambers wrote the book on the Pirate Queen
For centuries the life of the iconic 16th century warrior leader by land and sea, Grainne Ni Mhaille (Grace O’Malley) or Granuaile, as she is more familiarly known in Ireland, was abandoned to the vagaries of myth, fiction and folklore (which nonetheless prevented her memory from total obliteration)…
Legends are not created about insignificant people. To be remembered in folk memory is as much a tribute and validation of her status as any academic treatise.
As to the factual evidence relating to Granuaile it was left to the English administrators and generals, who had come to conquer her country, to write her into historical record. And this is where I found her… From the swirls and flourishes of these sixteenth-century relics the story of Granuaile springs to life.
When a woman goes a pirating there is no going back. Grace O’Malley led her clan, and others, for decades and became a legend. She fought along side her men, and according to the timeline, in 1597 “At the ’great age’ of 67, Grace is recorded still actively leading her men by sea in a retaliatory attack on MacNeil of Barra off the Scottish coast.”
Irish Pirate Queen or Leprechaun Pirate Princess
It does make me wonder what my own true royal status is in the Leprechaun Pirates. My brother is The Leprechaun Pirate King, so I am at least a Leprechaun Pirate Princess. Perhaps we will explore this in song in the coming weekend at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival on September 24 & 25 featuring Shamrocks & Shenanigans. It should be a great grand weekend with plenty of fun for those who enjoy Irish in their entertainment.
