Grace O'Malley

Gráinne O'Malley[1] (Irish: Gráinne Ní Mháille, pronounced [ˈgˠɾˠaːn̠ʲə n̠ʲiː ˈwaːl̠ʲə]; c. 1530 – c. 1603), also known as Grace O'Malley, was the head of the Ó Máille dynasty in the west of Ireland, and the daughter of Eóghan Dubhdara Ó Máille. Upo

O'Malley was born in Ireland around 1530, when Henry VIII was King of England and held the title Lord of Ireland. Under the policies of the English government at the time, the semi-autonomous Irish clans were left mostly to their own devices. However, this was to change over the course of O'Malley's life as the Tudor conquest of Ireland gathered pace. Eoghan Dubhdara Ó Máille, her father,[6] and his family were based in Clew Bay, County Mayo. He was Chief of the Name of Clan Ó Máille and Lord of Umhaill, and claimed descent from Maille mac Conall. The Uí Mháille were one of the seafaring clans of Connacht, and they had built a row of castles facing the sea to protect their territory. They controlled most of what is now the barony of Murrisk[6] in south-west County Mayo and recognised as their nominal overlords the Mac William Íochtar branch of the Bourkes, who controlled much of what is now County Mayo. The Bourke family (Irish: de Búrca) were originally Anglo-Norman (de Burgh) but by O'Malley's lifetime had become completely Gaelicised. Her mother, Margaret or Maeve, was also an O'Malley. Although she was the only child of Dubhdara and his wife, O'Malley had a paternal half-brother called Dónal na Píopa.[7] Although under Brehon Law only male members of the derbhfine could inherit the mantle of Chief of the Name through tanistry, O'Malley "was considered to be the legal retainer of the family land and seafaring activities".[8] With shore castles like Carrickkildavnet, the Clan Uí Mháille demanded and received black rent from those who fished off their coasts, which included fishermen from as far away as England. The head of the family was known simply by his surname as Ó Máille (anglicised as The O'Malley). The local oral tradition has it that O'Malley, as a young girl, wished to go on a trading expedition to Spain with her father. Upon being told she could not because her long hair would catch in the ship's ropes, she cut off most of her hair to shame her father into taking her. This earned her the nickname "Gráinne Mhaol" (Irish pronunciation: [ˈɡɾˠaːn̠ʲə ˈwiːlˠ]; from maol, meaning 'bald' or 'having cropped hair'), usually anglicised as Granuaile (/ˌɡrɔːnjuˈeɪl/ GRAWN-yoo-AYL).[9] The nickname may also come from Gráinne Umhaill ("Gráinne of Umhall", Umhall being a historical district of west Connacht dominated by the Uí Mháille).[10] As a child she most likely lived at her family's residence of Belclare and Clare Island,[4] but she may have been fostered by another family, as fosterage was traditional among the Gaelic nobility of Ireland.[11]