Grace O'Malley The Irish Pirate Queen

 Grace O’Malley was born in Clare Island County Mayo Ireland in 1530 to  Eoghan (Owen) and Maeve (Margaret)  O’Maille. Even though grace had one stepbrother, she inherited her family’s land, in Clew

Bay and the surrounding area. She was not formally educated but could read write and speak multiple languages. when she was a young girl her father told her she couldn’t sail because she was a girl so she chopped off her hair to look like a boy she also learned complicated sailing skills. When she was sixteen she married Donal O’Flaherty they had three children Owen, Murrough, and Margaret. When Donal stopped paying attention to the O’Flaherty clan Grace took over she started raiding ships going to the port of Galway demanding payments for safe passage in the O’Flaherty waters. When Donal was killed Grace defended his fortress from the clan Donal originally took it from. When she was forced from her husband’s castle she went back to Clare island. When grace had her crew she had as many as 200 sailing and fighting men and started raiding chips from Spain Portugal and France that sailed need clew bay. Her life at sea was hard with no privacy bad hygiene and being the only woman on board she could never show any signs of weakness and had to be physically and mentally stronger than her all-male crew. When grace got pregnant with her fourth child with her second husband she gave birth below deck while recovering her ship was attacked by Algerian pirates and her crew couldn’t handle her being gone being incredibly mad she went to the deck half-naked shooting her musket yelling and swearing. The pirates shooked at how she looked fled. In 1593 graces 2  sons and her brother were captured by England she met with Queen Elizabeth and grace didn’t speak English and Elizabeth didn’t speak Irish they spoke in Latin. Grace most likely died at RockFleet castle around the same time Elizabeth died