The Pirate Princess: Return to the Emerald Isle (13 page)

Meg blushed and then laughed at herself
, too. Soon they were left on the beach on the other side of the harbor, where they said goodbye to Al. Meg never got to ask Trout about the spirit.

Meg’s head was racing from all she had experienced over the past two days. She had gone from her normal world of family, school, and play to one filled with banshees, selkies, genies, pirates, and treasure. Her old existence back in Connecticut was dreary in comparison to the life and history of Ireland. Although Meg didn’t know much about Grace O’Malley, she wanted to learn everything she could about her. She wondered if there was a way to figure out why she put a spirit to guard an empty chamber. Trout and Meg left the harbor and walked back to the West Quarter where Owen’s cottage and the Davin’s house were located.

When they got back to Trout’s house
, his mother Nell told them that the return ferry from Cleggan had been canceled due to the fog and that Meg was to stay with the Davins for the night until her mom could return. The news didn’t bother Meg; she was still mad at her mom and she was kind of relieved to not have to go back to Owen’s dreary cottage. Besides, she wanted to learn more about Grace O’Malley, and she knew Trout was the one to tell her.

Trout and Meg headed back outside and climbed up on the stone wall that was in front of Trout’s house. They sat there a moment in silence before Meg resumed her
questioning. “Trout, why is Grace O’Malley known by so many different names?”

“First of all, stop calling her Grace O’Malley
. That’s the English version of her name. She’s called Granuaile. Her given name was Grania and she was the daughter of the chieftain of the
O’Maille
clan, the greatest sea-faring family that Ireland had ever seen. Her father was
Eoghan Dubhdara O’Maille
, Owen “Black Oak” O’Malley, who ruled the land and sea just north of Bofin around Clew Bay. Grania was Owen’s only child with his wife Maeve. Owen also had a son
Donal-na-Pioppa
, Donal of the Pipes, who was illegitimate, but Owen treated him as his son regardless.

“
Grania got the name Granuaile because, even though she was the best sailor in the O’Malley fleet, her father refused to take her on a trading trip to Spain because he said her long hair would get caught in the ships ropes. Furious and not to be stopped, Grania cut off all of her long, red hair, which took away Owen’s excuse and forced him to take her on the voyage. From then on they called her
Grania Mhaol
, Grania the Bald, which was shortened to
Granuaile
. And after that, the name stuck.”

“So Granuaile became a sea captain?” Meg asked.

“Indeed she did—the greatest and most fierce captain in Ireland.”

Meg was suddenly struck by the similarity between the story of
Granuaile and that of her Nanny. They both forced an unwilling father to take them out to sea. Her thoughts jumped to the compendium, which was inscribed with the letter
G
! Meg grabbed Trout by the arm and dragged him to Owen’s cottage, where she pulled out the special birthday gift she had received from her grandmother. She held it up for Trout to see.

“Would
ya look at that… What is it?”

“My
grandmother gave it to me. It’s been handed down in our family from generation to generation. It’s an astronomical compendium.”

“An
astro what?”

“It
’s a tool used by sea captains to navigate the oceans. Look here, Trout, there’s a
G
on the front,” Meg said. With eyes aglow, she pointed to the Gaelic script
G
engraved in the brass.

“Oh
, Megeen, you’re gonna love this next part. In order to expand their territory, Granuaile was married to
Dónal Ó Flaithbheartaigh
, Donal O’Flaherty. He was heir to the O’Flaherty clan who ruled
Iar Connacht
, all of the land of western Connemara including Inishbofin. You must be a descendant of Granuaile!”

A sudden flash of knowing flowed through Meg
’s mind and she thought she felt a tingle coming from the compendium. She looked at it and then at Trout, full of pride at her newfound ancestry. At that moment she felt as if she had grown an inch taller. She held her chin high and looked out on the world with different eyes. Meg was true royalty, a descendant of the Sea Queen of Ireland. She realized her mother must have known all this because she had given her the middle name Grace!

“I’m a pirate princess!” she yelled
, her voice lifting to the rafters of her great grandfather’s cottage. Trout gave her a corrective glance by raising one eyebrow. Meg thought better of what she had said. “
Irish
princess?”

At that, they both laughed. Meg was fascinated to learn the details of Grace O’Malley’s exploits, and so Trout recounted all he knew.

Young Grace’s
early life was spent both on the Atlantic Ocean in ships and in the many castles and forts that had belonged to her family on the coast and some of the islands around Clew Bay. The O’Malleys taxed all of the fishermen who came to their coast, and they were very powerful and one of the few great seafaring families in Ireland. Grania’s knowledge of the sea became legendary and her skill was unmatched. Her parents made sure Grania was well educated. As a result of her fine education and many distant travels, Grania was very worldly and spoke several different languages.

The O’Malley clan had the gift of predicting the weather by the look of the ocean. Grania’s father Owen had taken
Donal-na-Pioppa out on his galley one day to see if he had inherited the O’Malley gift, and a young Grania had come along for the ride. Looking out on the Atlantic, Donal saw nothing. But Grania looked out too, and told her father that a storm was brewing. Sure enough, one hit. When it did, Owen knew Grania was the next great O’Malley.

Eventually
the time came for to be married. Her parents had found a good political match for her in Donal O’Flaherty. In ancient Ireland, marriages were more about connections and power and less about love. Granuaile had three children with Donal: Owen, Maeve, and Murrough, but she never settled down to the life of a housewife. Her nautical talent and fiery spirit eclipsed that of her husband, and before long, she was the captain of the O’Flaherty fleet. She led her family’s army and navy in many skirmishes and battles with neighboring clans, and her reputation was like that of no woman of her time. She was fearless and courageous and never sat out a fight. Her exploits in Connacht led to a ban on O’Flaherty ships in Galway harbor, reminding Meg of the old sign in that city her mother told her about, “from the ferocious O’Flahertys, may God protect us.”

Undeterred from the Galway ban and wanting to expand her power and reach
, Grace decided to take her business elsewhere. She made trading voyages to Spain, Portugal, Scotland, and Ulster. On these trips Granuaile had a habit of capturing any slow-moving merchant ships she happened to come across. She continued to tax the fishermen that fished her family’s waters and so her power grew.

Granuaile’s husband Donal was prone to argument and was constantly getting into trouble himself. On one occasion he battled with a rival clan, the Joyces, and took from them one of their castles on Lough Corrib, a large lake in Galway. When the Joyces tried to take it back, Donal fought them so hard that they nicknamed him
An Cullagh
, “The Cock.” Donal held the fort for a while, but eventually the Joyces defeated him, killing him in battle. In honor of how ferociously he had fought, when the Joyces reclaimed their castle, they renamed it Cock’s Castle.

Granuaile’s
grief and fury over her husband’s death led her to return to Cock’s Castle and take it back with an army of O’Flahertys. The battle was fierce and bloody, but Granuaile came away victorious. From then on the castle was called
Caislean an Cearca,
“Hens Castle,” and Granuaile held it for the rest of her days.

“
Women did not inherit their husband’s land or title in those days, so with no husband, Grania was forced to move back to the O’Malley’s castle on Clare Island and back into the fold of her own clan. She was so beloved by the O’Flahertys that many took their ships and followed her to the O’Malley stronghold, remaining loyal to Granuaile herself. Her fleet was vast, indeed.

The O’Malleys now controlled most of Clew Bay and Connemara except for a small section near Newport and
Rockfleet Castle that was held by Iron Richard Bourke, an Anglo-Norman aristocrat who was in line to be elected
The Mac William
, the second most powerful position in all of Connacht. So, to expand her lands and power, Grania married him. Their marriage was that of equals, and with Richard, she bore a son, Theobald. His nickname, “Tibbot of the Ships,” came because Granuaile gave birth to him on a ship.

The story goes that
, just after childbirth, Grania’s ship came under attack by corsairs, and her men were having trouble winning without her. The captain went below to where she was nursing her newborn son and begged her to come up on deck and rally her men. Still exhausted from childbirth, Granuaile was furious that her men were powerless without her and had the audacity to ask for her help. When she went up she cried to them, “May you be seven times worse off this day next year for not being able to do without me for one day.” She stormed out in her robe with sword and pistol in hand and led her men to victory.

Every story Meg heard made her fall
more in love with her unbelievable ancestor. The more she heard, the more she was mad that she had never known of Granuaile until now. How could her mother not have told her these stories? They were more amazing and fantastic then any fairy tale she had ever heard. Granuaile’s name should be as well-known throughout the world as the names of the English Queens.

“
Granuile.” Meg pronounced the name as if under her magical spell. “I wish I had known about her before.”

“
Maybe yer ma never knew either?” Trout replied.

“That’s impossible. She knows all about Ireland and all of the legends
. She has to know about Granuaile.”

“What if she knew the legend but never made the connection?”

“Oh, Trout,” said Meg with a smile. “That has to be it! She knew nothing about her family until just recently. I can’t wait to tell her.”

At that moment
, Trout’s mom called out from the house for them to come in for dinner.

The Davin’s house, although close in proximity to Meg’s great grandfather’s house, was light-years away in comfort. They had a cozy living room with a TV and a glass enclosed fireplace that was much like the one her family had at home. The house had three bedrooms: one for the parents, one for the boys Dennis and Trout, and one for the youngest Davin, Deirdre. Trout’s little sister was four years old and cute as a button, and Meg soon learned that American girls were not the only ones who came under the Disney princess spell.

Nell Davin told Meg that she would be sleeping in Deirdre’s room
. When she showed it to her, it was as if Meg were stepping back in time to her own room of just a year or two earlier. The walls were covered with the same smiling faces of the princesses Meg had worshipped as a little girl. The colors pink and purple dominated the room and dolls and accessories occupied nearly every square inch. Meg was surprised to learn that little Deirdre’s favorite was Belle from
Beauty and the Beast
, rather than Ariel,
The Little Mermaid
, who was Meg’s favorite. But then, every little girl had her own reasons for loving her favorite princess.

Meg played with Dei
rdre in her room while waiting for dinner. She loved how Deirdre talked. The more time Meg spent in Ireland the easier it was for her to understand the Irish people she talked to. Irish accents have a speed that Meg had a hard time catching up to at first. But Meg was learning that the different tones and inflections often indicated as much meaning to the listener as the words themselves. Earlier that day, when Meg was talking to Trout, she started to feel as though her way of talking was slow. At one point, Meg asked Trout to speak with an American accent, which he did. But he came across as sounding like California surfer dude, which Meg found hilarious.

Deirdre’s Irish accent made playing princess a totally new experience for Meg.
When Meg pronounced Beauty’s name,
Belle
, it sounded just like the word
bell
. When Deirdre said the word
Belle
, however, it wasn’t a plain, flat pronunciation. It gained an extra vowel sound, like
baell
, and also dipped and rose in tone. Many of the words spoken by Meg’s new Irish friends were the same she used, but they had a musical tone she had never heard before. And, although her grandmother spoke with an Irish accent, over the years it had lost much of the unique character it must have had when she first arrived in America.

When the
Davin family sat down for dinner, Meg had picked up enough of the Irish accent that she didn’t miss a word that was said. Declan told them all about his shortened fishing day and kidded Meg about her skills rowing a currach. Trout’s brother Dennis asked her many questions about America. Unfortunately, television shows were their only glimpse of American culture, and Dennis had a lot of misconceptions about American life which Meg tried to explain away as much as she could, given her young age.

Trout and Meg told the family about their adventure at the Fort and her newly discovered link to Granuaile. Trout’s mother was particularly interested in the connection
as she was apparently a big fan of Granuaile. While they ate, Nell told them more tales of Granuaile. The most amazing story of all was about the time Grania sailed to London, England. There she went up the Thames River to the royal palace, where she requested a personal meeting with England’s Queen Elizabeth.

At the time of Grania, Connacht for the most part was still Irish
, although some of the larger towns and cities such as Galway were controlled by the English. Often, this control was held by Anglo-Normans who had assimilated into their surroundings and had some Irish leanings. The so-called Tribes of Galway were a group of these Anglo-Normans, and had been having a long-time problem with Granuaile. Much of their animosity towards her was because, as a harbor city, the Galway tribes imposed tariffs and taxes on the ships and traders within their walls and, when those same people left the harbor, Granuaile taxed them again for going through her waters. This led to many fights between the tribes and the O’Flahertys and Grania, and eventually resulted in the sign that was erected at the gates of the city.

Grania was a very smart woman
. She knew which way the political tide was moving, and offered her army to the English early on to help them in any way they wanted. Granuaile didn’t act out of love for the English but rather used her cunning and guile to always remain a step ahead of her enemies. Because of this she gained favor with the Lord Deputy of Ireland, and when the tribes went to Dublin to formally accuse her of piracy because of the taxes she collected, their accusation was largely ignored.

Granuaile’s
ships patrolled the waters around much of Ireland, raiding castles and ships and then disappearing into the many hidden coves and bays on the Irish coast. She controlled and exercised her power from the many castles and fortresses in the northwest part of Ireland where she was out of the reach of any English influence. The O’Malleys and Grania had things under control until a new foe entered the picture.

A
newly appointed Governor of Connacht, Richard Bingham, attempted to gain more control over the local lords. One way he tried to do this was by offering English titles and lands to the Irish chieftains in his territory. Many accepted those offers, but never the O’Malleys or the O’Flahertys, and this infuriated Bingham. As Granuaile’s power and influence grew, Bingham made many attempts at removing her but he was never successful. He declared her the biggest threat in Connacht to the English, and in his reports to the crown had even called her “nurse to all rebellions” all over Ireland. The governor soon declared war on her family. In 1593 Richard Bingham tricked and killed Granuaile’s oldest son Owen and imprisoned her other sons, Tibbot and Murrough, along with her half-brother Donal-na-Pioppa.

Grania was
sixty-three years old at the time and, although still feisty, she was getting tired of the constant battling and came up with an idea to save herself and her family. She decided that the only way to stop Bingham was to go over his head to his boss, Queen Elizabeth of England. She set sail for London to demand a meeting queen to queen.

Upon her arrival in London,
Granuaile’s connection to the Lord Deputy of Ireland came in handy again, and he was able to help her arrange the meeting. Grania was sent of series of questions from the queen, which she thoughtfully answered and returned. The queen must have liked what she read because a meeting was scheduled shortly after, at Elizabeth’s palace in Greenwich.

At the appointed time, t
he accused pirate queen entered the court of Queen Elizabeth dressed in a fine gown. In spite of her age and fine clothes, she was escorted into the queen’s chamber under heavy guard due to her reputation. The room, filled with courtiers and guards, fell into silence as Granuaile approached with her head held high. The lords and ladies waited with baited breath in anticipation of the first words of the notorious woman. Grania broke the silence with a sneeze and one of the noblemen extended a delicate silk handkerchief, which she accepted. Grania blew her nose loudly into the cloth and then threw it into the fire. Everyone gasped with indignation. Grania looked around at all the fancy people and told them that, in her country, they did not keep such soiled things, underhandedly insulting those present. She further amazed the crowd by walking up to address the queen without first bowing. Grania intentionally did not bow because she did not recognize Elizabeth as a superior, but rather as an equal.

Queen Elizabeth was extremely interested in this woman before her
, and none of Grania’s egregious behavior prevented the meeting from proceeding. The queen welcomed her, and the two powerful women, who were nearly the same age, sat down for a chat. No one knows what was said between them, but Elizabeth must have taken to the sea queen, because Granuaile emerged from the meeting with a letter that directed Bingham to free her family and to leave her and her kin alone for the rest of her days.

“I have read about Queen Elizabeth in my history books and even saw a movie about her. Why haven’t I ever heard about Granuaile?” Meg asked aloud.

Trout’s father said, “’cause history is written by the victors, not the vanquished.”

Trout spoke up, “Granuaile is famous in Ireland
. She has been written about in story and in song since her time, and is even in the old rebel song ‘Óró, Sé do Bheatha 'Bhaile.’
Do you know it?”

Meg shook her head no and Trout sang
:

“
Tá Gráinne Mhaol ag teacht thar sáile,

Óglaigh
armtha léi mar gharda,

Gaeil
iad féin is ní Gaill ná Spáinnigh,

Is
cuirfidh siad ruaig ar Ghallaibh.”

Trout had a nice singing voice
. When he finished, Meg teased, “I thought you couldn’t speak Irish.”

“I can’t, but I do know a couple of songs. It means
: Grania the Bald is coming over the sea, armed warriors along with her as her guard, they are Irishmen, not French nor Spanish... And they will rout the foreigners!”

Trout’s parents beamed with pride at their son
’s knowledge. As they finished their meal Meg was bubbling over with excitement from all the information she had just heard. “I can’t believe I’m related to such a famous woman!”

“You
’d better be careful who you tell this to, Meg, especially our friend Alonzo. He seems to have a hate for your relative.”

“What do you mean?”

“All of that sea witch stuff he said. I swear that, every time he spoke her name today, he wanted to spit on the ground.”

“I wonder why,” Meg asked aloud.

They spent the rest of the night talking of castles and battles and the plight of the Irish. Trout’s family was very well educated and proud of their heritage and taught Meg a lot. She thought it was one of the best days of her life. When it was time to go to sleep, Meg headed to Deirdre’s room and got into bed with the compendium still hanging around her neck. She had decided she wanted to keep it on all of the time now, no matter how big or heavy it was.