A five-star female swashbuckling saga that’s a whip-smart read about a largely forgotten Irish lady who commanded a pirate galley in the late 17th century. Her name was uttered in reverence by those who admired her as a folk heroine, or derided by half the nautical world. She risked everything to protect her people against the harshness of the powerful monarch in Elizabethan times. No battle was too much for her, not even a battle of wits, argued in Latin, with the Queen of England herself.
Researchers seeking evidence of the real Grace O’Malley, find scant mention in the Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland compiled between 1632 and 1636 by various scribes, clerics, and hereditary Gaelic historians. The final version, assembled by a prominent scholar of the period, contains no mention of Grace O’Malley whatsoever. Yet oral history states this was the period she was most active in, yet despite her fame, Grace receives no status or record in the Annals. Interestingly, and here the story takes a surprise, her father, both her husbands, and all her sons, do.
Raised by her father, chief clansman of Clan O’Malley, she is forcibly married, against her will to satisfy the grand, ambitious plans of her family. Aiding her husband in his constant warmongering while raising a family of raw individuals, she is eventually ousted from her husband’s lands, after he dies, turning her burgeoning skills to pirating. She is greatly empowered by these endeavours, however she is threatened by the English’s incursion into her homeland. Her family is placed at risk by certain English lords who stand to profit from these incursions, primarily by Lord Bingham, the governor of Connaught, whose brutality and evil, brought much anguish to the population. Interestingly, Irish folklore assigns a special recognition of her assignations. The epitaph on her tombstone reads: Here rests a passionate, fearless and ferocious woman who became a legend.
We learn that she cut off her hair to go to sea, against her father’s permission. The records in the English State Papers, though a slanderous publication, maintained a hatred for her for almost forty years, attacking her both personally and professionally, reinforcing the story that Ariel Lawhon tells in fictional form. History and the novel’s tale mix metaphors and truths, casting her a prisoner, who then mysteriously released with no authority identified as making these releases happen. According to the author, Grace is credited with a number of ruthless actions as a ship’s captain, like pouring hot lead on her opponents and wrecking her fleet during a fierce storm, eventually engaging Queen Elizabeth to settle differences between her and the Crown, the discourse conducted in London, in Latin .
Despite the historical discrepancies, this book makes for wonderful reading, with a synergy of historical fiction, the author’s creativity tempting the reader to believe that the account is factual. Credit where credit is due, in the hands of a master wordsmith, Ariel Lawhon produces gigantic characters like Gutty and Finn, with Gutty standing out as fiction’s great character. Who, except in fiction, would accept a woman giving birth to a child while slaughtering a rival captain with a blunderbuss, before returning to her bed. Funnily, the historical Grace O’Malley did just that. Do we care? It’s a rollicking, entertaining frolic, a masterpiece of prose. I found it a thrill-a-page saga of a heroine born to be at sea. She discovers early that her dreams of open waters are not compatible with the life she is expected to lead as the daughter of a noble family. Her conundrum comes to the fore when her father marries her off to a neighbouring chief. Grace’s world shifts for the worse. Undaunted she raises a family without abandoning her passion, aiding her hot-tempered husband in his campaigns against rival tribes. When he dies, she is cast out from his lands and she returns to her childhood home and begins her career in piracy in earnest, claiming new territories while discovering a deeper love, only to find her livelihood threatened by the English’s incursions in her homeland.
Ariel Lawhon channels the natural beauty of sixteenth century Ireland and the brutality of the period, while exploring an unforgettable heroine, a defender of her people earning the title ‘The Pirate Queen of Ireland’
Ariel Lawhon’s THE PIRATE QUEEN is published by Simon and Schuster
