ase on Clare Island and used this strategically positioned headquarters to take command of all shipping in that part of the coast. She charged ships for safe passage, hired out navigators, and mercilessly raided any ships that wouldn’t pay the toll. Eventually she took a Norseman who she’d rescued from a shipwreck as her lover, and when he was killed at Doona, she went after his killers and slaughtered them herself.
In 1566, at the age of thirty-six, she married a second time, to Richard-an-Iarainn Burke, her former husband’s nephew. With this marriage, she gained control of all
The British, as you can imagine, were not too pleased with this. She was basically a full-fledged pirate by this time and wielded more political and strategic power than they were comfortable with. They sent a force against her, but she fought back and forced them to retreat. After that, she continued her raiding and pillaging as she had before—only now the British became her favorite targets. A few years later, political necessity forced her to pledge loyalty to the crown, but this was pretty much a token gesture as she didn’t bother to change anything she was doing. Her only real tie to
In 1577, Granuaile was imprisoned after she staged an attack on
When Richard died, five years later, she remained at Rockfleet and continued the rebellion against English rule, using her fleet to transport soldiers and Scottish rebels who supported her cause. By then, Bingham’s reign had escalated in brutality and everyone in the area was caught up in the conflict. In 1586, Bingham captured Granuaile, confiscated her posessions, and took control of her followers. Though Granuaile was released unharmed, her son, Owen, was murdered by his troops, and stripped of all her power on land, she returned to the sea, where she resumed her raiding in order to survive. Bingham hounded her incessantly, and several years later, Murrough sided with him against his own mother in order to maintain his own holdings on land. Granuaile was furious at his treachery, and swept down on his lands with her fleet, burning down his town, stealing his cattle, and killing several of his followers.
In 1593, Bingham impounded her ships and arrested Granuaile’s two surviving sons as well as her brother, Donell O’Piper. Granuaile wrote to the Queen of England, protesting this treatment and offering to end her raiding permanently and use her fleet to eliminate
Though Bingham still hounded her, ordering a company of soldiers to follow her on all her voyages, he was fired two years later and it is believed that she returned to her old habits of raiding ships, though there is only a single report of her being caught doing so. The date and circumstances of her death are unknown, but as she reached her mid-to-late sixties, she returned to Rockfleet, where she lived when she was not at sea and most probably where she died.