Grania O'Malley

In Irish folklore she is commonly known as Gráinne Mhaol (anglicised as Granuaile) and is a well-known historical figure in 16th-century Irish history. Her name was also rendered in contemporary English documents in various ways, including Gráinne O'Maly, Graney O'Mally, Granny ni Maille, Grany O'Mally, Grayn Ny Mayle, Grane ne Male, Grainy O'Maly, and Granee O'Maillie.

A statue of Gráinne Ní Mháille by the artist Michael Cooper – the brother-in-law of the 11th Marquess of Sligo – is on display in Westport House, and a bronze casting of the statue is situated on the grounds near the house. Westport House also contains a comprehensive exhibition on the life of Ní Mháille compiled by author Anne Chambers, a leading authority on Granuaile.

Grace O'Malley (c. 1530 – c. 1603), also known as Gráinne O'Malley (Irish: Gráinne Ní Mháille), was the head of the Ó Máille dynasty in the west of Ireland, and the daughter of Eoghan Dubhdara Ó Máille.

In her 2006 biography of Ní Mháille, Irish historian and novelist Anne Chambers described her as:

She was an actress, known for The Hot Rock (1972), The United States Steel Hour (1953) and Naked City (1958). She was married to William Dunham (performer).

Grania O'Malley was born on June 21, 1885 in Loughrea, Ireland.

Local traditions concerning her were collected by Irish scholar John O'Donovan in the 1830s and 1840s on behalf of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland. In a letter of 1838 he describes her as being "most vividly remembered by tradition and people were living in the last generation who conversed with people who knew her personally".

Westport House in County Mayo, Ireland, was the seat of the Browne dynasty, Marquesses of Sligo, direct descendants of Gráinne Ní Mháille. The current house was built close to the site of Cahernamart (Cathair na Mart - "fort of the beef market"), an Ó Máille fort. The original house was built by Colonel John Browne, a Jacobite, who was at the Siege of Limerick (1650–51), and his wife Maude Bourke. Maude Bourke was Ní Mháille's great-great granddaughter.

She most likely died at Rockfleet Castle around 1603, the same year as Elizabeth's death, though the year and place of Ní Mháille's death are disputed. Her family's usual burial place was in Clare Island Abbey.

As the Nine Years' War escalated, Ní Mháille sought to retrench her position with the crown. On 18 April 1595 she petitioned Lord Burghley, complaining of the activities of troops and asking to hold her estate for Elizabeth I. She added that 'her sons, cousins, and followers will serve with a hundred men at their own charges at sea upon the coast of Ireland in Her Majesty's wars upon all occasions...to continue dutiful unto Her Majesty, as true and faithful subjects'. Throughout the war she encouraged and supported her son Tibbot Burke to fight for the Crown against Tyrone's confederation of Irish lords.

Bingham was removed but several of Ní Mháille's other demands (including the return of the cattle and land that Bingham had stolen from her) remained unmet, and soon Elizabeth sent Bingham back into Ireland. Bingham continued to plague Ní Mháille and in 1594 troops were quartered on her lands.

Upon her father's death she took over active leadership of the lordship by land and sea, despite having a brother, Dónal an Phíopa Ó Mháille. Marriage to Dónal an Chogaidh (Dónal "the warlike") Ó Flaithbheartaigh brought her greater wealth and influence, reportedly owning as much as 1,000 head of cattle and horses. In 1593, when her sons Tiobóid a Búrc (Tibbot Bourke) and Murchadh Ó Flaithbheartaigh (Murrough O'Flaherty), and her half-brother Dónal an Phíopa ("Dónal of the Pipes"), were taken captive by the English governor of Connacht, Sir Richard Bingham, Ní Mháille sailed to England to petition for their release. She formally presented her request to Queen Elizabeth I at her court in Greenwich Palace.

Ní Mháille had every reason, and used every opportunity, to limit the power of the Kingdom of Ireland over her part of the country. An expedition from Galway led by Sheriff William Óge Martyn attacked her castle at Clare Island in March 1579. However, they were put to flight and barely escaped.

Documentary evidence for Ní Mháille's life comes mostly from English sources, as she is not mentioned in the Irish annals. The Ó Máille family "book", a collection of eulogistic bardic poetry and other material of the sort kept by aristocratic Gaelic households of the period, has not survived. There are no contemporary images of her. An important source of information is the eighteen "Articles of Interrogatory", questions put to her in writing on behalf of Elizabeth I. She is also mentioned in the English State Papers and in other documents of the kind, an example being a letter sent by the Lord Deputy, Sir Henry Sidney, to his son Phillip in 1577: "There came to mee a most famous femynyne sea captain called Grace Imallye, and offred her service unto me, wheresoever I woulde command her, with three gallyes and two hundred fightinge men ..."

In 1576, Ní Mháille engaged in the surrender and regrant process with the Lord Deputy Sir Henry Sidney in respect of her lands. Because Rockfleet was over a week's march from Dublin, and as she was so often at sea, control by the Crown was very weak.

By 1566, Ní Mháille had married a second time, this time to Risdeárd an Iarainn ("Iron Richard") Bourke, his nickname deriving from his ironworks at Burrishoole, the place of his principal castle and residence. The 1st Viscount Mayo was a child of this marriage.

In 1565, Dónal was killed in an ambush while hunting in the hills surrounding Lough Corrib; this was, undoubtedly, part of Dónal's wider struggle with the Joyces for control of Hen's Castle on the lough. Gráinne returned to her own lands and established her principal residence on Clare Island (now called Granuaile's Castle). She allegedly took a shipwrecked sailor as her lover. The affair only lasted briefly as he was killed by the MacMahons of Ballyvoy. Seeking vengeance, Gráinne attacked the MacMahon castle of Doona in Blacksod Bay and killed her lover's murderers on Cahir Island. Her attack on Doona Castle earned her the nickname 'Dark Lady of Doona'.

Ní Mháille was married in 1546 to Dónal an Chogaidh Ó Flaithbheartaigh, tánaiste or heir to the Ó Flaithbheartaigh (O'Flaherty) title, which would have been a good political match for the daughter of the Ó Máille chieftain. As Ó Flaithbheartaigh tánaiste, Dónal an Chogaidh had expectations of one day ruling Iar Connacht, the area roughly equivalent to modern Connemara.

Ní Mháille 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 princes and lords were left mostly to their own devices. However, this was to change over the course of Ní Mháille's life as the Tudor conquest of Ireland gathered pace.