Granuaile – Pirate Queen of the Irish Seas
“Terra Marique Potens”
– in Latin, meaning “Powerful on Land and Sea”
The O’ Máille Clan (O’Malley) Clan Motto
Embracing The Warrior Archetype Within Us
Gráinne Ní Mháille (Grace O’Malley in English), or as she is known in Irish folklore, Granuaile, was born in Ireland around 1530. She was the daughter of Dubhdara O Máille, who commanded the biggest fleet of ships in Ireland at the time. They were from Clare Island, a stunning island in Clew Bay in Co. Mayo.
When her father died, she inherited his shipping and trading business, even though she had an older brother, who would have traditionally been expected to inherit. For hundreds of years, the O'Malleys had sailed their ships around the coasts of Ireland, Scotland, and Northern Spain, trading, fishing, and plundering.
Plundering and piracy were part of seafaring life for any coastal clan in those times. The penalty for piracy was death by hanging, yet this was the world Gráinne belonged to. She took to the seas at age 11, living a life unconventional for her time or the times since. Later in her adult life, she commanded hundreds of men and some 20 ships, married twice, waged wars, was imprisoned, and sailed to England to negotiate the release of her sons from Queen Elizabeth I. There is a strong sense of her as a woman, authentic to her wild soul self.
Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy of Ireland, who met Grainne in 1577, described her as:
“A most famous, feminine sea captain... famous for her stoutness of courage... commanding three galleys and 200 fighting men... This was a most notorious woman in all the coasts of Ireland.”
Granuaile and the Warrior Archetype
Archetypes are thought to exist within all of us and are symbols of a greater pattern in our personal history and humanity's collective story and experience. When we meet these symbols in our inner life, they can help steer us on our course, like a rudder in a ship, in the direction that calls us on our journey.
As archetypes have lives of their own, each has a part that can support or hinder us in our growth.
When we think of a Warrior archetype, the warrior ‘energy’, we often think of men as warriors, more so than women. Yet, this archetypal pattern can live within every human, irrespective of gender. When I was a teenager and having first read Anne Chambers’ wonderful biography about Gráinne, ‘Grace O’Malley - Biography of Ireland’s Pirate Queen 1530-1603, Gráinne ignited a part of me that spoke to the need to have courage, misneach (pron. mis-nukh). The aspect of oneself that we all need, the warrior courage, to step out into our true nature, find one’s voice, and find one’s ground.
“The contents of the collective unconscious are archetypes. Primordial images that reflect basic patterns that are common to us all, and which have existed universally since the dawn of time.”
Visiting Clare Island
I visited Clare Island for the first time in 2015 and have often returned since. It was a memorable time for me, given the meaning she held for me. I remember visiting the ruins of her childhood home, resting against the castle walls, and imagining her growing up there. The castle is just beside the pier, so I would watch the boats come in and out of the harbour, imagining what it was like when she returned home from her seafaring life. As it happened, on that very weekend, I had the joy of meeting Anne Chambers herself, the leading authority on Granuaile and writer of that same biography that captivated me years earlier.
In the forward of Anne Chamber’s brilliant book, she described Gráinne as follows:
“A fearless leader, by land and by sea, a political pragmatist and politician, a ruthless plunderer, a mercenary, a rebel, a shrewd and able negotiator, a protective matriarch of her family and tribe, a genuine inheritor of the Mother Goddess and Warrior Queen attributes of her remote ancestors. Above all else, she emerges as a woman who broke the mold and thereby played a unique role in history.”
Visiting her Burial place
Gráinne is said to be buried in the small Abbey on the Island, known as St. Brigid’s Abbey. It was founded in the 12th/13th Century and rebuilt in 1460. When I visited, the local caretaker kindly gave me the key, and I had time alone in the little church where her family and people are interred and where she is reputedly buried. There is a stone plaque inside the abbey, marking the resting place of the Clan. It depicts a ship, a boar, a horse and longbows.
Beneath the plaque is the family motto: “Terra Marique Potens” – in Latin, meaning “Powerful on Land and Sea.”
That night, I wrote a poem about her titled “The Castle” (see below).
I often reflect on where that archetypal energy lives in all of us, and I often think of her when I need to access and harness power in my own life. Granuaile - Powerful on Land and Sea...
How can we connect with our inner strength? Our inner ground? How can we begin to bring our authentic expression and voice into the world?
The Castle
(on a visit to Clare Island, Summer 2015)
Night straddles hemispheres
hinged between sleep and dawn.
Grey castle rain stained,
rises like a requiem.
This was your house.
Settled in this silent land.
Clew Bay misted and tangled in your fists.
I rest against your walls,
winds caw like a crow
Iron centuries leaning against my darkening bones.
I know this dream,
fluid where I lose my voice
like a child.
Stammering ahead
slow and luscious.
I play among your ruins,
stony peaks scaffold
the scuffed hillside.
Blue foxes gnaw at the roots of things.
I hear your ancient heartbeat,
caught in a snare.
The moon
remembering your pagan heart
the stars
their delinquent daughter.
Written by Eileen Sullivan. Published in Crannóg Magazine 2016.
The Tower by Paul Henry, Irish Artist (Granuaile’s Castle Achill Island)
References:
Anne Chambers (2006) Granuaile: Grace O’Malley – Ireland’s Pirate Queen. Gill & MacmillanCarl Jung - The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (Collected Works 9i)