Pirate Queen Read Free

You do not take the risks. I do. The fleet enables me to support my clan as my father did before me. As a chieftain yourself, surely you understand that is my first duty.’
    Granuaile’s father is Dubhdara Ua Máille, The Black Oak of the O’Malleys. He is the chief of the clan. Over the years Dubhdara built up a sea trade extending from Scotland and the North Sea to Spain and Portugal. The Black Oak has only one son, Donal of the Pipes. His mother is not Dubhdara’s wife, however. Besides, Donal has no stomach for the sea. So when Dubhdara grew old, Granuaile took over the O’Malley fleet.
    Being a sea captain is a singular occupation for an Irish woman. Some people are shocked, but her clan is very proud of her. She has even extended the trade routes.
    She is not about to give her hard-won profits to Richard Bourke to pay for petty squabbles with his kinsmen!
    Warfare is the normal condition in Connacht, as it is throughout Ireland. Gaelic clans have always fought over cattle. Gaelic chieftains have always fought to extend their territory. The Normans have readily adopted this way of life because they first came into Ireland as mercenaries themselves.
    Yet in spite of constant conflict, Ireland in the sixteenth century is prosperous. Much of the island is covered with great forests of timber. Well-watered grasslands support large herds of cattle. The woods teem with game and the lakes and rivers are full of fish. The Gaelic nobility wear masses of gold jewellery, and even their servants possess ornaments of bronze and iron. People of all classes dine on beef and bacon and buttermilk. The Gael have dominated this land for two thousand years. It is hard to imagine anything changing.
    Yet change is coming.
    Since the twelfth century, the English have sought without success to conquer Ireland. The Norman mercenaries they have sent have been absorbed into the country. The Anglo-Normans have become, some say, more Irish than the Irish themselves. Now they are called the ‘Old English’, because a new wave of would-be conquerors has arrived from England.
    Elizabeth Tudor, Queen of England, has sent shiploads of warriors and administrators to carve up Ireland. They are known as the ‘New English’. They have nodesire to become Irish, and have merely come to plunder the country for their monarch. Meanwhile, in foreign seaports , Granuaile has heard tales of a New World beyond the western ocean. The English ruler hopes to seize this New World as well. There is no limit to her greed, it seems.
    As Granuaile hugs her small son to her breast, she thinks about that other she-king across the Irish Sea. She feels a chill run up her spine. If Elizabeth succeeds in her dreams of conquest, what effect will that have on Toby’s life? On his childhood?
    It is less disturbing for Granuaile to recall her own childhood. Gratefully she looks back to the days when she was wild and free.

Chapter Three
The Call of the Sea
    When Granuaile was a child, Clare Island was her summer home. In her memories of that distant, happy time, the sun shone every day. She was never hungry or thirsty or frightened. Each day was an adventure.
    In the summer her family went booleying, taking their cattle to the upland pastures to graze. They made huts of wattle and thatch that only lasted for the season. Mostly they lived under the open sky. Granuaile loved the sky at night above Clare Island. Lying on her back in the fragrant grass, she would listen as Dubhdara taught her the names of the stars.
    Cattle were important, providing leather, meat, milk and butter, but the sea was their main source of income. The O’Malley fleet travelled great distances, trading salted and pickled fish, surplus hides and tallow, for casks of wine and ingots of copper. Through the vast network of sea trade they also obtained figs and pomegranates and silk, cumin and cinnamon and saffron. Clew Bay was the home port for these enterprises.
    Granuaile had made her first voyage from