Grace O’Malley (Gráinne Mhao) was a female Irish pirate who still enchants our imaginations. Frankly I didn’t know her until the book Island of the White Cow fell on my hands. It recounts the experience of an American poet from the Midwest who settled in an unmodernized island off the west coast of Ireland. The Pirate queen was given a huge reference in that book .

In her old age O’Malley was given pardon. She met Elizabeth I at Kentwell and as history puts it, they conversed in Latin-their only common language. They apparently built a rapport which was inevitable; being two strong women with great minds. I will let this video do the talking.