Pirate Queen of the O'Malleys
By MARTIN O'MALLEY
In the house where I grew up there was a den with a fireplace. It had a telephone table with a leather address book on it, and on the cover of the book was an embossed family crest featuring a wild boar and the motto: "Terra Marique Potens."
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| MARTIN O'MALLEY |
This is Latin for "Power on land and sea," which is kind of funny because I still can't swim and the biggest fish I ever caught was a 10-ounce pickerel. As for the boar, my friends won't quibble with this, though they may spell it differently.
It was the O'Malley family crest. My parents always told us we are direct descendants of Grace O'Malley, a woman pirate from Clew Bay on the west coast of Ireland. I have worked all my life as a journalist but this is one piece of history I have eschewed researching in deep detail for fear of discovering that Grace - also known as Grania - may have been merely a distant, Sixteenth Century ancestor.
I choose to believe the family stories. My grandfather Martin came to Canada from the same west coast of Ireland, not far from Clew Bay, where Grania and her fierce pirates - all men - scourged the trade routes between Ireland and Spain.
I have written about Grace before. I once started a screenplay on her life but had to push it aside when I ran out of funds. Now the good news has arrived that a big-bucks Broadway musical is in the making on the life of Grace O'Malley, titled The Pirate Queen. Even better news: Irish-born Canadian Colm Wilkinson has been asked to play the role of Grace's father, who was known as "Black Oak."
Richard Ouzounian of the Toronto Star wrote about Wilkinson's new role last week. After starring in memorable shows such as Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables, the 61-year-old Wilkinson has been lured back to Broadway for the magnificent story of Grace O'Malley, my (ahem) direct ancestor.
The musical's being workshopped in New York in order to entice investors, Ouzounian said. The Pirate Queen is expected to cost some $10 million to mount, which is big but not as big as something like the musical Lord of the Rings, which cost some $27 million. Oklahoma, one of my favourite musicals, cost a mere $200,000 to mount back in 1940.
Grace O'Malley rose to prominence in the early Sixteenth Century. Her father was a seaman and young Grace wanted to roam the seas with him, but because women were considered bad luck on ships she was not allowed on board. Either in protest or, more likely, to disguise herself as a cabin boy, Grace shaved her hair and managed to work on her father's ship until she impressed him with her seafaring skills.
As a result, Grace became known as "Grace the Bald," which I'm sure would make a rousing full-cast number in the musical, perhaps akin to "Bloody Mary" in the musical South Pacific.
Grace eventually became a sea captain herself, and an Irish chieftain, and carved out a reputation as a ruthless pirate. She had at least three husbands and considerably more lovers - one an adolescent Dane she found shipwrecked - and caused the English heaps of trouble around the coasts of Ireland.
There have been many books written about Grace O'Malley. There's at least one academic treatise, a few bodice-rippers, even a children's picture book. Once Turkish pirates attacked her ship on the high seas when Grace was below decks giving birth to one of her sons.
With the battle going badly, Grace put aside her infant and stormed on deck to inspire her flagging troops. Grace shouted at the Turks, "Take this from these unconsecrated hands," whereupon she wielded a blunderbuss and blew away two Turkish pirates, which reversed the battle and resulted in Grace's men taking control of the Turkish ship and adding it to her pirate fleet.
It has been documented that Grace had an audience with Elizabeth I in September 1563. The English had troubles of their own with Spain and thought Grace and her pirates could be of value to the English fleet.
Grace led her pirate ship up the Thames, then to an audience with Elizabeth. She probably was attired in a crimson cloak with gold clasps, though I like the undocumented story that she appeared in the royal court bare-breasted, with her red hair in tangles below her shoulders.
Is this not a role for Catherine Zeta-Jones?
An-y-way, Grace had a bad cold that day and someone in the court offered her an embroidered silk handkerchief so she could blow her nose. She did, after which she tossed the handkerchief into a fire, which some considered rude and ungrateful.
"Where I come from," Grace explained to Elizabeth, "we never put these soiled things in our pockets."
It was only because Elizabeth burst into laughter at the behaviour of a feisty female soulmate that Grace was spared a royal execution.
At least one generation of Canadians knows the line, "The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation." Pierre Elliott Trudeau made it famous, but the line belongs to Martin O'Malley, who wrote it when he was with The Globe and Mail. He's written eight books, on topics such as the Canadian North, medicine, murder, media literacy and baseball. Martin O'Malley is now a contributing writer with CBC News Viewpoint.
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