Grace O’Malley: Celtic Warrior
I took inspiration for today’s shoot from the “Celtic Warrior” Grace O’Malley.
Born in 1530, she became quite the thorn in the side of British Crown when she began pirating ships near her home, on the West coast of Ireland, bringing bounty back from the New World.
O’Malley had so frustrated Elizabeth I’s expansion into the Western ports of Ireland that Virgin Queen had members of O’Malley’s family kidnapped in an attempt to broker a deal where-by O’Malley would leave the seas about her home to the sole authority of the Crown in exchange for their liberty.
At the ripe old age of 63, in 1593, O’Malley met Miss Lizzy One in person and demanded the return of her family members ––in exchanged, she promised she would not stab Skinny Lizzy to death with a dagger she smuggled into the meeting ––however, it was sneaky old Lizzy herself who would stab the amazing Grace in the back: for from that meeting on she began a bloody campaign to take the West of Ireland into hands of the Crown by force of pike and musket ––a bloody campaign which lasted another half-century, until (in the 1650s) Cromwell’s own Roundheads completed the job and turned every green field on this verdant Isle into a macabre reminder of how similar is the ruby of a cherry to our own vital fluid.
