Grace O’Malley: pirate, matriarch, 16th-century feminist

From the Irish Times:

Biographer Anne Chambers writes about her 40-year journey with The Pirate Queen

Since first published in 1979, the endurance and popularity of this biography reflects the sheer magnetism of its subject. Grace O’Malley (Granuaile) continues to enthral, inspire and capture the imagination of new generations of devotees worldwide as she undoubtedly initially captured mine.

Over the past 40 years my own journey in her company has led me to many places, from the old pirate city of Port Royal in Jamaica, the hallowed halls of Harvard University, from Greenwich to Galway and many places in between and introduced me to many people whose own lives and careers have been inspired and shaped by this extraordinary woman.

What to make of Constance Markievicz? Three biographies reviewed

From Irish Times:

Sisters Against the Empire: Countess Constance Markievicz and Eva Gore-Booth, 1916-17 by Patrick Quigley. Rather than attempt a full study of both figures, who have been so extensively reappraised, Quigley focuses on the year that was the most intense phase of the sisters’ relationship (when Markievicz was imprisoned in Aylesbury).

Lindie Naughton’s Markievicz: A Most Outrageous Rebel is a poorly digested version of this scholarship (ie: the eight notable biographies of the Countess), with neither the historian’s commitment to detail nor the novelist’s sense of plot and character. She makes recourse to stereotypes that do a disservice to a popular readership that keeps pace with the latest in Irish history writing.

Anne Haverty’s biography, first published in 1988 as Constance Markievicz: An Independent Life is now reissued under the title Constance Markievicz: Irish Revolutionary . Although the reissue includes an updated bibliography, little of this work has made incursions into the narrative, but that seems inconsequential; Haverty’s book remains a classic in Irish biography and a rollicking good read.

read more here @ Women of History - Constance Markievicz - The Countess Who Rebelled