Connaught women of historical importance

Irishgirleegcm

I'm looking into a new project on women of revolutionary or history significance from Connaught or invoked with Connaught.. Anyone who has any names of people to look into, local, personal or famous !!

riffmongous

Well for starters, there was Gráinne Mhaol, the famous pirate queen of the 16th century. The family was based in Mayo, particularly Clare Island. Warrior, trader, pirate, mother and later icon she was a truly remarkable woman. The toughest thing is to figure out which parts of her legend are true or not

There is a nice article on her here history ireland

...Gráinne now began in earnest, with three galleys and a number of smaller boats, to earn her ‘maintenance by land and sea’. The legend of the ‘pirate queen’ of Connacht was born. An unsophisticated and opportunistic form of piracy was endemic in Ireland, comprising short-distance raids along the coast or to the islands, levying tolls on passing shipping and plundering any vessel foolish enough to be unprotected.
In her petition to Elizabeth in 1593, Gráinne justified her activities of this time by explaining that

‘discord . . . and dissention . . . [where] every chieftain . . . took arms by strong hand to make head against his neighbours which in like manner constrained your highness fond subject to take arms and by force to maintain herself and her people’.

The actual scale of her activities is difficult to assess. She is traditionally credited with attacks from Donegal to Waterford. One tale pertains to a refusal of hospitality by the earl of Howth. Gráinne is said to have kidnapped his heir and demanded, as ransom, the promise of the setting of an extra place at each meal at Howth Castle. Later historians ascribe the tale to Richard-na-Iarainn Bourke. However, records at Howth Castle state that the arrangement was made with Gráinne. Little is known about the size or composition of the fleet that she used to ‘maintain’ herself. Estimates vary from five to twenty vessels at any one time. Most would have been small, fast, manoeuvrable, oar- and sail-driven craft, perfect for hugging the coast but unsuitable for the open sea.

Lt Dan

Connacht Women

1. Grace O'Malley, AKA Gráinne Mhaol, Gráinne O'Malley - A personification of Ireland

2. Queen Maeve or Medb . Queen of Connacht in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology.

3. Lady Gregory, born in Galway. She helped establish the Abbey Theatre, and was heavily involved in the Irish Literature movement

4. Mary Robinson, President of Ireland, Mayo woman (pushing it , I know)

5. Constance Markievicz - okay pushing it here, neither born in Sligo or even represented Sligo , but they claim her

6. Dr Kathleen Lynn - Mayo, although lived in Longford for much of her time but returned to Mayo, an Irish Sinn Féin TD, activist and medical doctor.. She was out during the Lock Out in 1913 and 1916 Rising with the ICA. She is portrayed in that RTE drama Rebellion. A life long Nationalist. She features heavily in documentaries about the veterans , filmed in the 1960's (I know she died in 1955 but she had done a lot of writing. These can be seen on youtube. If you dig far back to when another thread in this section (videos and pictures) you might find a link. She was also a prominent member of the medical profession, a woman AND a member of the Church of Ireland. She advocated the use of the Irish Language in the Church of Ireland liturgy

7 Sister Sarah Clarke - From Galway. Human rights activist eg This Irish nun was better known as the 'Joan of Arc' of the English prisons for her dogged investigations of human rights abuses in British prisons. She is famous in the world for freeing all those wrongly convicted in the cases of Birmingham Six, Guildford Four, Maguire family and Judith Ward. She fought against the abuse of both, the prisoners as well as their families. - You people whom Amnesty International had dismissed

8. Pushing it here, but , Mary Harney former Táiniste and leader of the PDs. Born and rared in Ahascragh Galway for a short time