The Sea Queen

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O'Malley had to threaten him "that she would else repaire againe into England" if he did not comply. Therefore he reluctantly agreed, "to enlarge Grany O'Mally, her son Tibbott and her brother Donal na Pippe,... upon such slender surytes." [23]

The committee will make a presentation to the 2017/18 5th year pupils at the Waid and explain the event and the nature of the expectations of the 2018 Sea Queen and Ambassadors representing the United Burghs. Due to the geographical positioning and nature of this historic harbour, it has a dangerous entrance and moorings that at certain sea states and tides make the whole harbour unusable, it has remained unspoiled from modern fittings and trappings that would come with contemporary usage. It cannot have marina facilities fitted as they and any boat will be destroyed in any South Easterly storm surge. To create the historic picture in the first year, the following vessels have been targeted to take part. These vessels are all owned and operated in the Forth Estuary and are of a type that used to work out of Cellardyke.The Sea Queen selection will be based on the systems used within the Waid Academy to elect prefects and the Selection of the Fisher Lad and Lass at Anstruther primary. Along with releasing 10 studio albums, Gray has also starred in several comedy films, including the 2004 romantic comedy Second Time Around. She’s also written a lot of her own music. Due to the positioning of the Customs House, railway station and the fact that Anstruther harbour was where the fleet worked from followed by the above political Union, over the years Anstruther became the dominant town. Many residents in Cellardyke now do not know or understand the separate community that was a dominant force in Scotland’s fishing industry, a strongly independent community that thrived across the Cauddie’s Burn. There is now only a small sign at the foot of Burnside road to indicate you are entering a separate village. This group feel the time is right to involve the Cellardyke residents and try to instil pride in this unique village and its distinct history. a fearless leader, by land and by sea, a political pragmatist and politician, a ruthless plunderer, a mercenary, a rebel, a shrewd and able negotiator, the protective matriarch of her family and tribe, a genuine inheritor of the Mother Goddess and Warrior Queen attributes of her remote ancestors. Above all else, she emerges as a woman who broke the mould and thereby played a unique role in history. [28]

At the age of 16 she was married to Donal O’Flaherty, heir to the chieftainship of the O’Flaherty clan. The O’Flaherties ruled western Connacht, so it was an advantageous match politically. It seems to have been a good match personally as well, as Donal allowed Grainne to sail with the O’Flaherty fleet and in time she became first a captain and then the commander of the fleet, a testament to the talent she must have shown. She was credited with assisting in some of Donal’s notable victories, including conquering the Joyce clan and bringing them under O’Flaherty control. This may have rubbed some of her new clan the wrong way, however, as when Donal died in 1565 she was denied the traditional widow’s portion of his estate. (Quite what role her two sons, who were the other heirs to Donal’s estate, played in this is disputed – some claim they were the prime movers, while others say they were being used by the rest of the clan.) Her case was not helped by the complaints the clan had received from the English authorities that Grainne had been using their fleet to raid the English ships coming out of Galway. Snubbed by the O’Flaherties, Grainne left. With her left a sizeable portion of the O’Flaherty fleet, who had decided that their loyalty to her was greater than to that of the clan leaders. She set up base on Clare Island, which allowed her control of Clew Bay and a commanding central position over the whole of the west coast of Ireland. For the rest of her life, this would be her home. But all the wild twists and turns have made me the triple threat that I am today — comedy, writing, singing, I’ve done it all.” (Week 5)

It was flypaper TV right from the get-go,” The Masked Singer executive producer Craig Plestis told The Hollywood Reporter in 2019 about why he wanted to produce the show in the United States. “I just knew right away this was a special show. It was unbelievable in its appeal — and the game play, spectacle, family-viewing…[and] it was this huge hit in Asia…. If we do the job here, it should work here.” It’s one of those odd ironies of history that we know far more about Grainne O’Malley, the notorious Irish pirate, from her enemies than we do from the countrymen she fought to support. On the one hand, this is because she made a definite impression on the English – few Irish chiefs ever travelled to London to meet the monarch. On the other, it may have been prejudice on the part of the Irish – women did not normally go to war at this time, after all. The primary source we have for the history of the period is the Annals of the Four Masters, and one could make a case that monks would be less likely to want to record a woman so careless of convention. But one also has to remember that they were writing after the Nine Years War had been lost – after English rule had been firmly imposed on the once more unruly Irish. To those people, Grainne was a reminder of a more free time, a potent symbol of refusal to submit that it may have been more politic to censor from the record. Besides, there was no need to write down the tales of her prowess. The people were already telling them.