Grace O'Malley, Ireland's Pirate Queen

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She cut off her hair to sail the seas. She divorced her husband by locking him out of his own castle. And when her son was killed by the occupying English, she sailed straight up the Thames to plead for help from Elizabeth I. Or did she? Gráinne Ní Mháille, or Grace O'Malley, the legendary "Pirate Queen" of Ireland, was the head of a seafaring dynasty, while the Tudors tightened their grip, she commanded fleets, forged alliances, waged war, survived imprisonment, and outwitted some of the most ruthless men of her age. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Dr Gillian Kenny to debunk some of the myths about one of the most remarkable women of the Elizabethan age. MORE Women Pirates of the…