Anne Chambers

The True Story of Grace O'Malley

Ireland's Pirate Queen

Grace O'Malley--Ireland's pirate queen, c. 1530-1603

Granuaile

Keith Chambers

Thousands of years ago, Polynesian voyagers discovered and settled Nanumea atoll, a tiny cluster of coral islets in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The community prospered, first evolving into a traditional culture finely tuned to the atolls limited environment and then weathering new changes imposed by missionaries, colonial officials, and Westernization itself. Now one of eight separate island communities comprising the modern Pacific nation of Tuvalu, Nanumea faces new challenges: rising sea levels, globalization, and massive social and economic changes. Using personal stories that evoke the difficulties and excitement of fieldwork, Keith and Anne Chambers draw on more than twenty-five years of ethnographic research in Nanumea to craft an engaging account of Nanumean culture and social organization. Readers will come to appreciate how the communitys intense sharing obligations, service-oriented chieftainship, and a flexible system of extensive kinship reckoning define a lifestyle that differs fundamentally from modern Western society.

Culture and Change in a Polynesian Atoll Society

Unity of Heart

Biographer Anne Chambers, brings the intriguing story of Prince Ranjitsinghji, the most famous cricketer of his generation, to light for the first time.

Ranji, Maharajah of Connemara

Eleanor, Countess of Desmond, C. 1545-1638

Comfort

Comfort for Sleepless Nights. Passages selected by A. Chambers

"It is perhaps providential that the youngest son of Ireland's famous Pirate Queen, Granuaile (Grace O'Malley), was born on the high seas aboard his mother's galley. This event, as well as inheriting her maritime skill, gave rise to his name, Tiboid-ne-Long (Theobald or Tibbott-of-the-Ships). Saved at birth from Barbery Coast pirates, Tibbott Bourke, seems destined to fulfil his birthright and, like his father, become a minor leader in the fragmented and twilight world of Gaelic Ireland. But national and international politics catapults him into prominence in a period of immense change, as the battle-lines between two incompatible protagonists--the antique Gaelic world of his birth and the exploitive, acquisitive world of Elizabethan England--are drawn. Survival becomes the spur. Only one side can win. Only the very few will survive. With a Machiavellian mind that out manoeuvers his opponents with opportunism, cunning and daring, Tibbott sets out to salvage what he can from the wreckage. Enduring imprisonment, torture, famine, dispossession and isolation, earning the suspicion, envy and hatred of both sides, resorting to double-dealing, chicanery, even murder, Tibbott weaves his way through the military and political morass in his all-consuming passion to survive. Shadow Lord is more than just a portrait of Tibbott Bourke, it is also a unique insight into one of the most profound periods of change, incorporating new unpublished manuscript material. Shadow Lord also presents new information on the descendents of Tibbott Bourke and on the legal controversy that surrounds his title, Viscount Mayo, to the present day"--Provided by publisher.

Theobald Bourke, Tibbott-ne-Long, 1567-1629 : Son of the Pirate Queen, Grace O'Malley

Shadow Lord

Originally published: Eleanor, Countess of Desmond, c. 1545-1638. 1986.

Eleanor, Countess of Desmond

In 2002, an eighty-five-year-old former civil servant was voted 'Irishman of the Century'. Widely regarded as "the architect of modern Ireland", T.K. Whitaker's life spans the history of the Irish state in whose economic, social and cultural evolution he played an integral and influential role. Born in Rostrevor, County Down, reared in Drogheda, County Louth, from modest beginnings, T.K. Whitaker's meteoric rise through the ranks of the civil service saw him at 39 years become the youngest Secretary of the Department of Finance. His was the quiet presence, the rational and informed voice behind many of the most momentous events in recent Irish history. His inspirational paper Programme for Economic Development became the blueprint for Ireland's regeneration in the 1960s. As Governor in the 1970s his vision and purpose transformed the Central Bank into a dynamic institution. And, as advisor to Taoiseach Jack Lynch and other political leaders, he played a crucial role behind the scenes in the movement towards peace in Northern Ireland. Drawn from in-depth interviews conducted with Dr Whitaker and his family, as well as exclusive access to his personal papers and correspondence, in Portrait of a Patriot author Anne Chambers reveals the quite extraordinary extent and diversity of T.K. Whitaker's work on behalf of the Irish State; his relationship with Irish and international political figures such as De Valera, Lemass, MacBride, Costello, Sweetman, Lynch, Haughey, FitzGerald, O'Neill, and Whitelaw; his policy struggles with governments and individual ministers. This personal and intimate biography also introduces Ken Whitaker the family man, his motivation, humour and compassion; the personal losses endured and the many highlights enjoyed. T.K. Whitaker's life story is a model of excellence, integrity and public duty, and as such is all the more relevant today when such practical patriotism seems largely absent in twenty-first-century Ireland.

T. K. Whitaker: Portrait of a Patriot

The Life of Howe Peter Browne, 2nd Marquess of Sligo, 1788-1845

The Great Leviathan

Set in a period of invasion, military conflict, social and political chaos perpetrated by the Tudor conquest of Ireland, the story of Eleanor, Countess of Desmond recounts the heroic efforts of a woman to protect her family against insurmountable odds. Aristocratic, educated, intelligent and able, Lady Eleanor Butler’s destiny was as a wife and mother. But marriage to Garret FitzGerald, the powerful Earl of Desmond, hurls her headlong into a maelstrom of invasion, rebellion, intrigue, appalling cruelty, double-dealing, confiscation plantation, famine, social and political meltdown, as she and her husband become embroiled in a struggle to the death against the formidable, Machiavellian government of Queen Elizabeth I of England. Enduring imprisonment, exile, poverty, hunger and deprivation, her only son held hostage in the Tower of London, her mission to save the House of Desmond, her husband, her children and herself from annihilation becomes Eleanor’s obsession and for which she will sacrifice anything, including herself. When all seems lost, like some latter-day phoenix, she rises, time after time, to bravely confront each new challenge. The life of Eleanor, Countess of Desmond is the story of the triumph of the human spirit against the most horrific adversity. In this vigorous and deeply moving biography that has all the constituents of a Shakespearean tragedy, sourced from primary contemporaneous manuscripts, including the Countess of Desmond’s own letters, Anne Chambers, author of the bestselling Granuaile, vividly brings the life of this neglected heroine to light against the backdrop of one of the most convoluted and traumatic periods in Irish history.

Captivating Tale of the Forgotten Heroine of the Tudor Wars in Ireland

Aristocrats in the Republic of Ireland

At Arm's Length

Over 400 years ago Granuaile became a legend. As both Pirate Queen and Chieftain of the O'Malley clan, Granuaile or Grace O'Malley, challenged the accepted ideas of sixteenth century Ireland. She manipulated the turbulent political environment, ignoring conventions, to become one of the most powerful leaders in the country. Using state papers and manuscripts of the period, Anne Chambers reveals the woman behind the legend.

Ireland's Pirate Queen, C.1530-1603

Nanumea

The life of the great Irish prima donna revered by opera lovers around the world.

Margaret Burke Sheridan, Irish Prima-donna, 1889-1958

La Sheridan, Adorable Diva

Grace O’Malley is unique as the only woman recorded on the famous Baptista Boazio map of Ireland (1599), a tribute to the status she achieved as a leader on land and at sea in the 16th century. In 1979 Anne Chambers’ original biography of this famous Irishwoman, who over the centuries had been airbrushed from historical record, put her on the map once again. The biography became a milestone in Irish publishing and the catalyst for the restoration of Grace O’Malley to political, social and maritime history, as well as establishing her as an inspirational female role model in the classroom. In the 40th anniversary edition of this international bestselling biography, drawn from rare contemporary manuscript records, the author presents Ireland’s great pirate queen not as a vague mythological figure but as one of the world’s most extraordinary female leaders. Political pragmatist and tactician, rebel, intrepid mariner and pirate, wife, lover, mother, grandmother and matriarch, the ‘most notorious woman in all the coasts of Ireland’, Grace O’Malley challenged and triumphed over the social and political barriers she encountered in the course of her long, pioneering life. Breaching boundaries of gender imbalance and bias in a period of immense social and political upheaval and change, Grace O’Malley rewrote the rules to become one of the world’s first recorded feminist trailblazers. This updated anniversary edition brings Grace O’Malley’s story to a new generation awakened to the global focus on gender equality as well as positive ageing.

The Biography of Ireland's Pirate Queen 1530–1603 with a Forward by Mary McAleese

Grace O'Malley

This is the true story of Grace O’Malley, or Granuaile, who ruled on land and sea in Connaught over 400 years ago. A Pirate Queen and Chieftain, she became a legend. We meet Grace as a young girl on Ireland’s west coast. Her father is a strong chieftain and loves the sea. Despite her parents’ objections, Grace becomes a better sailor than any of her father’s crew and so the adventures of the Pirate Queen begin. We set sail on her galley to Spain where war with England affects Grace and Ireland. We meet her husbands, Donal of the Battles and Richard in Iron, and are on board ship for her son’s birth and pirate attacks. After many escapades we sail to London for her famous meeting with Queen Elizabeth I. And we stay with her in her castle at Rock Fleet where she dies in 1603. This non-fiction account is a must for children who love Irish history! Similar to: Michael Collins: Most Wanted Man by Vincent McDonnell and Tom Crean: Ice Man by Michael Smith.

Anne Chambers

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